"We trudged through a cold, silent world of bare trees, beneath pewter skies, on ground like iron."

The events in this book took place in 1996 when Bill Bryson was living in New Hampshire and noticed a disappearing trail going through the region. He wondered where it led. It was the Appalachian Trail which in its entirety was more than 2,100 miles in length, snaking along the eastern seaboard, crossing 14 states, from Georgia to Maine. Bryson thought it might be a good idea to walk the trail. What better way to get fit while reacquainting himself with his native land after living 20 years abroad. He also thought it would be good to learn to fend for himself, and because of the effects of global warming, with many of the trees sadly dying off, it was best to experience the trail sooner rather than later.

After announcing his plans to anyone who would listen, Bryson then read up on the trail and learned of all the dangers, the stories of disease, hunger, predators, and the people murdered when hiking it, to say nothing of the mental toll.

"The American woods have been unnerving people for 300 years. The inestimably priggish and tiresome Henry David Thoreau thought nature was splendid, splendid indeed, so long as he could stroll to town for cakes and barley wine, but when he experienced real wilderness, on a visit to Katahdin in 1846, he was unnerved to the core. This wasn’t the tame world of overgrown orchards and sun-dappled paths that passed for wilderness in suburban Concord, Massachusetts, but a forbidding, oppressive, primeval country that was 'grim and wild … savage and dreary,' fit only for 'men nearer of kin to the rocks and wild animals than we.' The experience left him, in the words of one biographer, 'near hysterical.' Same goes for Daniel Boone: 'When Daniel Boone is uneasy, you know it’s time to watch your step.'"

Bryson thought it best to look for someone to accompany him, and eventually, he teamed up with an old school buddy he hadn't seen more than a handful of times during the past 25 years. What ensued as they set foot on the trail was a test of endurance, both physical and mental. It also tested their patience and their sense of humor as they suffered more than a handful of mishaps and miscalculations.

This was my first time reading a book by Bill Bryson and I'm sure it won't be the last, despite the average rating I gave this book. I enjoyed his easy manner when telling a story. But the story wasn't what I was expecting. True, it was better in some ways than I thought it would be, but not as good as I had hoped in other ways. I'll start with the good.

This book was more than a journey along the Appalachian Trail. It was a step by step history lesson, a lesson in ecology and environmental devastation, a psychological study, a log of personal growth, and in a way, it was the story of a friendship, one that had lapsed but continued on after a resting phase. It was fun tagging along with Bryson and his friend as they toiled on the trail, and without me having to do any of the trudging myself and without me even breaking a sweat. I stayed dry, well-fed, and comfy, which is more than I can say for the two hikers. So this book was great for an armchair traveler such as myself.

But unfortunately, too often, the book dragged for me. It was bogged down by too many details I could have done without, which slowed the pace like an overstuffed pack can slow hikers. I also wished for less repetition concerning their daily routine and more dramatic moments. And while I enjoyed the humor, I didn't enjoy the parts that targeted overweight people and people living in the south. I assumed Bryson changed people's names, if not the locations, but I still doubt if he would be welcome in certain places should he return to them. But most of all, I was disappointed in something I really didn't expect. Bryson only hiked a relatively small portion of the trail, skipping many states, and he sometimes took cabs or rides into town to stay at inns and eat at restaurants. I thought he'd be roughing it more and completing the entire trail.

But overall, this was a good solid book from which I learned much about the history of that region, the environment, botany, geography, geology, and more, and all of it in an easy to read style that was even surprisingly poetic, at times.

"So 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 and stirrings, like the noises of a convalescent ward after lights out, until at last I fell heavily asleep."

I have read most of Bill Bryson's books and they are all good-- excellent even. His gift is in his ability to detect the humor in any situation. Where you or I might see a man walking down the street he sees something, and articulates it so well, packed with humor. But this book is his best. The reason, I think, is that it takes him out of his element. His natural writing style is this so-called "travel writing" genre-- the idea that someone goes somewhere and writes about it and their time there. But most "travel writers" don't hike over half of the AT, that's unheard of. And the fact that Bryson at middle age decided to take on such a task with no real background in backpacking, let alone for months at a time, is downright impressive.

