Bryson, Bill. A Walk in the Woods.

Title

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

Author

Bryson, Bill

Publisher

Black Swan, London

Year

1998 (originally 1997)

ISBN

0552997021 (Paperback)

Illustrations

Cook, David (black & white drawings and map)

Table of Contents

none

Bibliography

none

Index

none

Pages

350

Categories

hiking, Appalachian Trail, mountains, travel, outdoors, conservation, wildlife, nature, humor, biology, United States

Language

English (en), German (de): see the translation Picknick mit Bären

Reading Level

adult

From the Book Cover

The longest continuous footpath in the world, the Appalachian Trail stretches along the East Coast of the United States, from Georgia to Maine, through some of the most arresting and celebrated landscapes in America.
At the age of forty-four, in the company of his friend Stephen Katz (last seen in the bestselling Neither Here Nor There), Bill Bryson set off the hike through the vast tangled woods which have been frightening sensible people for three hundred years. Ahead lay almost 2,200 miles of remote mountain wilderness filled with bears, moose, bobcats, rattlesnakes, poisonous plants, disease-bearing ticks, 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.

My Summary

A side-splittingly hilarious documentary of Bryson's hike on the Appalachian Trail spiced with occasional biting commentary on man's disregard for nature that he observes along the way. We also learn a little of the history of the trail, fondly called the AT by its aficionados.
This book was my introduction to Bill Bryson. I came upon it by chance while browsing through a bookstore in the Vienna train station, and I'm glad I did.
—Robbin D. Knapp © 1999

See and/or order this title at Amazon.com:

• Reprint edition, Paperback, 284 pages, Broadway Books, 1999
• Hardcover, 276 pages, Broadway Books, 1998
• Large Print, Hardcover, 469 pages, Thorndike Press, 1998
• Audio CD, read by the author, Bantam Books-Audio, 1998
• Audio cassette, Unabridged, narrated by William Roberts, Chivers Audio Books, 1998
• Audio cassette, Abridged, read by the author, Bantam Books-Audio, 1998

See and/or order this title at Amazon.co.uk:

• Paperback, 349 pages, Black Swan, 1998
• Hardcover, 320 pages, Doubleday, 1997
• Hardcover, 362 pages, Charnwood, 1998
• Audio cassette, Unabridged, narrated by William Roberts, Chivers Audio Books, 1998
• Audio cassette, with Kerry Shale, Corgi Audio, 1997

See and/or order this title at Amazon.de:

• Reprint edition, Paperback, 284 pages, Broadway Books, 1999
• Hardcover, 276 pages, Bantam Doubleday Dell Books, 1998
• Large Print, Hardcover, 469 pages, Thorndike Press, 1998
• Audio CD, read by the author, BDD Audio Publishing, 1998
• Audio cassette, Abridged, read by the author, BDD Audio Publishing, 1998
• Picknick mit Bären, Paperback, 320 pages, Goldmann, 1999 (German)