A Walk In The Woods
The World's Funniest Travel Writer Takes a Hike
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4.5 • 141 Ratings
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
'Short of doing it yourself, the best way of escaping into nature is to read a book like A Walk in the Woods.' New York Times
In the company of his friend Stephen Katz (last seen in the bestselling Neither Here nor There), Bill Bryson set off to hike the Appalachian Trail, the longest continuous footpath in the world.
Ahead lay almost 2,200 miles of remote mountain wilderness filled with bears, moose, bobcats, rattlesnakes, poisonous plants, disease-bearing tics, the occasional chuckling murderer and - perhaps most alarming of all - people whose favourite pastime is discussing the relative merits of the external-frame backpack.
Facing savage weather, merciless insects, unreliable maps and a fickle companion whose profoundest wish was to go to a motel and watch The X-Files, Bryson gamely struggled through the wilderness to achieve a lifetime's ambition - not to die outdoors.
A Walk in the Woods is now a major feature film starring Robert Redford, Emma Thompson and Nick Offerman.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Returning to the U.S. after 20 years in England, Iowa native Bryson decided to reconnect with his mother country by hiking the length of the 2100-mile Appalachian Trail. Awed by merely the camping section of his local sporting goods store, he nevertheless plunges into the wilderness and emerges with a consistently comical account of a neophyte woodsman learning hard lessons about self-reliance. Bryson (The Lost Continent) carries himself in an irresistibly bewildered manner, accepting each new calamity with wonder and hilarity. He reviews the characters of the AT (as the trail is called), from a pack of incompetent Boy Scouts to a perpetually lost geezer named Chicken John. Most amusing is his cranky, crude and inestimable companion, Katz, a reformed substance abuser who once had single-handedly "become, in effect, Iowa's drug culture." The uneasy but always entertaining relationship between Bryson and Katz keeps their walk interesting, even during the flat stretches. Bryson completes the trail as planned, and he records the misadventure with insight and elegance. He is a popular author in Britain and his impeccably graceful and witty style deserves a large American audience as well.
Customer Reviews
Book of the film.
Went to see the film and decided to buy the book. A great read and lots of interesting facts along the way.
.....it’s Bryson.....
.....there are scientist, entrepreneurs, and, world leaders, but, no one expands my imagination like Bill Bryson!
Immensely enjoyable read
This was my first foray into a Bill Bryson adventure made, on the recommendation of my brother. I love language and Mr Bryson has a lovely habit of using an incongruous turn of phrase to bring out the full irony or comedy of his observations. I am not a great walker but this book has inspired me to rethink taking the bus in favour of making a trip on foot instead after he related that the distance he and Katz walked in just 20 minutes was equal to the distance walked by many Americans in a week! This is a wonderful and personal journey in the company of two affable men as they slogged for over 800 miles across some of the most remote areas in America. This is a book I really recommend because it is related with self effacing humour, wry observations, copious amounts of wit, and tremendous amounts of research: geographical, geological and historical. Don't know when I last looked up so many new words in one tome before, or dived off to google hotels, towns, societies and battles previously unknown - this was a wonderful experience. Thankyou.