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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
| Category:
Travel |
| Market price: ¥ 168.00
MSL price:
¥ 158.00
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| Stock:
In Stock |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| 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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Beechaka (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
This is a very enjoyable and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny book that chronicles the hiking adventures of Bill Bryson his old friend Steven Katz. I picked it up by happen of chance when looking for something out of the ordinary to read while on vacation. It gave me an introduction to the Appalachian Trail and inspired me to learn more about it, and for that I will forever be grateful to Bryson for writing this book.
Bryson is a talented humor and satire writer, and there are parts of this book that truly shine. The beginning of the book was filled with stories and situations that were downright hilarious and are worth reading many times. The brilliance of the first chapters does tend to fade and the latter parts of the book, especially when he was off the trail, seemed to drag on. This is perhaps something that only I felt because I was expecting a book that was almost wholly written from the trail itself. Learning about his experiences once he returned home was not what I expected from the book, and for me it was a letdown compared to the rest.
Having not hiked the trail myself, I do not share the sense of outrage that some reviewers seem to hold towards Bryson and Katz for not finishing the trail. I was perfectly content reading this story and being entertained and educated as well. I give him credit for hiking what he did.
I did feel that some of the social commentary was unnecessary and probably a tad inaccurate. While I do not doubt that there are numerous deficiencies of government agencies that oversee land management, and though I can certainly appreciate his environmental concerns on a variety of other subjects, I felt that some of his tangents and conclusions were dubious and meant more for effect than firmly rooted in solid fact. Not all, but some. Some of his theories and conclusions just felt uneven in this book, compared to his witty satire and entertaining stories elsewhere.
Overall - I enjoyed the book very much and it is definitely worth reading.
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Allem Wiebers (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
I rarely read a book twice - there are just too many to read to have the time to read any twice. However, I was reading an article the other day about the Appalachian Trail and I remembered this book that I had read years ago and was now on my book shelves with all the others. I remembered it as an extremely funny, yet poignant book.
I pulled it off the shelves and my memory was correct. Bill Bryson is someone that every out of shape, middle age, wannabe hiker can identify with. His descriptions of the process of getting ready to go, setting out on the trail, the first few days being the hardest are scenes we can all imagine ourselves in.
I especially love his descriptions of the imagined hillbillys that he fails to encounter, the southern rednecks that fail to be real, the bears, snakes, salamanders that never materialize. Who among us have not had the same imagined thoughts in that situation.
I finally had to stop reading this book on my lunch breaks at work - my laughter was scaring people away from my table. It was a book that I wanted to not put down, but was afraid would end to soon. I rationed my reading like Bill and Katz rationed their food after Katz threw most of it away on the first day.
I have been so inspired by this book, that I am planning on walking the Appalachian Trail myself - well, maybe someday.
This is a great book that everyone who ever has the thought of doing a grand event like this should read first - just for the laughs if nothing else. |
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Van Dalen (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
Known for being one of the best in the business when it comes to the art of travel writing, Bryson provides a seemingly introspective account of his hiking exploits interspersed with droppings on the history, ecology, and other humorous observations surrounding the Appalachian Trail. The book itself is a researched, informative, and a satirically witty tale on the surface (not to mention well-written), but it becomes exceedingly frustrating as it progresses and ends in such dissatisfaction that one is left feeling robbed.
The reader is taken through moods of excitement at the prospect of tackling such a formidable feat as hiking the Trail, to annoyance and utter disappointment to find that the greenhornish-exploits of Bryson were all for naught. It is appropriate to use the words `frustration', `annoyance', and `disappointment' in accounting some of the moods felt by the reader only because of Bryson's shocking hypocrisy. After judging the American populace for their apparent laziness and inability to get out and experience the wilderness, many of his jokes are built around his discomfort and criticisms of nature itself.
If one were to read some of the other reviews here (cleverly titled "armchair hiking at its worst", "a wimp in the woods", "maybe he should have stayed in Britain", etc.), they provide insight into the frustrations one might feel when reading a novel by an author of Bryson's stature. In what begins as a triumphant challenge and ends in mocking scorn, it becomes too easy to disagree with Bryson's conclusive logic. He claims it was a feat to have hiked 800 miles of the Appalachian Trail, and is quick to remind the reader how high the fail rate is for those who try to thru-hike the Trail every year. The only problem is, when calculated, 800 miles out of 2,100 is a failing grade. While sometimes it is noble to write about the failures in life, to claim that he, Bryson, actually hiked the Appalachian Trail... well, it seems almost more disrespectful than triumphant.
(A negative review. MSL remarks.)
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1 2 Total 2 pages 13 items |
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