So the premise of the book is already good before you even start reading. Then the book just blows you away. The man can describe nature with the best of them but his expertise is in describing human interactions. And, perhaps, that's why he chose the AT. There are indeed some interesting people who decide to take the plunge and walk the trail from end to end. Among them are Stephen Katz, Bryson's sidekick from earlier adventures in France, who is now overweight and obsessed with junk food-- admittedly Katz gives Bryson ample material to work with. Then there is the woman who hikes with them and camps with them for a few weeks. She acts as though they are the problem, forcing the partnership on her as it were, but we quickly discover that her own insecurities are at the root of her behavior. Bryson navigates her personality in a delicate but oh so funny way. Whether you hike or not, laugh or not, enjoy Bryson or not you should read this it will change your mind or affirm what you already knew-- Bryson is the best at what he does.

I have always been fascinated by the idea described in A Walk in The Woods: a months-long hike along the Appalachian Trail, completely away from all the comforts of home, carrying everything you need with you in a pack on your back. Unlike climbing Mount Everest - which people were just never meant to do - this hike seems possible but wildly challenging, and what an adventure! I loved the movie based on this novel, starring Robert Redford and Nick Nolte.

So I was well prepared to love it, but overall I had mixed feelings about this book. I really enjoyed the first part. Stephen Katz, the pseudonym of the old friend who accompanied the author on this ambitious hike, was a hoot. Katz was really likable and funny; Bill Bryson himself, not so much. Let's just say he does not have the charm of his film counterpart. He is a good writer, but by his own account he came across as a judgmental ass. He didn't necessarily brag, but to me it was clear that he was quite full of himself yet rarely had anything nice to say about anyone else.

Bryson and Katz hiked the Trail continuously for several weeks, traveling from Georgia to Virginia, and that part was great. The hike, the hardships, the joys, meeting other hikers (who were, according to Bryson, mostly idiots). The natural stopping point of the book should have been when they stumbled out of the woods in Front Royal and went their separate ways. That happened at a little more than the halfway mark and was called Part 1. Part 2 of the book was anticlimactic and kind of pointless, a bunch of Katz-free day hikes by the author that seemed like nothing but filler to reach a required number of pages. I would have rated this more highly based on Part 1 alone.

Such a disappointment. I don't understand all the glowing reviews this book gets. Bryson comes off as a high and mighty asshole. How many times did he need to make a derisive remark about someone's weight? Ugh. Overhyped snoozefest.

I've read a couple of Bryson's books and enjoyed them. Unfortunately he also wrote the last book I abandoned and I hate, really hate, abandoning books. It was A Short History of Nearly Everything. The first chapter was about rocks, geology, glacial movements and their affect on the topography of our planet. Apparently this is a particular interest for Bryson and in the present book that interest is given a several opportunities to be expressed. As I do not share that interest I just couldn't manage to endure the remainder of the first chapter and I quit. I haven't read a Bryson book since but for no particular reason. This book had been recommended to me by my neighbor some time ago but I never acted on the recommendation. In a recent Covid confinement rarity I was in a book store desperately trying to restore my TBR shelf and found a copy of this book and mindlessly added it to my basket. Having just finished John Boehner's recently published waste of paper and ink I needed something to clear my mind. I needed to take a walk and saw this book sitting on my shelf, A Walk in the Woods seemed like just the kind of walk I needed.

So what is this book about? Well the book was published in 1998 so it's 23 years old and probably familiar to many of you and the title would seem to be a pretty strong giveaway and it is but then again it isn't. It's about two middle-aged men that decide to walk the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. The trail is 2200 miles through incredibly demanding terrain that would be a serious challenge to the most experienced and physically fit outdoorsmen. Bryson is one of these men and his companion is a friend that he hasn't seen in 25 years. The friend is a reformed alcoholic ner-do-well named Stephen Katz that, like Bryson, is hardly prepared or physically up to the challenge this journey will require. Of course Bryson would have preferred to have somebody else accompany him but Katz is the only one willing to accept the invitation.

For the most part the book is about their experiences which are interesting in and of themselves but that isn't the extent of Bryson's talent as a writer. As in his other books Bryson uses his experiences to introduce the reader to a variety of historical incidents occurring at the locations the hikers find themselves. He also discusses the geology, extensively ugh, which are features of the trail as well as the trees, the Forest Service, the various hiking clubs that maintain the trail, the history of the trail and many of the sites along the trail. Reading a Bryson book about any of his excursions is like going on a tour with a very knowledgeable and entertaining guide. Some of the entertainment is contained in the author's recitation of various things that can kill the humans along the trail including the murders of innocent unsuspecting hikers. A bit grizzly at times but nonetheless interesting, educational, and frequently amusing because you will learn a great deal about how to prepare for a trek like this by reading about how unprepared Bryson and his friend were. If nothing else reading anything by Bryson will increase a reader's font of information both useless and useful.

