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A review by wanderinghill
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson
adventurous
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
I’ll start with what I liked: the first half of the book was really fun and I enjoyed the time spent with Bryson and Katz as they began their journey, I liked the intermingling of trail history (and general American history) and the actual details of their journey, and this has actually inspired to get into some hiking this year. I also find Bryson’s writing to be almost the style of Douglas Adams, as if The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was real and written about the Appalachian Trail. This is a good thing, in my opinion.
For what I didn’t like: Bryson writes incredibly distastefully about people’s bodies and their appearances, whether in criticism as with the continued comments on people’s weight, or in lasciviousness as with the young woman who is getting married that picks him and Katz up along with her fiancé. Just let me feeling gross, honestly. I also felt the book lost a ton of steam when the duo broke up, and the remainder felt as listless to read as Bryson seems to have felt himself. The Pennsylvania section especially was really a slog to get through. This also led to the book feeling like it was longer than it needed to be, with too much historical padding in the later chapters. I would’ve almost preferred the book stop when him and Katz left the trail for the first time, which would’ve avoided the anticlimactic and frankly boring ending.
So even though it has inspired some real life wanderlust, I found Bryson’s personal opinions too dated and the book’s pacing and end to be too unsatisfying to really enjoy this read.
For what I didn’t like: Bryson writes incredibly distastefully about people’s bodies and their appearances, whether in criticism as with the continued comments on people’s weight, or in lasciviousness as with the young woman who is getting married that picks him and Katz up along with her fiancé. Just let me feeling gross, honestly. I also felt the book lost a ton of steam when the duo broke up, and the remainder felt as listless to read as Bryson seems to have felt himself. The Pennsylvania section especially was really a slog to get through. This also led to the book feeling like it was longer than it needed to be, with too much historical padding in the later chapters. I would’ve almost preferred the book stop when him and Katz left the trail for the first time, which would’ve avoided the anticlimactic and frankly boring ending.
So even though it has inspired some real life wanderlust, I found Bryson’s personal opinions too dated and the book’s pacing and end to be too unsatisfying to really enjoy this read.