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God only knows what possessed Bill Bryson, a reluctant adventurer if ever there was one, to undertake a gruelling hike along the world's longest continuous footpath—The Appalachian Trail.

The 2,000-plus-mile trail winds through 14 states, stretching along the east coast of the United States, from Georgia to Maine. It snakes through some of the wildest and most spectacular landscapes in North America, as well as through some of its most poverty-stricken and primitive backwoods areas.

With his offbeat sensibility, his eye for the absurd, and his laugh-out-loud sense of humour, Bryson recounts his confrontations with nature at its most uncompromising over his five-month journey.

An instant classic, riotously funny, A Walk in the Woods will add a whole new audience to the legions of Bill Bryson fans.


From the Trade Paperback edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Surprisingly disappointing
A brief history of my acquaintance with this book is in order, I think ...

I read two of Bryson's books (Mother Tongue and A Short History of Nearly Everything, Illustrated Edition) and decided I wanted to read more of this author. I ordered from Amazon, and this was one of the four Bryson titles I selected. Eventually, and for no other reason than I expected that this book would be the best, I decided to save 'A Walk in the Woods' for last. Well, as it happened, the books I ended up reading before it are now favorites, while this book is still reckoned as a disappointment. It may possibly be that, by saving this book for last I had invested it with unwarranted expectations, but, it in the end I could only conclude that this book is not Bryson at his best...

There is lots of typical Bryson humor here (I love the gadget buying stuff, for example) but the fact remains that when I saw that this was about an Appalachian Trail book, I assumed we would get an account of a trail traversal. Not so. Bill and his companion last only a few weeks on the trail and then quit about a quarter way through. That shouldn't matter perhaps, if journalistic truth is the ultimate goal, but the fact is that an 'adventure' book like this needed a good story with closure; The style, I felt, demanded that there be a successful finish somewhere... As it stands the book disappoints fundamentally.... after the failure to conclude the trail, the chapters that discuss subsequent hikes are just superfluous.

Bill .... walk the trail. Get back to us after-wards.....

All quiet on the Appalachian Trail
This book was written in the style of John McPhee and even quoting him once in a while. It includes facts and people like "The Perfect Storm."Then Bill Bryson adds first hand personal experiences. You can identify with his comments that do not have to be funny to be familiar.

This book recounts Bill Bryson's experiences on the Appalachian Trail. The dry facts can be picked up through other material. However the personal experiences are just that, personal. If you have never been hiking then you still get a feel for what you have missed. However if you have hiked then you can really appreciate the people he met, and circumstances that he went through. There are hikers and then there are hikers. In the Boy Scouts you are usually in a well-organized group, in the military you have to be more cautious of objects and terrain, Sierra Club and Outward Bound have their unique points of view. So if his experience is different, it still makes for fun reading.

I even liked the sections on selecting and using the equipment. I am afraid if I had met Bill Bryson on the trail; I would have been one of those "equipment comparing" people.

Anyway do not expect an epic and you will enjoy the time you spend reading this book. Oh, and it does make me want to go hiking.

The Mother Tongue

Funny Book
Bill bryson has a nack for humurous story telling.His friend that goes on this adventure is hilarious.I've read a few of Bryson's books and they are all good.Definitely worth the cost for a fun read. ... Read more

