Bill Bryson - A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

Pros: entertaining, fast moving, often hilarious - and no mosquito bites!
Cons: none

About two weeks ago, I noticed that my husband, Austin, was really enjoying a book. I can always tell when this happens because he reads through lunch and it's hard to get his attention. I got really curious when he started laughing out loud ...

Pros: Enjoyable romp through the Appalachian wilderness
Cons: I didn't really find any

"Not long after I moved with my family to a small town in New Hampshire, I happened upon a path that vanished into a wood on the edge of town." The previous paragraph is the first step in Bill Bryson's description of his journey hiking the ...

Pros: humorous story, subject matter flows nicely, incredible detail and research
Cons: some anti-environment sorts might find it preachy

Over the years, I’ve toyed with the idea of hiking the Appalachian Trail. It always seemed like something to shoot for in my on-again, off-again hiking hobby. Right now, I can drive about 30 minutes away and find the spot where it crosses closest ...

Pros: Witty, pleasurable, generally well-paced with a variety of topics
Cons: Inconsistent

After much anticipation and procrastination, I finally found myself reading A Walk in the Woods. After reading book after book about death, discrimination, genocide, and lord knows what else, I was desperately wanting something a little more ...

Pros: Well-written, interesting, informative, alternately comical and serious in its treatment of subject matter.
Cons: Long factual passages sometimes detract from the book's otherwise lively pace.

Enthralling, entertaining account of Bryson’s time on the AT, valuable info for wanna-be thru-hikers; a sobering testimony to the fragility of our planet juxtaposed with hilarious anecdotes. [APOLOGIES for having to put spaces in words ...

Pros: Funny, educational, entertaining, enlightening and well written.
Cons: Even with the Brilliant Bryson, walking 2160 miles can be a bit tedious at times.

Bill Bryson is a great writer. Technically, he is a travel writer, I guess; at least he is usually so classified. However, this is merely a framework for the workings and writings of a mind so insatiable that he must find a focus for his intellectual ...

Pros: Half brilliant, featuring some classic Bryson moments.
Cons: Half disappointing, overly dominated by dry facts and figures, a rushed ending.

For no other apparent reason than fancying stretching his legs, Bill Bryson, in 1996, decided to attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail, a 2000-odd-mile footpath winding up from Georgia in the south to Maine (and the ominous-sounding Mount Katahdin) in ...

Pros: Very funny at times, some helpful basic information, especially about how NOT to do it.
Cons: Vulgar language, condescending cultural commentary.

Bill Bryson's description of his attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail is incorrectly sub-titled "Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail". What he really is attempting to discover is himself, not America. He had returned to this country after ...

Pros: Hilarious, Mostly Interesting, Obsessions with Bears
Cons: End dragged on a bit.

So many critcs proclaim Bill Bryson to be the next Dave Berry or Garrison Keillor. They are so wrong, as Mr. Bryson is much funnier. His observations about people and his surroundings are incredible, and he has a great writing style that will keep you ...

Pros: Simply wonderful - tells the joys and challenges of walking the Appalachian Trail.
Cons: None.

I've always had this secret desire to someday hike the Appalachian Trail with my belongings in a backpack on my back, so when I spotted this audio cassette book in the library, I was eager to get it home and listen.

I've only just recently...

Pros: very funny
Cons: contains political tangents, difficult for a hard-core hiker to stomach the sarcasm

I finally got around to this book which everyone said I HAD TO READ. You will either love it or hate it. This purports to be one of the many tales of hikers of the Appalachian Trail. But it is not a book for the faint of heart or the die-hard, ...

Pros: A fun book to read! Great humor and attention to detail...
Cons: Only wish it was twice as long!

Bill has the amazing ability to put you inside this book and inside his shoes. My sister and my brother actually walked the entire AT together, and all I had to do was read this book to be hiking right next to them... And I could sleep in my own bed...

Pros: Great dry wit, good research into the topic
Cons: Story peters out part way through.

I've read a couple of Bill Bryson's Books and they both seem to follow a familiar pattern. They start great, with hilarious passages about the people he meets, his oafish traveling companion Katz, and the less than comfortable situations he gets into. They are some of the best humorous travelogues that I've ever read.

About 2/3 of the way through both of the books, however, Bryson seems to realize that he's got a deadline and he spends the rest of his book dryly recounting the journey.

Still, the first 2/3 make it a great worthwhile read.

Pros: May be useful for bathroom visits, as long as you don't intend to read it.
Cons: See above.

Bill Bryson reveals himself to be an arrogant, liberal, "the sky is falling" chicken-little yankee with his views on all poeple and places in the south, God, and generally everyone he meets, interspersed with his patently unqualified views on global warming and his erroneous opinions on how the National Park Service, and humanity at large, is at fault for what he perceives as the woes we currently face because of the naturally occuring climate change we may, or may not be experiencing. Some may be able to stomach his general characterizations of people and places in the southern region of the United States, botanical and biological facts leading him to error-ridden conclusions, sprinkled with attempts at humor, but I would not recommend it.