A Walk in the Woods

Bryson inspired me while writing a book about my walk along the 600 miles of the Israel Trail.

He hiked the famous Appalachian Trail, but it was his traveling companion–an amusing type who has difficulty walking, who stands at the center of the book. I had more than one friend like this with me, and I learned that trees and landscapes are just the background in a travel book.

This is probably the funniest book I’ve ever read. Who knew hiking the Appalachian Trail could be so hilarious?

These true-life adventures – no, better to describe them as misadventures – will delight everyone from experienced hikers to weekend warriors to armchair adventurers. If you need a lift to your day, this is the book to pick up.

This is probably the funniest book I’ve ever read. Who knew hiking the Appalachian Trail could be so hilarious?

These true-life adventures – no, better to describe them as misadventures – will delight everyone from experienced hikers to weekend warriors to armchair adventurers. If you need a lift to your day, this is the book to pick up.

I love this book because it is a true-to-life story, which makes the characters so much more real as they come across just like you or me, with many good characteristics while also demonstrating many real human flaws.

It is not about the 2,000-mile hike along the Appalachian Trail, but rather about the people who accomplish this amazing feat while in the untamed wilderness, preparing to face the real world now called home - all over again.

I bought this book 3 times. Bryson’s self-deprecating humor and vibrant descriptions of his trek along the Appalachian Trail with his friend are hilarious. I love a book that makes me laugh and also teaches me something new. I liked the book so much I lent it to my neighbor, and of course, never got it back. (Don’t lend your books.) So, I bought it again. I was carrying it around with me and I left it in a doctor’s office waiting room. I called them the next day. They said they didn’t see it. (Liars, every one of them.)… show more.

Bill Bryson is best known for his humorous travel stories, so when he teams up with an old buddy to take on the Appalachian Trail with almost no outdoors experience between them, you know it’s going to be a bumpy and hilarious ride! I found it an inspirational tale, not because they rise to the occasion (they don’t really), but because it shows that you don’t have to be an outdoors expert to enjoy the wilderness and challenge yourself. It isn’t about finishing the journey, it’s about starting it. As someone who has been known to trip over tree roots… show more.

This is non-fiction, but in Bryson’s capable hands, even the most serious of issues can be deliriously funny. Bryson is astoundingly capable of making any subject interesting, be it the workings of the human body to the development of the English language. Here, we follow him and a friend on a somewhat misguided attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail, with digressions into everything from how chestnut trees went extinct in this country to the strange fact that so many of our cities are built without pedestrians in mind. (Bryson drives this point home poignantly yet hilariously with an extremely funny… show more.

An unfit, unprepared 44-year-old travel writer decides to hike the 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail accompanied by his overweight, perpetually irritated recovering alcoholic friend. Staggering beneath backpacks loaded with the wrong food and equipment, they head into the woods and I enthusiastically followed. I didn't mind that it was more of a slow trudge than a wild ride, or that the only looming dangers were rain, snow, and mud—I was too busy enjoying descriptions of the land, the history of the trail, and the duo's grouchy and hilarious ineptitude.

Bryson makes us all laugh. His years in England baked in a dry, straight-man humor to complement his midwestern goofiness, and brings home a basket of laughter in every chapter. From the pithy title of the book (for such an ominous adventure) through a fabulous story of endurance, his need to walk 2,100 miles is often questioned internally without a quality answer. “Because it is there” is a sentiment for those with a screw loose, and one I resonate with and deeply admire. 

In this absolute classic, the author describes his efforts to hike the Appalachian Trail as a pudgy, past-his-prime Dad. It functions as a master class in how to present reality with precision-engineered comic timing (and even more perfect grammar/sentence construction). Bryson also demonstrates his rare ability to enliven a dull setting by delving into its history to find those nuggets of weirdness that bring a place to life. Some of his other books are more ambitious, more educational, and at times funnier, but the clean framing makes this the quintessential Bryson read.