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Chapters: Herbert Hoover, Bill Bryson, Ernest Thompson Seton, David Brower, Ralph W. 'bud' Leavitt Jr., Grits Gresham, Jon Krakauer, Cork Graham, Conrad Anker, Horace Kephart, Edward Lachapelle, Euell Gibbons, Donald Hamilton, Rick Rydell, Thomas J. Farnham, John Long, Robert Forrest Burgess, T. A. Barron, Harvey Manning, Peter Hathaway Capstick, Ivan Doig, George W. Sears, Frosty Wooldridge, Daniel Doan, Beck Weathers, Donovan Webster, Myron Avery, Ira Spring. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 157. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 October 20, 1964) was the 31st President of the United States (19291933). Hoover was a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted government intervention under the rubric "economic modernization". In the presidential election of 1928, Hoover easily won the Republican nomination, despite having no previous elected office experience. To date, Hoover is the last cabinet secretary to be directly elected President of the United States, as well as one of only two Presidents (along with William Howard Taft) to have been elected President without electoral experience or high military rank. The nation was prosperous and optimistic at the time, leading to a landslide victory for Hoover over Democrat Al Smith. Hoover, a trained engineer, deeply believed in the Efficiency Movement, which held that government and the economy were riddled with inefficiency and waste, and could be improved by experts who could identify the problems and solve them. When the Wall Street Crash of 1929 struck less than eight months after he took office, Hoover tried to combat the ensuing Great Depression with volunteer efforts, none of w...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=13682 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Lost Continent:Travels in Small-Town America
I just discovered Bill Bryson a few months ago, and I have loved every book that I've read, but this is by far the most hilarious one yet.I was reading it while traveling in a car with my husband, and, after laughing out loud, would have to reread passages to him.I haven't found it on audio book, but would love to hear it in Bill's voice, which adds to his sarcastic wit. ... Read more

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5 CD set read by the author, Bill Bryson - author of A Walk in the Woods and In a Sunburned Country -- 2003 Random House, Inc. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Makes Science Actually Fun -- and Funny
I'm still in the section where some very curious British men are developing the science of geology (it started as an elite good ol' boys club that developed into practically a cult). Who'd of thunk this would be a hilarious topic, but it is when Bryson is telling it. I can't say I understood the chapter on how early scientists came up with the exact weight of the earth, but I certainly laughed a lot at their quirky personalities, which to me is a lot more valuable thanhow to weigh a planet. I'm excited to read the rest of Bryson's work.

By the author of Saltwater Buddha ... Read more

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Bill Bryson celebre en todo el mundo por su Una breve historia de casi todo aborda ahora un enigma mayusculo: la personalidad de William Shakespeare. De Hamlet Otelo el rey Lear y Macbeth conocemos mucho pero del ser humano que los concibio apenas sabemos nada. Armado de un sano sentido comun y de su admirado don comunicativo Bryson examina datos suposiciones y mitos para trazar una semblanza lo mas precisa posible del dramaturgo y poeta de Stratford upon Avon. El resultado es una fascinante indagacion en la vida (hasta donde alcanza la certidumbre) y el tiempo de Shakespeare. Bryson evoca la Inglaterra isabelina con el azote de la peste su expansionismo imperialista la emergente capital londinense y los usos y costumbres del mundo teatral. Y en este marco historico que depara sorpresas notables y proporciona un marco muy enriquecedor para el lector actual de Shakespeare surge la figura del poeta. Bryson no omite ninguno de los aspectos mas controvertidos acerca de el: apariencia fisica extraccion social autoria de las obras vida familiar supuesta homosexualidad relacion con los poderosos y con el publico... Y todo ello sin caer nunca en la pedanteria academica. Muy al contrario el estilo agil y ameno salpicado de muchos elementos humoristicos y la voluntad de componer un texto conciso y directo nos brindan una lectura apasionante que ademas de informativa y rigurosa constituye una divertida guia a uno de los mayores misterios de la literatura universal. ... Read more

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This is nonfiction commentary. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: A Short History of Nearly Everything, the Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, a Walk in the Woods, Notes From a Small Island, Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe, Shakespeare: the World as Stage, the Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America, the Mother Tongue, Notes From a Big Country, Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words, Down Under, Made in America, Bill Bryson's African Diary. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: A Short History of Nearly Everything (ISBN 0-7679-0817-1) is a general science book by Bill Bryson, which explains some areas of science, using a style of language more accessible to the general public than many other books dedicated to the subject. It was the bestselling popular science book of 2005 in the UK, selling over 300,000 copies. A Short History deviates from Bryson's popular travel book genre, instead describing general sciences such as chemistry, paleontology, astronomy, and particle physics. In it, he explores time from the Big Bang to the discovery of quantum mechanics, via evolution and geology. Bryson tells the story of science through the stories of the people who made the discoveries, such as Edwin Hubble, Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein. Bill Bryson wrote this book because he was dissatisfied with his scientific knowledge that was, not much at all. He writes that science was a distant, unexplained subject at school. Textbooks and teachers alike did not ignite the passion for knowledge in him, mainly because they never delved in the whys, hows, and whens. "It was as if wanted to keep the good stuff secret by making all of it soberly unfathomable." Bryson, on the state of science books used within his school. It was in his later years that he realized with stunning shame ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=1012408 ... Read more

