Guided through the woods with no destination in mind...
926651
The writer presents two mysteries for the price of one.  The resolution to the less intriguing of the two is obviously supposed to be the highlight of the action but by that point you care so little about the poorly developed surrounding characters.  The writer commits an even larger sin by apparently not having a resolution worked out for other, more critical mystery.  Very disappointing, for what it's worth I threw this book at the wall when I finished it.
531273
This isn't a horror movie, if that's what you're looking for. As pointed out in other reviews, the first 26 minutes are about a guy who lives a life he hates. After receiving bad news from his doctor (I think that's what happened), he goes off to live in the woods of Washington state for an indeterminate amount of time (he's sick of the crap). There are a couple of very good lines in the scene where he is talking to his girl about this decision.
This is where the film starts to get good- but not for long. It's artsy and boring much of the time. In the woods, he is being stalked by someone or something. He seeks to find this someone or something. In the scenes where he does come across his stalker, he does nothing! Boring! The guy is a total wuss. It's very hard for the audience to root for him. Maybe that's the point. Maybe his stalker(s) are symbols for something. It doesn't matter.
I give it a few stars for being fairly original and creative. But, in the end, it's not very entertaining.
Oh, and the ending sucks.
608638
This short ebook is like a chapter from a book. Reacher is thumbing it on the highway, trying to get up to the Canadian border through Maine, just to say he did - touch the border and then immediately turn around and head out somewhere else.

He accomplishes his goal, but on the way out of town notices something very strange. The hiking trail that begins in the town has been covered over with crime scene tape. It's closed for some reason. Any hikers inside are being searched and hustled out. And not by local officials - these are military men - Army - Reacher's men.

Reacher can turn his back and walk away. But, you and I know his ex-policeman mind wants to know why these guys are here and what they are hunting - or protecting - in those woods.

This is NOT a full book. It is a stand alone story, but just a "short".
3986344
I have read other travel/adventure books, some about walks on great trails. None has the gentle humor and humanity of A Walk in the Woods.
418459
As an adult with a brain, it was impossible to sit through this non-sense.  Whispering in the woods.  How long can you watch that?
515723
Very disappointing. As a day hiker, I could not relate. Seemed to be geared to the hikers who camp and hike for a day. Trails that were highlighted were way above our hiking levels. Not for the casual hike, IMHO.
3887619
Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, and is probably best known for his travelogues. "A Walk in the Woods" was first published in 1998, and follows his attempts to walk the Appalachian Trail.

Bryson literally stumbled across the Trail when, having decamped to New Hampshire, discovered it skirted the edge of the town he'd moved to. More or less on a whim, he decided to hike the Trail - as he mentions, with swathes of forest dying out, he may as well take a look at it while it's still there. Announcing his intention to the anyone who'll listen, he's routinely told that he's nuts : the trail is over 2100 miles long, and everyone has a story of hikers being attacked by bears, snakes, wolves, bobcats and hillbillies. (The list of fatal diseases a hiker could come down with were no less worrying - nor the odds of being murdered. Two female hikers were actually murdered while Bryson was on the Trail - in a glade he'd passed through only a few days before).

So, now rather keen not to make the hike alone, Bill starts sending out a few notes asking if anyone would be interested in joining him...eventually getting a single reply from an old school-friend called Stephen Katz. Bill, desperate for a hiking partner, is delighted...but Katz isn't necessarily going to be the best choice. The pair had travelled round Europe together, and had wound up despising each other. (Still, that had been twenty-five years previously, and time heals all wounds...right ?) But worse is to come : since Europe, Katz has led a long, colourful and unhealthy lifestyle - and he now has an impressively large waistline. He's also planning on bringing a large supply of Snickers bars into the woods with him, to help him control with his seizures...and Snickers have a worrying tendency to attract hungry bears).

I don't read an awful lot of travelogues, but I'd be encouraged to read more by Bryson. Some of the characters in the book appear under pseudonyms - Katz, a hugely entertaining character, is apparently one of them. (For her own sake, I hope Mary Ellen - a hiker from Florida they met on the Trail - was another...although she did supply a fair few of the laughs). I found it incredible that, when the book was written in the late 1990s, America was still apparently having trouble with acid rain. The organisations that should have been protecting the wilderness didn't come across very well either. The National Park Service, for example, apparently oversaw the extinction of forty-two species of mammal in the twentieth century. (Seven were lost in Bryce Canyon National Park alone, where they'd survived quite happily for millions of years without the Service's "help"). Meanwhile the Forest Service apparently spends its time building roads - apparently to allow logging companies access to the country's forests. "By the late 1980s", we're told, the Forest Service "was the only significant player in the American timber industry that was cutting down trees faster than it replaced them". Hopefully, there'll have been enough fallout from this book for both organisations to have altered the ways. Fun, enjoyable and (at times) very informative : certainly recommended.
2676212
Perhaps the subtitle "A spiritual odyssey..." made me expect more than I should or perhaps I'm a little too critical but I was disappointed with the introspection we get to witness Alvah Simon's book.
Let me start by saying the adventure story is worth twice the price of the book. ... This part alone will leave you shaking your head, wondering what kind of madman he must be!
I think it is precisely that "madman" that is intriguing and I bought the book hoping to learn what someone who spent months alone thought about and learned. In our typical hectic lives, getting an hour alone to ourselves, much less months, is difficult. My expectations were high that I would learn something of particular spiritual value. Unfortunately, while I think Mr. Simon must have had a very spiritual adventure, I was left feeling that he just scratched the surface in describing the thoughts and insights he had during the long, dark months.
Buy this book for the adventure and the harrowing experiences but keep your expectations moderately low for truly seeing the "spiritual odyessy".
2147123
There didn't seem to be any world building or enough character building to make me want to continue.  I made it at least half way through, and I still have no idea about the pack, where they live or how do they earn money to survive?  It seems as if they just hang around the woods all day wandering in and out of camp.  The two MCs act like immature juveniles who know ABSOLUTELY nothing about themselves.  High school boys know more.  I'm still wondering what happened to Jack's stuff in his apartment that he left the door open to so long ago.  Just disappointing and I gave up.
4366773
Why this book was named 'Wild' was lost on me.  A better title would have been 'Found'.  Possible Strayed was describing her wild past, rather than the wild outdoors.

