A review by morningtide
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson

funny informative slow-paced

3.75

 At the time of our hike, the Appalachian Trail was fifty-nine years old. That is, by American standards, incredibly venerable. The Oregon and Santa Fe trails didn't last as long. Route 66 didn't last as long. The old coast-to-coast Lincoln Highway, a road that brought transforming wealth and life to hundreds of little towns, so important and familiar that it became known as "America's Main Street, didn't last as long. Nothing in America does. If a product or enterprise doesn't constantly reinvent itself, it is superseded, cast aside, abandoned without sentiment in favor of something bigger, newer, and, alas, nearly always uglier.

My inclination to read this book was less for the topic and more for the author, so (spoiler alert) when Bryson and Katz do not actually finish hiking the Appalachian Trail, that didn't bother me so much. After reading The Body: A Guide for Occupants and A Short History of Nearly Everything, I was interested to see what one of Bryson's memoir style books were like.

I loved all the historical tidbits he included, and learned a lot of things I never even heard about despite living on the east coast my entire life. (The city in Pennsylvania that's been on fire for decades?? What?? And I may have to take the time to actually stop at the Delaware Water Gap on my next trip instead of driving right through.) I appreciated his dry humor towards the negligence or destruction of nature, especially by the groups that we expect to care for it.

I did not care much for the actual hike, to be honest, and to me it made a perfectly serviceable delivery system for the historical facts about the different locations. But I found myself feeling either ambivalent or leaving with a lesser impression of him after finishing the sections about his own hike. Bryson is very funny and I know he likes making fun of people along the trail, but I can’t fight the feeling that every woman gets a bit more flack than the men do :|