The book is about two men setting out on what to most people is an impossible journey. I won't dispute that because it is true and then again it isn't. As I was reading this book I was enjoying it and thought it would be a solid 3 star review but I changed my mind. What did that was the ending which I was not expecting and which was plausible, relatable, and gave me pause to ponder and think. While it is about a hike it is about a great deal more depending on the reader. Bryson's hiking experience can be appreciated as an allegory for a great many things in the human experience and how this particular experience, hiking the impossible, can impact a person. How Bryson and Katz evaluate their experience on the Appalachian Trail is what altered my evaluation of this book. This book is 23 years old and is still popular so maybe it's a great book or then again maybe it isn't. You'll have to decide for yourself. Enjoy.

I am what some might call a pussy hiker. I do genuinely enjoy a leisurely stroll in the “mountains” of Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. I like the pretty views. I always bring my conveniently-sized L.L. Bean backpack ($39.95 from the Kittery Outlets) so I have a place for my camera and cell phone. But by early afternoon, I would like to be done, please. I would like to be done and sitting at a booth in a pub with my burger and beer. Camping is certainly worthy of consideration, but here’s the deal: I don’t do rain. In light of the fact that weather reports are unreliable beyond a 48-hour window (and even that is pushing it in New England), it is unlikely I would ever camp for more than a two-night stay. Oh, and if I were to camp, I would like it to be at a site that has free Wi-Fi.

What this amounts to is that the Appalachian Trail, endearingly referred to by those hiking it as “the AT,” will never be anything more to me than a lovely little map.

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BUT. I am glad for gung-ho people like Bryson and his chubby checker friend Katz who did walk “the AT” and are kind enough to let me know what I am missing. As it turns out, I am not missing much. This is not to downplay the extraordinarity of a 2,200-mile trail of wilderness running from Georgia to Maine, a trail that takes the average thru-hiker six months to complete, but in terms of day-to-day variation, it is basically a shitload of trees followed by another shitload of trees.

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For me, this book makes a better argument for the day hike. There are many parts of the trail I would enjoy, including the Smoky Mountains, the Shenandoah Valley, and the Delaware Water Gap. Like Bryson, though, I am a people person, and I enjoy my simple human comforts. I would like to see these areas without having to make an extended departure from civilization. Why can’t I have both—my nature and my nurture? Fortunately for me, almost a full third of the Appalachian Trail is in New England, so maybe I can have it all—because I think if there is one thing I’ve learned from Bryson’s experience, it is that I don’t have to suffer through long days of cold rain and hungry nights to enjoy what the Appalachian Trail has to offer.

While mildly interesting I had hoped for more humor but got history lessons instead. As much as I enjoy details, origins, people and places it slows the pace. Am sure fans of Bryson will disagree but the tedious element caused me to quit soon after the halfway point. It takes a particular type to enjoy his storytelling, history lessons and insights and its clear on not part of the cult. Enough said.

This is a wonderful book to listen to while traveling with a group of people. It will keep you interested and laughing heartily all the way to your destination.

Bryson decided one day that it would be a neat thing to hike the Appalachian Trail – all 2,160 miles of it (although the actual length varies depending on the page you might be on in the official guides or what year it is, because the trail is constantly being changed and moved).

Deciding to do a little research, he soon discovered that there are certain dangers to walking the trail, including bears, assorted diseases, and “loony hillbillies destabilized by gross quantities
of impure corn liquor and generations of profoundly unbiblical sex.”

Henry Thoreau, that great 18-month adventurer into the wilds a short
walk from his town, helped create a great nostalgia for the woods, even though, as Bryson notes, he could “stroll to town for cakes and barley wine, but when he experienced real wilderness, on a visit to Katahdin in 1846, he was unnerved to the core.”

Bryson decided to take Stephen Katz along for the trip. Katz is a character who shows up in several of Bryson’s other books. He’s fat and
lazy --he throws away their water supply to make his pack lighter-- and soon Bryson discovers that this may not be the little walk in the
woods he had expected. After several weeks on the trail, in rather miserable weather, they arrive in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. There, he finds a map of the entire trail, about six inches wide and four feet long, and discovers to his horror that he and Katz have only traveled two inches on the map. “My hair had grown more than that,” he reports.

