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A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail (Official Guides to the Appalachian Trail) (平装)
by Bill Bryson
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| MSL Pointer Review:
Awe inspiring, light, and hilarious, this classic of modern travel literature is simply Bill Bryson at the top of his form. |
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AllReviews |
1 2   | Total 2 pages 13 items |
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Kirkus Reviews (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
The Appalachian Trail from Springer Mountain, Ga., to Mount Katahdin, consists of some five million steps, and Bryson (Notes from a Small Island, 1996, etc.) seems to coax a laugh, and often an unexpectedly startling insight, out of each one he traverses. It's not all yuks though it is hard not to grin idiotically through all 288 pages for Bryson is a talented portraitist of place. He did his natural-history homework, which is to say he knows a jack-o-lantern mushroom from a hellbender salamander from a purple warty back mussel, and can also write seriously about the devastation of chestnut blight. He laces his narrative with gobbets of trail history and local trivia, and he makes real the "strange and palpable menace'' of the dark deep woods in which he sojourns, the rough-hewn trailscape "mostly high up on the hills, over lonely ridges and forgotten hollows that no one has ever used or coveted,'' celebrating as well the "low-level ecstasy'' of finding a book left thoughtfully at a trail shelter, or a broom with which to sweep out the shelter's dross. Yet humor is where the book finds its cues - from Bryson's frequent trail companion, the obese and slothful Katz, a spacious target for Bryson's sly wit, to moments of cruel and infantile laughs, as when he picks mercilessly on the witless woman who, admittedly, ruined a couple of their days. But for the most part the humor is bright sarcasm, flashing with drollery and intelligence, even when its a far yodel from political sensitivity. Then Bryson will take your breath away with a trenchant critique of the irredeemably vulgar vernacular strip that characterizes many American downtowns, or of other signs of decay he encounters off the trail (though the trail itself he comes to love). "Walking is what we did,'' Bryson states: 800-plus out of the 2,100-plus miles, and that good sliver is sheer comic travel entertainment. |
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The New York Times Book Review (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
Bryson is… great company right from the start - a lumbering, droll, neatnik intellectual who comes off as equal parts Garrison Keillor, Michael Kinsley, and… Dave Barry. |
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The Boston Globe (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
A Walk in the Woods is an almost perfect travel book. |
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Lily An (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
Although I read this book when it first came out... I still think about it all the time. The book has become somewhat famous in our family...and we have been know to utter the word FLUNG… from time to time . That is all due to the writing and delivery of Bill Bryson and his buddy Katz. The book is more than just a travelogue… more than a diary and the ruminations of a 40 year old out to prove he is not over the hill yet{pun intended!} It is a wonderful blend of wit and wisdom, philosophy and wonderful characters. This is your chance to meet Bill Bryson… and Katz (I think that line about him being the drug culture of Iowa is delightful!!) Bill has been accused of being sarcastic... but he says what he thinks and he is not there to hurt your feelings or those of the person in question. If you met an irritating person somewhere... and they latched onto you in the middle of nowhere and decided to join your group on the trail... wouldn't you have some thoughts that you would either keep to yourself or talk with your companions about? It can be compared to conversation at a mall when watching people… some you wonder who they think they are by the way they talk or dress or the expression on their face and others you wonder what they are thinking about you. Now you know guys do the same thing. I thoroughly enjoyed the hike on the Appalachian Trail... it would not have been a trip I would have taken if not for Bill Bryson and his dry wit. I am glad that he introduced me to Katz and I will be forever grateful for the insights he provided and the time I spent on the AT...When you read this book you will enjoy his hemming and hawing over the equipment at the local sporting goods store...and the final thoughts on those choices and you will learn why some things have to be Flung off the side of a mountain. What a trek this was...the emotional and the physical...Have fun on the trail… Thank you Mr. Bryson... Don't forget the Snickers Bars! |
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Branden (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
The book A Walk in the Woods, by Bill Bryson is a true story in which Bryson contemplates his long journey through the Appalachian Trail and his adventures along the way. I live in a town in the Appalachian Mountains, relatively near the trail. I have never hiked for more than a few miles, yet Bryson's book allowed me to understand what it must be like to hike for days on end in all manner of weather, from Georgia to Massachusetts, through woods that look quite similar to the ones that I have in my own backyard.
The two main characters in the book are Bryson, of course, and his friend Stephen Katz, who accompanies him over much of the trail. Bryson is, on a normal basis, a kind, cheery man, both in conversations within the book, and in the side notes and thoughts that he makes to himself as the narrator. However he is sometimes harsh with other people that he travels with, and meets along the way, particularly Katz. Katz at the beginning does not know much about traveling and one of the things he is ignorant about is how to pitch a tent. Bryson responds to this by saying "Well, I'll put it up for you then. You big soft flabby baby." Katz, on the other hand, is a generally peaceable man, yet he ends up getting frustrated with the hardships of the trail. By the end of the hike he is still having trouble making his way in the woods. As he points out after getting lost, "Well, I was real thirsty, you know, and it didn't look too far. So I plunged off into the woods. Not real smart, right?" However, compared to some of the other characters, like the fat and impulsive Mary Ellen, Bryson and Katz are quite likeable.
