A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

Not long after I moved with my family to a small town in New Hampshire, I happened upon a path that vanished into a wood on the edge of town.

So begins Bill Bryson's hilarious book A Walk in the Woods. Following his return to America after twenty years in Britain, Bryson decided to reacquaint himself with his native country by walking the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine. The AT, as it's affectionately known to thousands of hikers, offers an astonishing landscape of silent forests and sparkling lakes--and to a writer with the comic genius of Bill Bryson, it also provides endless opportunities to test his own powers of ineptitude, and to witness the majestic silliness of his fellow human beings.

For a start, there's the gloriously out-of-shape Stephen Katz, a buddy from Iowa who accompanies the similarly unfit Bryson on the trail. Once Bryson and Katz settle into their stride, it's not long before they come across the fabulously annoying Mary Ellen, whose disappearance ruins a perfectly good slice of pie, a gang of Ralph Lauren-attired yuppies from whom Katz appropriates a key piece of equipment, and a security guard in Pennsylvania who, for no ascertainable reason, impounds Bryson's car. Mile by arduous mile these latter-day pioneers walk America, along the way surviving the threat of bear attacks, the loss of key provisions, and everything else this awe-inspiring country can throw at them.

But A Walk in the Woods is more than just a laugh-out-loud hike. Bryson's acute eye is a wise witness to this fragile and beautiful trail, and as he tells its fascinating history, he makes a moving plea for the conservation of America's last great wilderness. An adventure, a comedy, a lament, and a celebration, A Walk in the Woods is destined to become a modern classic of travel literature.

A Walk in the Woods (now a blockbuster feature picture starring Robert Redford and Nick Nolte), Notes from a Small Island, I'm a Stranger Here Myself, In a Sunburned Land, A Brief History of Virtually Everything (which won him the 2004 Aventis Award), The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, At Home, and One Summer are among Bill Bryson's best-selling works. He and his wife live in England. Bill Bryson's website is www.billbrysonbooks.com.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780786215133
ISBN 10	0786215135
Title	A Walk in the Woods
Author	Bill Bryson
Series	Basic
Condition	Unavailable
Publisher	Thorndike Press
Year published	1998-08-01
Number of pages	469
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.