Oh the Appalachian Trail. It stretches from Maine to Georgia and offers hikers and fitness buffs a true challenge: one that is mentally, spiritually and physically taxing. It is grueling yet satisfying, completely exhausting yet gloriously energizing. Ambitious hikers set off in March to try and walk from Georgia to Maine before it gets too cold on Mt. Katahdin and the trails become impassable with snow. It is a challenge that not many can say they have accomplished. If you have never wanted to hike the AT, journalist Bill Bryson will make you want to in his best-selling book, A Walk in the Woods.Bryson makes you crave the unending forests, steep inclines, unpredictable weather, heavy back-breaking packs and sparse trail shelters. He makes you hunger for that first shower after a five day trek through Georgia's thickest woods and the utterly satisfying initial gulp of the first cold soda after days of drinking lukewarm water out of your pack. Bryson is a very good writer, probably the best that I have read so far in terms of nonfiction. I thoroughly enjoyed reading every informative chapter, learning about hypothermia, bear attacks, murders along the AT, what to pack for hiking in the words, the two men who created the trail, and much, much more.
I found this book sitting on the shelf in my parent's computer room. Skeptical, I picked it up and started reading it just because I finished Persuasion and neglected to bring another book along. I didn't intend on finishing it, much less enjoying it but I did. And I might just have to read some of Bryson's other books. Writers with such a firm grasp on the craft of nonfiction writing are hard to find--now that I've found Bryson I might not be able to let him go.
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