OMG! This is the first book I have read by Bill Bryson and I LOVED it! I listened to it on audiobook and kept laughing out loud---it is hilarious! After living abroad for 20 years, Bryson moved to New Hampshire and lived near the Appalachian Trail. The Trail is "an invitation to amble." Bryson decided to hike the 2,100 trail from Georgia to Maine at the age of 44 and not in athletic shape. His friend, pseudonym name of Stephen Katz, joined him. Their preparations and actual adventures are told w...

I am a huge fan of hiking. My friends and I, several times a year, will take trips out to random State and National Parks. We spend a great deal of time out in the woods and any sort of nature. It is not only enjoyable and relaxing but good to stay in shape. But then again my friends and I are all people who are very comfortable n the woods, due to our military backgrounds.Then there are these two. *sigh* Is the book funny? Yes...that humor and the interesting history about the Appalachian Trail...

I'm no city mouse. I'm a country mouse who lives in jeans and who often has a thick layer of soil under her nails from gardening. But, when compared to my brother, I feel like Beyoncé.My brother is like. . . Inman, from Cold Mountain. A man who walks and walks, all over Appalachia.He knows how to forage for food and how to identify what is good and what is bad, out in nature. I can point to anything within the plant kingdom, and he knows its name. He composts all of his own waste and leaves a ve...

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.

I wanted to like Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail. Not sure what I was expecting from this—perhaps more about hiking on the actual AT and the reasons Bryson made this trek—but I was mostly disappointed. It read like a series of travel brochures: here’s the history of the region on this section of the trail, and now another…There was much more attention devoted to towns along the route than hiking the actual trail. It was also disappointing that Br...

I kind of surprised I liked this book at all, because: a) I read pathetically little non-fiction b) I've never read a travelogue ANDc) I'm only a fan of the Great Outdoors as long as I'm safely Indoors.So, color me shocked that I not only finished this, but giggled my way through quite a bit of it! Bryson really is a pretty funny writer, and the way he captured his experience on the Appalachian Trail had me in tears a few times. His fears about getting mauled by a bear (among other things) befor...

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...

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 worr...

Bill Bryson calls the Appalachian Trail "the grandaddy of long hikes," but for me, this book is the granddaddy of hiking memoirs. I first read it sometime around 1999, and I enjoyed it so much that not only have I reread this multiple times, but it also inspired me to read at least a dozen other hiking adventures. None have matched Bryson's wit. Before he started writing long books on various aspects of history, Bryson was known for his entertaining travelogues. A Walk in the Woods was his humor...

It's been a busy couple of weeks, so I thought I'd spent the last of my holiday indulging in a witty travelogue to set my feet itching. Unfortunately, I picked the wrong book. Years of declining the advice of the Bryson-worshipers, it seems, was not in vain.I'm halfway through, and - like the author on the daunting trail - am unsure as to whether or not I can finish my task. Bryson sounds, to put it mildly, a real jerk. He's smug and superior, and spends most of the book complaining about his co...