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Chapters: Bill Bryson, Terry E. Branstad, Steve Allen, Al Mccoy, Emma Verona Johnston, Johnny Bright, Brian Wansink, Jessie Taft, Michael Emerson, Sam Wanamaker, Rose Bampton, Jeremy Piven, Zach Johnson, Sara Taylor, Sherrill Milnes, Jim Nussle, Joseph C. Howard, Sr., Randy Duncan, Chet Culver, Joseph Hermann, Robert D. Ray, Mark Doty, David Leach, Tami Wiencek, Roger Williams, John August, Ezra Hendrickson, Randy Minkoff, Charles Peebler, Cassius C. Dowell, Bill Bartmann, Steve Warnstadt, Jack Hatch, Larry Zox, Rick Mathews, Scott Jensen, Karlos Kirby, Tom Vlassis, Clark R. Mollenhoff, Bill Stevenson, Calvin Hicks, George Lane, Daryl Beall, George Cohon, Heather A. Ryan, Marvin Barrett, Linda R. Reade, Roxanne Conlin, Neal Edward Smith, Brendan Daly, Ronald K. Mcmullen, York Hentschel, Robert D. Blue, Janet Petersen, Eric Palmer, Edward P. Alexander, Wayne Ford, Jerry Mertens, Dwight D. Opperman, Fred L. Turner, Felix Wright, Robert Cowen, Elwood L. Thomas, Bridget Flanery, Joe Crail, Arne Harris, Gustav Bergman, Douglas Hagerman, Jason R. Brown, Jeff Lamberti, Carroll O. Switzer, Dennis Mcknight, Mark Decarlo, Patience D. Roggensack, Doug Winslow, Pat Dunsmore, William A. Staples, Bill Kramer. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 285. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Stephen Valentine Patrick William "Steve" Allen (December 26, 1921) October 30, 2000) was an American television personality, musician, actor, comedian, and writer. Though he got his start in radio, Allen is best-known for his television career. He first gained national attention as a guest host on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. He graduated to become the first host of The Tonight Show, where he was instrumental in innovating the concept of the television talk show. Thereafter, he hosted numerous game and variety shows,...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=144196 ... Read more

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Chapters: Bob Hawke, Phil Cleary, Kelvin Thomson, Bill Bryson, Gordon Bryant. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 33. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke, AC (born 9 December 1929) was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia and longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister. After a decade as president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, he entered politics at the 1980 election and became Prime Minister within three years. He became by far the longest-serving and most electorally successful Labor Prime Minister, achieving the rare feat of winning four consecutive federal elections. He is Australia's third longest-serving Prime Minister. Hawke's memorial at the Turf Tavern for downing a yard of ale (2.5 imperial pints or 1.4 litres) in just 11 seconds in 1963 while at Oxford Uni, a record at the time, and entered in the Guinness Book of Records. The record was actually set in 1953.Hawke was born in Bordertown, a small town in South Australia near the Victorian border. His father was a Congregationalist minister; his uncle, Albert Hawke, was Labor Premier of Western Australia between 1953 and 1959 and was a close friend of Labor Prime Minister John Curtin, who was in many ways Bob Hawke's role model. Hawke's mother, Ellie, had an almost messianic belief in her son's destiny and this contributed to his supreme self-confidence throughout his career. Both his parents were of English extraction. While attending the 1952 World Christian Youth Conference, held in Kottayam in southern India, Hawke was struck by "this enormous sense of irrelevance of religion to the needs of the people" and abandoned his Christian beliefs. By the time he entered politics he was a self-described agnostic. Hawke was raised in Perth and attended Perth Modern School and completed...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=4059 ... Read more

