Definitely read the book if you're a fan of the outdoors and hiking. I learned about the book after watching the movie, and let me say, the book to me was much better.

Bill Bryson is extremely annoying. I started out liking this book, but the further I went along, the more obnoxious I found the author's smarter-than-thou attitude. And that's a shame, too, because I was very interested in the subject matter and had the impression that Bryson wrote with a comedic edge. However, his sense of humor turns out to be quite bland, and consists mostly of making fun of everyone he meets. Get ready for adjectives like "stupid" and "fat" ... very high-brow. And don't worry, you'll hear the standard inbred jokes as he hikes through the South.

Like hypocritical rants? You'll get plenty here; he eviscerates the National Park system, but that doesn't stop him from taking full advantage of all its amenities. He rips tourists who just stop by the AT to do quick hikes, eat cheeseburgers at fast-food restaurants, then hop in their cars and move on, and yet he spends much of the middle section of the book doing just that! He also rips unprepared hikers who don't know what they're doing ... much like the time later in the book when he leaves his windbreaker at home while hiking in the Presidentials; also, he sets out to hike the entire length of the AT, but gives up when he looks at a map in Gatlinburg and realizes -gasp- the AT is really long! Seriously? You didn't look at a map BEFORE you started hiking? Needless to say, he gave up immediately.

Not that there's anything wrong with giving up. I guess this writer's just not for me - he comes across as having a little more disdain for the rest of the world than he has a right to.

Undoubtedly an amusing, breezy read, full of the kind of fun and hilarity all the blurbs lead you to expect. For instance, "Hunters will tell you that a moose is a wily and ferocious forest creature. Nonsense. A moose is a cow drawn by a three-year-old." That had me laughing on the train.

I can't say I liked this book quite as much as some of my friends seem to. On the one hand, I've had at least 1 semi-grueling backpacking experience with a companion who was wholly unprepared for a rigorous day hike, let alone several of them on consecutive days, weighed down by tents, bags, and water, except my experience was less hilarious and more infuriating (even in retrospect, though there was certainly some hilarity). I also found Bryson fairly amusing, his fears and hijinks recognizable and diverting. On the other hand, he's kind of an ass. Seemed like every person he met was a subject for mockery. He also went off on these long jeremiads over the ecological devastation we've wrought on the Eastern forests, without citing any sources whatsoever, or recommending solutions. Obviously I agreed with the substance of those rants, but the dripping sarcasm in his indignation was just so annoying. Good researchers cite sources, and good crusaders at least try to find answers to the world's problems. Bryson seemed like more of a gadfly: buzzing, bothersome, but impotent.

In the end, what I really wanted was just more depth. More analysis of what the trail means to Americans, what it symbolizes, a more informed (and documented) record of the Park Service's transgressions, more comparisons to similar trails in other parts of the world.

A WALK IN THE WOODS was just okay.

The author and his friend did not get to hike the entire trail as they had originally intended, which was not only disappointing for them, but for me as well.

I learned about the history of the trail and how the whole thing works. I previously had no idea that the trail sometimes crosses roads and rivers and whatnot-I had this picture of a pristine wilderness in my head and while some parts are just that, others are not.

I thought there would be a bit more humor than there actually was and on top of that, there were no actual bears, (see him on the cover there?), unless you count the night something was heard just outside of their tent.

Overall this was fun and I learned some things, so 3 stars it is.

Thanks to my local library for the loan of this audiobook. Libraries RULE!

A few years ago, some friends, my brother, and I decided to do some backpacking around the Pictured Rocks area in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It. Was. Awesome...the first day. And then it just hit the fan. Turns out we were woefully unprepaired for the storm that hit us and completely soaked our gear in the night, flooded the trails, and turned into imminent threat of lightning storms for the following night. We only finished half the route.

It's bugged me ever since.

After that I read Wild and felt immensely better about the whole experience. At least I knew how to set up the tent and use the stove BEFORE we were in the middle of nowhere. I went into Wild wanting to love the book with all my heart. I wanted the book to be about the trail and experience of the setting. Wild didn't do it for me on most levels. A Walk in the Woods was everything I hoped for in Wild and then some. I have to say, on a much smaller scale, I related to Bill Bryson! He doesn't pull punches. Backpacking sucks 70% of the time, you want cheeseburgers 50% of the time, your pack feels like it will crush you 90% the time, you hate anyone you see on the trail without a pack 100% of the time (look at the freedom and lightness in their step!), and you end up in this weird twilight zone of one-foot-in-front-of-the-other where time means nothing. You kind of just want to get where you're going so it's over, but also love the view along the way. And then when it's all said and done, you want to do it again.

