Walk Away
Written: Mar 09 '01 (Updated Mar 09 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Well-written. Funny at times.
Cons: Too many facts and figures. Boring at times. Too much unnecessary drama.
The Bottom Line: There are better travel books than A Walk in The Woods.
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| AlexG's Full Review: Bill Bryson - In a Sunburned Country |
If I had to pick, for whatever reason, the most important paragraph out of this 274-page trade paperback it would be this one:
“Now here is a thought to consider. Every twenty minutes on the Appalachian Trail, Katz and I walked farther than the average American walks in a week. For 93 percent of all trips outside the home, for whatever distance or whatever purpose, Americans now get in a car. On average the total walking of an American these days—that’s walking of all types: from car to office, from office to car, around the supermarket and shopping malls—adds up to 1.4 miles a week, barely 350 yards a day. That’s ridiculous.”
A Walk in The Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail is a story about Bill Bryson and his companion Stephen Katz’ attempt to conquer the 2100-miles long trail, which runs from Georgia to Maine, passing through ten states on the way. I had never read Bill Bryson before, and for some reason I had thought that A Walk in the Woods would be a good start in familiarizing myself with his work. I like to travel and I like good entertaining travelogues. Bill Bryson is famous for the same reasons. Putting two and two together, I figured this would be a really exciting read. I was disappointed.
First of all, despite what most people say, this book is NOT that funny. Not nearly as funny as some other travelogues I’ve read. (Read Round Ireland with a Fridge, Playing the Moldovans at Tennis, both books by Tony Hawks.) Yes, the book certainly has its funny moments, but it is far, very far from Washington Post Book World description, “Choke-on-your-coffee funny” and miles away from Fort Worth Star Telegram description, “…read in public so passersby can wonder what could possibly be causing you to laugh so hard.” What were the guys who wrote these reviews smoking?
Secondly, A Walk in the Woods, is not as entertaining as it’s cracked up to be. In fact, at times it is plain boring. For starters, the book is about 20% travelogue and 80% paraphrasing of gazillion of books and other resources that Bryson read on the subject. Some of the facts that Bryson discovered in his research are interesting (like the paragraph I quoted at the outset), but he oversteps the border of balance, and at times I felt like I was reading a school textbook. Bryson piles all kinds of statistics, most of which come into one ear and come out of the other. But hey, a 100-page book wouldn’t sell as well (or for as much) as 274-page book.
Thirdly, Bryson makes things too dramatic for any seasonal hiker, like myself, to take him seriously. He goes on for pages talking about the dangers of bear attacks and what one needs to do (or not to do) when facing the beast. This makes his hike look more dangerous and risky. (The only creature larger than a squirrel that he encounters on the trail is a moose, which is as harmless as a cow). Towards the end of the book, Bryson goes into details describing the dangers of the so-called Hundred Mile Wilderness—the last section of the trail in Maine:
“99.7 miles of boreal forest trail without a store, house, telephone, or paved road, running from the village of Monson to a public campground at Abol Bridge, a few miles below Katahdin. It is the remotest section of the entire AT. If something goes wrong in the Hundred Mile Wilderness, you are on your own. You could die of an infected blood blister out there.”
Oh, come on! Talking about overdramatization, one can choke at home eating fish if there is no one else in the house to perform the Heimlich Maneuver. What does that mean? Never to eat alone?
And somehow, with all the drama in the aforementioned quoted paragraph, Bryson leaves himself an escape route, which seems impossible from the description. Note that he mentions “paved” road. Not even half through One Hundred Mile Wilderness, Bryson and his companion decide that they had enough of it. All of a sudden in what seemed to be an inescapable wilderness, “four miles farther on there was a dirt logging road…We hadn’t been walking more than three or four minutes [on that road] when there was a noise in the near distance. We turned to see a cloud of dust heading our way led by an ancient pickup truck moving at great speed…”
Need I say more? Well, I will, presenting my nomination for the most overdramatized sentence in the book: “In its 283 miles, the Appalachian Trail in Maine presents the northbound hiker with almost 100,000 feet of climb, the equivalent of three Everests.” OK, I don’t even want to get into this, but anyone who has read Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air knows what I mean.
A Walk in the Woods is not something I would recommend to my friends. I know I’m expressing a contrarian view, given that over 90% people on Epinions recommend it. I believe that people’s time to read is limited and there are better travel books than A Walk in the Woods.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
AlexG
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 - Top 500 |
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Location: New York, NY
Reviews written: 130
Trusted by: 237 members
About Me:
Alex has a voracious appetite for travel. Travel hasn't satisfied an appetite. It's created one.
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