Even though it’s a very funny book, Bryson makes several serious observations, discussing the mismanagement of the U.S. Forest Service, an agency that builds more roads than any construction company; it supervises and has built more than 378,000 miles of roads, more than eight times the total mileage of the interstate highway system. Most of
these are to service the needs of logging companies that need to get in to chop down more trees. Bryson also discusses the American ambivalence toward nature. We revere it, but are afraid of it as well. The woods are beautiful, but they “choke off views and leave you
muddled and without bearings. They make you feel small and confused and vulnerable, like a small child lost in a crowd of strange legs.”

A lot of wilderness still exists in the United States, as he discovers on a section of totally uninhabited wilderness the trail traverses in Maine (he decided to do short sections of the trail after his epiphany in Gatlinburg).

This week-long march leaves the hikers completely on their own and is nowhere near any kind of help should one get into trouble (the AT kills several people yearly). There’s still a lot of nature out there; only 2 percent of the United States is classified as built up and 15,600,000 square miles are completely wooded, without a single resident, and remain impressive despite our mismanagement of the ecology and massive logging.

Bryson ended up walking a total of 870 miles of the trail – not an inconsequential feat. Of the two thousand or so who make the attempt
every year, only about two hundred finish.

I am not a kind of a person who loves to travel or someone who enjoys vacations in different parts of a country. I am one of those (if there are other such people) who hate or at least who don't enjoy travelling. The thought of long commutes via flights and trains carrying around your luggage - gives me nightmares. Even within city or town, I don't leave house if I don't have a purpose to do so. I enjoy staying at home leaving my comfortable abode only if there is a need to do so or if I have bored myself to death after a long, long stay at home. So, me picking up a book on travel would have never happened! But, it did! Sometime back I won a competition and as a prize I got five books including A Walk In The Woods by Bill Bryson. So, that's how I got this book, had I not won it in a prize, I would have not purchased it. It stood on my shelf for quite a few months(to be precise, 6 months). I was looking for my next read and I wanted to read something funny and I picked up this book. From whatever I had heard of it and from what I saw in the trailer of the movie by the same name, I knew that this is a book about a guy who goes hiking and it has some humour in it. So, I decided to try it.

As a reader, it is usually good to read something out of your comfort zone - something you usually don't read. I, for example, love to read fiction and if I further narrow it down, I prefer fantasy and contemporary. But, I do juggle between various genres in fiction and non fiction is what is out of my comfort zone - it is something that I generally don't like to pick up. But, I do make an effort and pick a couple of non fiction books in a year. So, this year, I got out of my comfort zone and read this book and I am grateful that I did. This was a non fiction book on travelling - both don't interest me even the least bit but I still loved this book and I have a new favourite author - Bill Bryson!

Plot
In this book, Bill Bryson along with his friend, Katz , hikes the Appalachian Trail trail that stretches from Georgia to Maine. The trail is breathtakingly beautiful with mountains, lakes and forests. But, the trail also offers some wild animals like bears, ever-changing weather, rugged terrain, insects and many other things that one does not want to face.

Characters
Bill Bryson is an amazing narrator who is not only apt at providing hilarious details in way that make you laugh your gut out but also provides scientific details in manner that you do do not lose interest. The way he talks to his readers keeps you hooked to the book. Despite the fact that Bill is great, I loved Katz more. Katz is funny, at times unreliable and crazy but these are the attributes that made me love him. And he is very real. There were numerous time when I laughed like crazy on his dialogues and his actions.

What I like
I loved Bill Bryson's writing; it is simple and captivating. When I went into this book, I had limited knowledge of Appalachian Trail and American geography. Geographic details and activities like hiking are of no interest to me(I am not into outdoor activities) and going into this book, I feared that I might give it up midway or even before that. But, thanks to author's remarkable narration that I not only completed the book but thoroughly enjoyed it. If an author can make you love a book about something that you usually don't like then he has to be fantastic.
I came to know about a lot of facts, be it environmental, scientific, historical, without getting bored. The environmental issues were eye-opening.

What I did not like
I had no complaints with this book.

My final thoughts on the book
This was my first book from Bill Bryson and I look forward to reading more of his books in future.
An immensely enjoyable and fun read with very real and hilarious characters/people. This book makes you laugh but at the same time informs you about how our planet is suffering and how the several environmental issues threaten the flora and fauna on earth.
A must read if you are looking for something fun and informative.

Read this and my other reviews at www.book-choose.com

One of my favorite books of the year. Review to follow.

"Прогулянка лісами" - це книжка про те, як Біл Брайсон не маючи багато досвіду і надійної компанії вирішив подолати одну з найскладніших і найдовших стежок Америки.