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Chapters: Bill Bryson, Anthony Bannon, Charlie Clouser, Armstrong Sperry, Philip Booth, Laura Bridgman, Jodi Picoult, Eleazar Wheelock, Jay Defeo, John Wheelock, Nancy Lagomarsino, Kevin Lane Keller, Al Barr, John W. Hennessey Jr, Henry Fowle Durant, Tom Dey. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 69. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Anthony Bannon (born 1943) is the director of George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography ... Read more

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Chapters: William H. Riker, Bill Bryson, Otto Frederick Rohwedder, Henry A. Wallace, Herbert W. Armstrong, Libbie Hyman, Stanley B. Prusiner, Charles E. Silberman, Jim Inhofe, Shawn Johnson, Tom Harkin, Cloris Leachman, Thomas Disch, Joey Jordison, Paul Coverdell, Lolo Jones, Stuart Davis, Johnny Gosch, Brandon Routh, Philip J. Klass, Tionne Watkins, Buck Shaw, Corey Taylor, Mick Thomson, Conrad Nagel, Phoebe Omlie, Joseph C. Howard, Sr., Randy Duncan, Stephen Collins, Craig Jones, James M. Tuttle, George Wildman Ball, Shawn "Clown" Crahan, John A. Kasson, Robert D. Ray, Sid Wilson, Gregory Alan Williams, Hugh Millen, Bangladesh, Bill Stewart, Richard Pates, Scott Clemmensen, Bill Daily, Juanita Hansen, Karen Morrow, Harriet Nelson, Sean Murphy, Shawna Robinson, Babe London, John Henry Waddell, Tim Rude, Charles Mcgraw, Peg Mullen, Wally Wingert, Carl Pohlad, Chris Collins, Halston, Doug La Follette, Stanley Biber, Kenneth W. Thompson, Maurice John Dingman, Matt Bobo, Marcellus M. Crocker, Niels Ebbesen Hansen, Nick Bal, List of People From Des Moines, Iowa, Chris Pirillo, Viola Garfield, Dave Allen, Allan C. Carlson, Sada Thompson, Larry Zox, Russell Stover, Henry L. Kamphoefner, Matt Macri, Kevin Tapani, Edward Celestin Daly, Shawne Kleckner, Steve Bartkowski, Stephen Gleason, Ruth Kobart, Hiram Y. Smith, Darren Daye, Steve Lacy, Kerry Killinger, Joy Corning, Tom Vlassis, Thomas William Drumm, Clark R. Mollenhoff, John Cowles, Jr., Francis W. Palmer, Dick Dearden, Rich Eychaner, George G. Wright, Charles Wesley Brashares, Bob Hansen, Bob Harlan, Joseph Charron, William Henry Bullock, Edward H. Gillette, Ducky Holmes, William Tubby, David W. Belin, Eddie Berlin, Bill Riley, Sr., Stephen Stucker, Peter Hedges, Claire Dodd, Michael Gartner, Ako Abdul-Samad, David Maxwell, Greg Ganske, Jared Clauss, Joseph Fitz, John Ruan, Matt Bullard, Ross Verba, Robert W. Wood, Bill Ring, Frank Miller, Natasha Kaiser-Brown, Jake Ludington, ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=157839 ... Read more

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Chapters: People From Hanover, New Hampshire, Bill Bryson, Anthony Bannon, Charlie Clouser, Armstrong Sperry, Philip Booth, Laura Bridgman, Jodi Picoult, Eleazar Wheelock, Jay Defeo, John Wheelock, Nancy Lagomarsino, Hood Museum of Art, Kevin Lane Keller, Al Barr, John W. Hennessey Jr, Dresden School District, Henry Fowle Durant, Tom Dey. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 80. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Hanover, New Hampshire -Hanover was chartered by Governor Benning Wentworth on July 4, 1761, and in 1765-1766 its first inhabitants arrived, the majority from Connecticut. Although the surface is uneven, the town developed into an agricultural community. Dartmouth College was established in 1769 beside the Common at a village called the Plain -- an extensive and level tract of land a mile (1.61 kilometers) from the Connecticut River, and about 150 feet (45.72 meters) above it. At one point in its history, the southwest corner of Hanover was known as Dresden, which in the 1780s joined other disgruntled New Hampshire towns along the Connecticut River that briefly defected to what was then the independent Republic of Vermont. For a time, Dresden was capital of the republic. After various political posturings, however, the towns returned to New Hampshire at the heated insistence of George Washington. One remnant of this era is that the name Dresden is still used in the Dresden School District, an interstate school district serving both Hanover and Norwich, Vermont -- the first and one of the few inter-state school districts in the nation. Etymology"Hannover" (as it was spelled in the charter) was named either after a local parish in Sprague, Connecticut, or after the House of Hannover in honor of the reigning British king, George III. While it is possible that the name "Dresden" de...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=13937 ... Read more

