Author: Bill Bryson
Title: A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
Narrator: Rob McQuay
Other Books Read by the Same Author:
- A Short History of Nearly Everything
- Notes from a Small Island
- In a Sunburned Country
- The Mother Tongue
- I’m A Stranger Here Myself
- The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America
- Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe
- At Home: A Short History of Private Life
- Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United…
- One Summer: America, 1927
- The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain
- The Body: A Guide for Occupants
- Bill Bryson’s African Diary
Publication Info: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group, 1997 
Summary/Review:
My fondness for Bill Bryson’s travel writing was shaken by revisiting The Lost Continent and discovering that it wasn’t anywhere as good as I recalled. So I’m happy to say that my favorite Bryson book, A Walk in the Woods, is still very, very good. Granted Bryson’s misanthropic crankiness is still off-putting and there’s way too many fat jokes. But Bryson’s memoir of hiking the Appalachian Trail is enriched by his research into the trail’s history, nature, and various anecdotes of hikers’ experiences. His narrative is also improved by Bryson sharing the experience with his old friend Stephen Katz, who is endearing as much as he is the total opposite of the type of person you’d expect to hike the AT.
Recommended books:
- Grandma Gatewood’s walk : the inspiring story of the woman who saved the Appalachian Trail by Ben Montgomery
- The Appalachian Trail Reader by David Emblidge
Rating: ****
Panorama of the Mountains 
Sorry, you lost me at, “way too many fat jokes.”
LikeLike
Maybe “jokes” isn’t even the right word. But whenever Bryson is describing someone who irritates him he makes a dig about their weight. It’s gross, and I feel bad for not being conscious of it when I first read this book ~25 years ago.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sounds like some kind of unresolved issue he may have not even realized the roots of. Regardless, no-way, no-how would I read this author because of it. I’m sorry you didn’t reach this insight before reading all of those books by him. Fat-shaming is an ugly practice that seems to get a pass where other types of shaming (race, gender, orientation, cognitive capacity, class, etc.) get a pass. I was on a bike ride with some nice, fit women a month or so ago when one of them referred to a 200# woman she knew as a “gorilla.” I found that highly offensive!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sounds like this could be a worthwhile read. They made a movie of this book a few years ago, and it was quite dreadful. Thanks for putting this book on my radar! :)
LikeLike
I skipped the movie after hearing many bad reviews. For one thing, Robert Redford and Nick Nolte are both too old and too Hollywood handsome for these parts.
LikeLike
That’s exactly right.
LikeLike