Bill Bryson's memoir of his journey through the Appalachian Mountains really made me feel like I was in the woods with him. Though I believe that Bryson may have added a bit more color to his travels than was really there, in reality his story seemed quite believable, all in all. Throughout the book Bryson emphasizes funny events that happened in his travels. For instance, Katz is in hiding from the angry husband of a woman he asked out on a date. When Bryson returns to their room, Katz asks "Who is it?" and Bryson responds "Bubba T. Flubba. I wanna talk to yew, boy." Bryson talks about that scene in loving detail.
I have read books I like better, but A Walk in the Woods really has it all: adventure, comedy, romance and a whole lot of other things- but mostly comedy. And it is all fit into a true story.
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A. Kazz (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
Travel writing invites us along on journeys to places we might not ordinarily go. The quality of the trip depends greatly upon the knowledgeability and personality of the guide. Bill Bryson is a font of knowledge on the way, hysterically - at times perilously - funny, sometimes cranky but always vitally present in his surroundings. In A Walk in the Woods, he covers some ground familiar to me - The Appalachian Trail. As was not the case with the youthful adventures I shared with my brother, Mr. Bryson has taken the trouble to thoroughly investigate the trail and the vicissitudes of long-distance hiking - including the possibility of "a few lively and confusing moments" sharing a tent with a bear - and recount this knowledge in a way that is entertaining as well as informative. Had I known the half of what he knew before he set out, I might have - ach! I'd have gone anyway too. Add to that the interplay with his traveling companion, Katz, who "was the drug culture in Des Moines", and his lush command of the English language, and you have a classic Bryson trip. Let's Go! |
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Sam Johny (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
This is the first travel memoir I have read by Bill Bryson who lived in England for many years. Bill Bryson has also written a few other travel memoirs. I assume that the Appalachian Trail is real. Before I started reading this book, I thought it was impossible to hike the entire 2000-mile trail. When I got this book from English 12 class, I realized that this book is more interesting to read than the Great Gatsby.
I did not know the name of the narrator until I realized that the narrator is Bill Bryson. I did not know the first name of Katz until I realized that his first name is Stephen. Bill Bryson does not call him Stephen. A few other hikers do call him Stephen. Stephen Katz, who has been invited by Bill Bryson to hike the AT, has been Bill Bryson's best friend since childhood.
Bill Bryson also hiked in England on a trail that had fewer hikers than the Appalachian trail. The book talks a lot about nature in some parts of the novel. The trail is so long that it would take a few months to hike the Appalachian Trail. He was also a northbound hiker. Sometimes, Bill Bryson was not hiking next to Katz because Katz was a slower hiker than Bryson. He also heard stories about hikers in the Appalachian Trail before hiking the trail. Before Bill Bryson and Stephen Katz start hiking the trail, they buy some items that are necessary for the Appalachian Trail such as a knife for defending yourself from bears, a torch, some batteries, and a sleeping bag. As Bill Bryson and Katz hike the Appalachian Trail, they encounter a few bears in Shenandoah National Park, stop at many restaurants, stay at towns for several days, and meet many other hikers. Sometimes, they did not walk on the trail. For a few days during their hiking, it was snowing. He skips a couple of parts of the trail, finally stopping (after nearly 500 miles of hiking) to return home. The last 100 miles of the trail is called the Hundred Miles Wilderness which is the longest section in the Appalachian trail. Bill and Katz had to have a lot of supplies for hiking the Hundred Miles Wilderness.
The book that Bill Bryson reads before hiking the Appalachian is Bears Attacks: Their Avoidance. The books talks about incidents in which bears have attacked humans. Another book mentioned in A Walk in the Woods is Deliverance that is a story about a few men who canoed their boats on a river. Other people killed the rowers at the end of the story, Deliverance. The story of Deliverance is similar to the story of A Walk in the Woods. Four men journey on a river from Georgia to South Carolina in Deliverance as Bill Bryson and Stephen Katz journey on the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. Deliverance was made by Warner Bros. Studios into a 1972 motion picture drama
The book does mention the person who built the Appalachian Trail. Some parts of the novel are funny. I did laugh after Mary Ellen called Bryson and Katz overweight, pussies. Many hikers on the AT don't hike the entire Appalachian trail. In 1991, one person did run the entire Appalachian trail carrying a bottle of water. |
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Blubaugh (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
While I'm sure that some AT thru-hiking purists dislike this book because Bryson and his hiking partner Katz don't hike the entire trail, this book succeeds on many levels.
It went a long way toward inspiring me to section hike the trail - the first leg, the Georgia stretch, is planned for next month. It familiarized me with a lot of the terminology and locations of the trail. While I'm sure that some of it is fabricated or exaggerated for effect, it points out much that I'm sure is also realistic - things like showing people who are ill-prepared for the trail and realize shortly after they set out that they want to eliminate half of what they've packed. In sections separate from the story itself, Bryson gives fascinating background about the Appalachian Trail and things related to it. And the story of Bryson and Katz's hike is highly entertaining.