He says all of this, and more, in a wittier, more entertaining, and more insightful way. I loved it. He captures the experience. Although he and his buddy only did about a third to half of the trail, in the end, almost 900 miles is nothing to look down your nose at! Unless you've finished the Appalachian...then by all means, look down your nose all day long. You've earned exclusive privilege.

This book also took momentary time-outs to discuss flora, fauna, wildlife, and a handful of other interesting tidbits, and managed to do most of it without boring the reader. I loved the gentle moment towards the end between Bryson and Katz as well.

All in all, an awesome way to start 2019's reading list and gave me the backpacking urge again...we'll see if I can wrangle my hubby into doing it with me this time. I'd highly recommend this book! The perspective is real.

I'd rate this a PG-13 due to language, crass humor, and direct story-telling involving past trail-deaths.

In "A Walk in the Woods", Bryson narrates his experiences on the Appalachian Trail which stretches 2000+ miles from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine, passing through eleven states and populated with all kinds of peril imaginable. As Bryson says

The woods were full of peril - rattlesnakes and water moccasins and nests of copperheads; bobcat, bears, coyotes, wolves, and wild boar; loony hillbillies destabilized by gross quantities of impure corn liquor and generations of profoundly unbiblical sex; merciless fire ants and ravening blackfly; poison ivy, poison sumac, poison salamanders; even a scattering of moose lethally deranged by a parasitic worm that burrows a nest in their brains and befuddles them into chasing hapless hikers through remote, sunny meadows and into glacial lakes.

Of course he's exaggerating... but it's the kind of exaggeration one nervously indulges in to mask one's apprehension, the reader feels. And combined the trials of the trail, the fact that Bryson is supremely unfit to do any kind of extended strenuous activity, does not know the first thing about hiking, and is accompanied by the recovering alcoholic Stephen Katz who is even less fit does nothing to alleviate his apprehensions.

He sets of gamely, however - and what we get is a travelogue-cum-science-cum-history-cum-geography lesson. It is fascinating.

What I love about Bill Bryson is the casual way in which he feeds you nuggets of information: history, geography, science and whatnot. He packages them in digestible chunks in between personal anecdotes sprinkled with humorous observations, so that subjects which by right should be boring, become exciting.

The first part of the hike from Springer Mountain in Georgia to the town of Front Royal in Virginia, was completed in one stretch by Bryson and Katz, with motorised breaks in between - for not being professional hikers, walking through was a virtual impossibility for them. This part is extremely amusing, some parts being worthy of Wodehouse himself. The idiosyncrasies of various hikers, the sorry condition of the night shelters, and the colourful personality of Katz (who manages to fall afoul of the irate husband of a lady he propositions, even in the midst of hiking, believe it or not!) - all make for engrossing reading.

The second part is completed by Bryson in bits and pieces until the very last bit in Maine, where he is rejoined by Katz (and they end up in dropping out halfway, after Katz manages to lose himself in the woods for a brief interval - a scary episode). It is here that we are treated to the fascinating history of the trail. The story of Centralia, a once thriving mining community in Pennsylvania now degraded to ghost town status, due to a coal fire in the underground mine started in 1962 and still burning, slowly eating away the town, is especially rivetting and disturbing. Bryson does not hide his ire at the authorities for America's disappearing woodlands, as well as his contempt for a populace addicted to the transient pleasures of instant sensual gratification.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable read to finish the year off. I will be reading more of Bryson in the future.

*Updated* Adds Review

3.5* rounded down

There's no denying Brysons' descriptive skills and his ability to bring you along with him on his journeys. I've enjoyed those aspects very much and in addition to this book, I've read his travelogs of Australia and the UK ( in which I especially liked his description of queuing up with fans to visit the set of "Coronation Street.")

He always does enough research to give the basic background to his locations, as is the case in this book. With his reporter's eye for the sensational, though, he spends more time than I liked on the gruesome elements, such as murders. And heaven help you if he doesn't like you. There's always been a slightly petty kind of 'settle the score' aspect to Bryson's writing that I never thought much of. Here it's applied to a waitress at a tourist trap diner he disapproves of, the tech geeks who want to engage in endless discussions about boots and backpacks and a security guard who had the audacity to question the great BILL BRYSON, among others. If this is just Bryson " being honest," a little less of it, please.

Those irritations aside, Brysons' books have always left me with the desire to visit the place. In travel writing, that's the greatest compliment.

As with my first book by the author, I'm very divided about whether it's interesting or boringly unfunny to me. The author has again gathered a lot of historical, environmental and other facts which were interesting, surprising or fascinating, or all three. In some parts, his anecdotes about his actual personal hiking experience on the Appalachian Trail were relatable from my own experience (though on a different trail). But mostly his anecdotes were, as in the previous book I read, boring, annoying and not very humourous - or all three at once.