Походи в гори, ліси, намети, скелясті стежки, ночівлі в спальнику, не митися тиждень, їсти рис без нічого три дні поспіль - це теми які мене завжди захоплювали. Коли мені було вісім, я збирала на балконі "речі в похід", керуючись радянською книжкою для дівчаток (мушу сказати, що це була досить гендерно-прогресивна книжка) і фільмами про природу на айсітіві. Правда потім мені влетіло від мами, бо то були її речі :))
Не можу сказати, що я прямо експерт в горах чи якийсь титулований турист, але намагаюся щороку бувати в походах, хай навіть маленьких. І це приносить мені неймовірне задоволення. Це я до того, що пройти повз цю книжку мені було б важко. До того ж, я знайома з легким дотепним стилем автора.

Це приємна і смішна книжка про пригоди двох чуваків під час походу, до якого вони не зовсім готові. Але врешті це мотивує, що навіть якщо ви диванна картоха з теоретичними знаннями про гори і ліси - все одно можна взяти і пройти досить складну і довгу стежку або принаймні її частини. Трохи нудна всередині, де Брайсон тимчасово зійшов зі стежки і безуспішно намагається розважити себе і нас якимись замітками з історії США. Переважно ж текст про сам похід, спостереження, знайомства і пригоди. Час від часу автор дає інформацію про національні парки, історію пішого туризму, способи боротьби з чорним ведмедем та інші цікавинки.

Було цікаво почитати чому люди ходять в походи. Для мене відповідь на це питання завжди була чіткою - бо там я можу спостерігати і досліджувати природу! Але в світі існує більше мотивів і це цікаво. Випробувати свої сили, відчути себе серед диких просторів в сучасному світі, багато йти пішки, медитувати, покластися на волю господа і т.д.

Загалом, це хороша легка розважальна книжка про похід в дику природу. Раджу!

Український переклад паршивий. Перекладач дуже старається, але крізь текст, як крізь відкриті переломи проглядаються ламані кістки англійських конструкцій. Деякі речі потребують прямо детективних розслідувань. На сторінці 278 є речення: "Я йшов легкою 20-хвилинною ходою по трав’янистих гірських хребтах". Що таке 20-ти хвилинна хода? Я припускаю, що це темп, що людина долає милю за 20 хвилин, але як про це можна здогадатися? Якщо всі виміри адаптовані і подані в кілометрах, то чому темп в милях? Ну і т.д. Редактор теж якось не намагався врятувати цю ситуацію. На щастя в тексті все ж таки збережений гумор автора.
Відчувається нерозробленість української лексики в плані походів. Врешті, навіть слово "похід" має мілітарний присмак. Замість camping, backpacking, hiking, trekking у нас є обскурне "піші походи" (а які ще бувають крім піших? Похід Ігоря на Візантію?). Звісно, це занадто великий закид по перекладачів і редакторів розв’язувати це питання в одному перекладі. Але робити вигляд, що проблеми неіснує - не дуже допомагає тексту.

Загалом, книжка хороша, перекладу є куди вдосконалюватися!

"A Walk in the Woods" is proof that if you have already written a few books that have sold well, publishers will apparently let you do anything. In the beginning I loved it, because the two hikers were not these super outdoorsy types who keep up with all the latest hiking gear and get all pretentious about trails. (As a person who was a business major in college but grew up with two siblings who both majored in recreation, park, and tourism science and are fairly uppity about the outdoors, I can really appreciate a regular person making an attempt to go hiking.) So the first third of the book was great, two out of shape, middle age men hiking the Applachian Trail. Then after they crossed a few states, they quit. After that, the book becomes absolutely pointless. It has a lot of interesting historical information about the AT and stories of other hikers, but it is obviously just filler that Bryson had to add once he realized that he was not going to get a book out of hiking the trail because he was back home, presumably doing crossword puzzles in bed. After spending the middle of the book aimlessly doing day hikes, Bryson and his hiking partner meet up to hike Maine. I was truly surprised when they quit again in Maine.

The book was a disappointment. It should have been the experiences of a thru hiker on the AT as told by Bill Bryson. He is enjoyable to read, but the story was utterly pointless.

Two additional gripes: I HATE being blatently misled by book jackets. Not only is there a bear on the front cover, but the back cover also claims that they meet bears along the way. They met no bears along the trail. And I am going slowly insane with publishers' need to claim that every book is "hilarious!". While the writing was enjoyable, I don't think it was even meant to be funny.

I will read more of Bill Bryson's work if I come across it, but I'm not recommending "A Walk in the Woods" to anyone.