Written by Jeff
Book review: A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
If this is the first book review you are reading on this site, you might want to check out the disclaimer here:
Bill Bryson is the ultimate Renaissance man. While excelling at research and humorous, expository writing, his books generally contain information that is interesting on multiple levels and A Walk in the Woods is no exception. There are explanations of continental drift theory, animal behavior, survival tactics, the history of the Appalachian Trail (or AT as referenced throughout the book), Civil War battles and much more. Interspersed among these tidbits there is a fairly good buddy story being told which humanizes the experiences and brings them home.
An example of Bryson’s information dexterity, is his found in the detailing of the activities of the Forest Service in chapter four. He points out “In fact, mostly what the Forest Service does is build roads. I am not kidding. There are 378,000 miles of roads in America’s national forests.” To put that into perspective, he adds that (at the time the book was written) it was eight times the mileage in America’s interstate highways system. The book also notes some of the errors the forest service has made in managing our national forest treasures.
Bill Bryson has a humorous way of painting mental pictures. At one point he and his hiking companion, Katz, were joined on the trail by a somewhat portly Mary Ellen who talked incessantly and commented on almost anything the two men did. Katz had trouble containing himself as she made remarks about his habits and weight. At one point she bends over to get something from her backpack “…displaying an expanse of backside on which you could have projected motion pictures for, let’s say, an army base.” After reading about her prattling along the hike, this mental image is priceless.
The book is instructive for those who plan to hike the AT or parts of the trail as it is obvious that the author prepared well by doing much homework that he gladly shares in the pages of A Walk in the Woods. As the various sections of the trail are explained, the reader can assess which parts are more suited to their tastes, but as he points out, “…the central feature of life on the Appalachian Trail is deprivation.”
For those who like facts, here is some of the AT trivia mentioned in the book:
- The Appalachian Trail is more than 2,100 miles long.
- People who hike the trail in one fell swoop are known as “‘thru-hikers’” while those who do it in pieces are referred to as “‘section hikers.’”
- Earl V. Shaffer was the first to hike the trail from end-to-end in 1948.
- Since Shaffer’s feat, 4,000 others have accomplished this task
- The longest section hike took 46 years.
- Ward Leonard hiked the trail in sixty days (with full pack and no support crew)
Perhaps one of the most interesting episodes in the book was the visit to Centralia, Pennsylvania among the smoke filled streets and warm, wavy pavement of a town being melted by a long-lasting coal fire under the earth’s surface which has been burning for more than forty years. Several homes in town still had the appearance of life from within; newly planted gardens, children’s toys in the backyards, etc. After realizing the precariousness of his situation, Bryson was quick to leave the area.
Bryson manages to suck the reader into his world to vicariously “enjoy” his experiences. His trip to the sporting goods store in the beginning of the book, for example, is a gem. If you have ever gone to shop for items about which you had little or no knowledge, you will find resonating chords among these paragraphs. We have all tried to cover up shortcomings by pretending to know more than we did, but in Bryson’s case, this could be a foolhardy mistake since his life may depend on having the right gear. He manages to walk the thin line with style even if not always gracefully.
Bryson humorously and sympathetically schleps us along his trek with Katz in search of the mysteries of the AT. We understand his remorse in not finding the elusive hellbender salamander, which he suggests, was among the first land animals to crawl from the seas. His descriptions of some of the accommodations he and Katz acquire along several legs of the trip are both amusing, and if you are planning on taking the hike, sobering as well! By the end of the book, you will probably be as weary of instant noodles, Snickers candy, Slim Jims and raisins as our intrepid adventurers were.
To summarize, what Bryson brings to his reader from the comfort of their chairs is the sentiment expressed in the opening paragraph of chapter six:
“Distance changes utterly when you take the world on foot. A mile becomes a long way, two miles literally considerable, ten miles whopping, fifty miles at the very limits of conception. The world, you realize, is enormous in a way that only you and a small community of fellow hikers know. Planetary scale is your little secret.”
After reading A Walk in the Woods, you too will appreciate that “little secret” and do so with many amusing and interesting memories provided from within the pages of this book. I can easily recommend this read to anyone who enjoys hiking, nature or a tale well told!
A Walk in the Woods : Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson, ISBN-13: 9780767902526, Pub. Date: May 1999
Gardening on the Moon, www.gardeningonthemoon.com, originally published this post