While Bryson may have invented or embellished characters like Mary Ellen (as some others have asserted), I'm sure that the AT attracts its share of "characters," and the interactions with her were always quite humorous - we've all run into people like her different times. Though no one wants to spend time around someone so annoying, it sure is fun to read about someone else having to.
I hear that Robert Redford is planning on adapting the book into a movie, with him playing Bryson and Paul Newman playing Katz. I'm having a really difficult time imagining them in the roles (they're both about 30-40 years older than I'd imagine Bryson and Katz), but I would certainly pay to see it - this book deserves to be made into a movie. Hopefully it will be filmed on location in the Appalachians!
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Bobbie Sheahan (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
This was the first Bill Bryson book that I have read, and it definitely won't be my last.
Bryson, a middle-aged guy who is probably more of walker than the average American but no hiking or fitness god, decides to hike the Appalachian Trail, and he takes us along on the journey. In between some hilarious anecdotes about the journey and the characters he encounters on the trail, he offers a summary of some very interesting books about the AT and some amazing stories about other folks who have made the journey, along with a lot of information about nature, conservation, and the ever-inept Forest Service.
He dedicates the book To Katz, Of Course, and it soon becomes clear why. Katz is the inept hiking buddy who volunteers to join Bryson on the AT after Bryson has read enough about bear attacks and other dangers to be appropriately daunted at the thought of facing the AT alone. When we meet Katz, it appears that will be more of a liability than an asset. So, which was he? I will leave that to you, dear reader. This is supposed to be a review, not a spoiler. I will simply say that the book is alive when Katz is present - and by "alive," I mean that you should not have food in your mouth when you are reading because you will be laughing too hard to keep the food in your mouth...not that I'd know...
As I read, I found myself trying to cast the movie version of the book. I've decided that, if he were willing to put on a substantial amount of weight, David Arquette would be perfect for the part. Then again, John Goodman might be just right...or Paul Giamatti... with someone like Tom Hanks to be Bryson, his straight man. Then again, maybe we should make things interesting and cast Samuel L. Jackson as Bryson. But, I digress. A Walk in the Woods is the sort of fun, meandering book that makes one think these kinds of thoughts.
I found myself impressed at the perseverance - and progress - of two guys who, by their own estimation, had no business even attempting the Appalachian Trail. The hiking partners seem to be hitting their mountain-man stride (such as it is) about halfway through the book, at which point, they take a disappointing hiatus and never quite regain their momentum. The second half of the book covers the portions of the journey that Bryson undertook without Katz, and then the book concludes with Bryson and Katz reuniting to take on the northernmost - and most treacherous - part of the journey. And just how did that go? Well, that would be telling...but I will say that neither the book nor the hike are fun without Katz.
As a reader, I got the sense that the first part of the hike was a terrifying, thrilling, exhausting, challenging, life-affirming experience, and that the second part was phoned in with a sense of, "How do we wrap this up?" I am almost prepared to make this a criticism of the writer... but I suspect that Bryson is better than that, and that he was simply taking the reader along with how the journey felt to him. If that was his intent, he succeeded. The first half of the book was a pee-in-your-pants funny page-turner, and the second half was a tedious are-we-there-yet? experience.
Overall, the book was definitely worth the journey. Whether you are a seasoned hiker or a couch potato who wonders why anyone would ever want to bother walking anywhere they didn't have to, A Walk in the Woods is an worthwhile ramble over 2,100 miles - give or take - with a couple of wry, cynical, amiable buddies. And if you find yourself skimming the parts where Katz is not present, don't feel bad; I think that maybe the author did that too. |
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Steven Coulter (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
A Walk in the Wood's, by Bill Bryson, was a breath of fresh Appalachian air. Mr. Bryson obviously researched his subject thoroughly, becoming knowledgeable not only about the Appalachian Trail itself, its history, and the people who have built and walked it, but also the history and development of Appalachia and her people.
There is one delightful interlude concerning idiosyncrasies of Gen. Stonewall Jackson. Meanwhile, there are many educational discussions of the plight of certain endangered or sometimes extinct species that once graced the AT. Bryson's ability to verbally illustrate such bizarre characters such as Chicken George, and Mary Ellen will grab and hold your attention, and may cause you to laugh out loud.
But the most delightful reading was the interactions of the author and his hiking companion Stephen Katz. Most of the dialog between these two characters was hilarious. When Katz left the trail to work a construction job for a few weeks I ached for his return. We he did return, I was not disappointed. Not only did the book become more fun again, but there was also special insight that was provided in Katz's very personal battle with substance abuse that provides a very intimate look at the enormous challenges that face victims of this disease.
I give A Walk in the Woods an A+. It doesn't bother me in the least that the author did not walk the entire trail. Nor did it bother me for two middle-aged, out of shape, men to attempt it. Who says you have to be 18 and have the body of Arnold Shwartzenger to enjoy a Walk in the Woods? |
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