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Bill Bryson, Peter Ustinov, Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 7th Marquess of Londonderry, Margot Fonteyn, Malcolm Macdonald, G. M. Trevelyan, Roger Lumley, 11th Earl of Scarbrough, Henry Percy, 7th Duke of Northumberland, Alan Percy, 8th Duke of Northumberland, John Lambton, 3rd Earl of Durham, George William Kitchin, List of Chancellors of the University of Durham. Excerpt:Alan Ian Percy, 8th Duke of Northumberland KG CBE MVO TD (17 April 1880 23 August 1930) was the son of Henry Percy, 7th Duke of Northumberland and Lady Edith Campbell. He served as a Captain in the Grenadier Guards during the South African War from 1901 to 1902, obtaining the Queen's Medal . In 1908 he was in the Sudan Campaign , taking part in the operations in Southern Kordofan and gaining the Egyptian medal. For a time he acted as Aide-de-Camp to Earl Grey . During the First World War he served with the Grenadier Guards, and was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur . He was also appointed Lord Lieutenant of Northumberland . For one year before his death he served as chancellor of the University of Durham , a role his father had also held. From 1922 until his death he financed and directed the Patriot , a radical right-wing weekly which published Nesta Webster and promulgated a mix of anti-communism and anti-semitism . On 18 October 1911, he married Lady Helen Magdalan Gordon-Lennox (daughter of Charles Gordon-Lennox, 7th Duke of Richmond ). They had six children: References (URLs online) Sources Peerage of the United Kingdom A hyperlinked version of this chapter is at Bill Bryson William McGuire "Bill" Bryson , OBE , (born December 8, 1951) is a best-selling American author of humorous books on travel , as well as books on the English language and... ... Read more

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Chapters: Frank Anstey, Maurice Blackburn, James Hume Cook, Doris Blackburn, Bill Bryson. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 22. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Frank Anstey (18 August 1865 31 October 1940), Australian politician, served 38 years as a Labor member of the Victorian and Commonwealth parliaments. Anstey was born in London, England, the son of an iron-miner, who died five months before he was born, and had little formal education. He stowed away on a passenger ship when he was 11, and arrived in Melbourne in 1877. He spent ten years working on ships to the South Pacific islands. After spending a period as an itinerant worker (a "swaggie" in Australian slang), he moved to Sale, where he met Katherine Mary Bell McColl and they married in 1887they had two sons. He became a cleaner in Melbourne, where he soon became involved in politics. He worked on the Melbourne tramways and became President of the Tramways Employees Union. Self-educated, he wrote extensively for Labor newspapers such as Tocsin and Labor Call. In 1902 Anstey was elected as a Labor member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly for East Bourke Boroughs, and from 1904 was member for Brunswick, in the working-class suburbs of Melbourne. At the 1910 election, he switched to federal politics, winning the seat of Bourke in the House of Representatives. Despite his English birth, Anstey was an Australian nationalist. He saw Australia as an economic colony of the finance houses of the City of London, which he (like many in the labour movement at this time), described as the "money power." His views were typified by this passage from a 1907 editorial in the newspaper of the Australian Workers Union: In 1914 Australia, under the Labor government of Andrew Fisher, entered World War I on the side of Britain. Anstey wa...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=1125451 ... Read more