This book is in essence, a story about being completely lost within oneself, on drugs, through multiple failed relationships, young and dumb, and pulling oneself up by one's own bootstraps.  Yes, the PCT and backpacking are in there, but it could have been a voluntary entry into a drug rehab center with psychological counseling described in detail instead of the PCT.

I am an avid backpacker and older woman.  I was frankly bored with the personal background segues.  But I read on because I wondered if she would finally be amazed with her surroundings on the PCT; if the message was how true wildness heals.

Strayed never expresses that ecstasy and wonder of the natural world...o.k. there are a few sentences here and there...but she walks alone in order to process [and detox] her tumultuous life.  Walking was her meditating and therapy, not really the 'Wild' or wilderness. More like solitary confinement, than awe and wonder.  In fact, the first 2/3 descriptions of her life on the PCT do not give you a feeling for the trail, but more for her swollen feet and all her aches and pains.  Strayed most 'Wild' encounters include a fox and coyote howls and a brief sighting of a black bear in which she sings and talks all day after that because she was so afraid.

If you are looking for a self-help story, this is a great one.  If you want to get a feeling for the 'Wild', there are many other fine books out there.  The Wild Excellence is one of those books about a woman alone in real wilderness.
1244984
Might get you into hiking which is great but this girl is no role model for preparing herself for the trek. Could be a guide on "what not to do." It was somewhat entertaining but then I started to want her to arrive at the end of the trail.
3443196
I read this book with a profound sense of deep regret.  Hiking used to be fun. Somwhere between John Muir's rugged scrambles in the high sierra and now something wonderful, beautiful, and precious got lost.  This book marks a turning point, the supremacy of "The Professional Thru-Hiker"; and the death of a tradition of deep connection to wild places.  The author's greatest flaw is that she is utterly and completely unaware of the traditions she's helping destroy, of what they meant to the few, and how wasted her book will be on the many.  Out of the glory of nature's finest creation she would have us all see nothing more compelling than a "Disneyland with Trees". All over America we see spoiled athletes behaving badly.  I never thought I'd see one out on trail.
3813486
Well... if you enjoy watching totally narcissistic, entitled, spoiled, ignorant, yuppies go into nature with no experience or respect for their environment, and watch them blunder around killing everything around them and eventually themselves... all the while being hateful to one another on that journey.... have at it! There is nothing suspenseful or even interesting about it.... boring and irritating is more like it.
2147316
Bryson hiked part of the Appalachian Trail (skipping at least half) and then wrote a book about it. He turns in a similar exercise here, never traveling West of the Missouri river and yet calling his book "The Lost Continent."  Where he does travel is predictable stereotyping from a "worldly" author. Steinbeck he is not.
1774733
This book does a decent job at describing the history of each area of the park, however, it has some serious short comings. It describes certain trails, but lacks pictures or any trail maps. I found myself looking at the book and still having to go on to the internet to get descriptions and pictures of the trails he was referring to. This book would be relatively pointless to take on a trip. We have purchased several Yellowstone books to plan our trips, this one is the worst of the bunch
100047
I'm not that interested in hiking, so the tiny details that involves hiking (climbing, walking, carrying heavy backback, putting up tent, packing...) are not particularly interesting to me. I did like the spiritual journey aspect of the story.
3851214
Having grown up near the Natchez Trace & driving it from one end to the other, the idea of walking the entire length sounded intriguing.  I read this book hoping to hear what she thought about the numerous historic sites and natural beauty along the way, as well as sections of the Old Trace where you can walk.  However, this book is primarily about the author's relationship with her father, rather than exploring the Trace.  She mentioned very few of the special sites along the way.  Maybe she only passed by them without stopping.  If so, she really missed out.

If someone is interested in reading a book about an adult daughter and her elderly father, they may enjoy this book very much.  It just wasn't what I was expecting.