So I suppose I can conclude that Bill Bryson as an author just isn't for me.

I bought this book in an airport. My family and I had been traveling together, we had recently hit our upper limit of togetherness, and the book I'd brought with me, Mary Karr's Lit, was proving too dreary. I wanted something funny and absorbing for the flight home, and I found it in A Walk in the Woods, a book I'd always meant to read anyway. I'm fascinated by stories of people who go on long, challenging wilderness adventures--probably because I know I'll never be one of them--and Bill Bryson and his companion Katz kept me laughing and entertained for hours. I found the detours into Appalachian Trail history frustrating, because they interrupted the main narrative, but I still appreciated learning more about the trail. Probably the best thing about this book is knowing how many of Bryson's travel memoirs are still out there waiting for me.

I rated this at 7/10 in terms of his other books. It's not his best, but it's better than most other books in this genre. The film was ridiculous. As a sequel, I'm surprised Bill Bryson didn't walk along the Pennine Way in the UK or perhaps the south-west coastal path.

4 1/2 stars. Loved this book. Never read Bryson before, and could not believe how often I laughed out loud and got the giggles for minutes. Drove my family crazy when they were around. Bryson obviously has a great gift for making humor out of the mundane, and using his words to connect to his reader. Also marvelous were the descriptions of the characters he meets along his treks, but the real star of the book is his hiking compadre, Katz. The only reason I'm not giving this a review five is because Katz steals the show, and when he drops out of the hike for some time, the narration loses something. But then he rejoins, and all is well. I learned things too, like the continents are still moving. (Or relearned, as I'm getting older and can't remember all I learned in school.) A favorite passage:

"I would read for an hour or so with my curiously inefficient little miner's lamp, its beam throwing quirky, concentric circles of light onto the page, like the light of a bicycle lamp . . . I would put myself in darkness and lie there listening to the peculiarly clear, articulated noises of the forest at night, the sighs and fidgets of wind and leaves, the weary groan of boughs, the endless murmurings of stirrings, like the noises of a convalescent ward after lights out, until at last I fell heavily asleep."

Sometimes I wonder if I have been too judgemental with a book, I returned and reread a good chunk of this and feel if anything I was too generous. The problem I feel is that Bryson's humour is all about people. The odd people he meets and the funny things they say. On a footpath, in a forest, there are not many people and the interactions between Bryson and his sidekick Katz don't carry the weight of my expectations. The other ingredient in Bryson's style is a general attitude that the world is going to hell in a hand cart, and that cart has a wobbly wheel, which squeaks. This mindset qualified him to become the head person at the Campaign for the Preservation for Rural England, in this book it is evident in his belief that everybody has done everything wrong. So if it is not bad enough that logging is allowed in US national parks, to add insult to injury that logging is inefficient and loss making. If the Parks service leave an area to allow nature to do what it wills, that is wrong too. I had the feeling that for him Nature was perfect in, perhaps 1937  or some other year and the efforts of all right thinking public organisations should be directed to keeping things exactly as they were in 1937.

At this time in his life Bryson was irregularly uprooting himself and family from England to the USA and then from the USA to England, England at times was plainly too English for him while the USA seemingly has a majority population of overweight car obsessed people who can barely stagger a half mile on foot, many of whom are also irredeemably stupid and inbred. Having said that whenever he stumbles across a hostelry he gorges himself on grease burgers and makes off with multi litre bottles of fizzy pop. He admits while walking to generally zoning out and not being aware of the landscape which apparently is largely all the same for him  some might regard that as a slight disadvantage for someone writing a book about a long distance walking trail. I feel that Bryson's vision of his fellow Americans is largely a mirror image of himself and viewed too close he finds the reflection horrible, back on the other side of the Atlantic it is, to mangle popular sayings, enticingly greener , an intellectual butterfly that prefers to flitter than to seriously engage with anything and so with regard to the management of the National Parks I note that ecology is hard, mismanagement from one perspective or another near inevitable.

Overwhelmingly I felt he would have preferred to have been walking in England - start the day in a pub, finish in a pub, unless unlucky lunch in a pub too, a rich collection of charming eccentrics on the footpaths admiring a landscape which by US standards would be dreary with nothing wilder than some sheep in sight.

This a deeply, thoroughly and utterly ok kind of book, completely middle of the road. It's readable, moderately humorous and slightly informative and if you never read it your life will be no poorer.

Bryson, writing this book doesn't know the Appalachian trail as somebody who has walked it a few times, or short stretches regularly might, or even somebody who has lived alongside it might. Nor from his text did I believe he had much knowledge of long distance walking. So I'm not sure that I can take his praise or criticisms of the route, its management or those who use it seriously. More to the point having read it, I don't feel an urge to explore it myself which is about the worst thing I can say about a book of this nature.