A Walk in the Woods: A Second Opinion

By Paul Hurford

A Walk in the Woods. Photo: WordPress.com

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, is about Bryson’ s and his friend Katz’ s adventures as they hike the Appalachian Trail. On their way, they meet new people, much wildlife, strange weather conditions, and difficult terrain. What I liked about this book was the interesting facts about the trail and wildlife in the United States, and I found it interesting how Bryson described the different people they met. What was not appealing, however, was all the swearing.
Firstly, a major thing that I liked about this book was the interesting facts about the trail and wildlife in the US. Bryson went off on many rants about the early history of the trail and about how much wildlife used to be on the trail. For example:
“[Bryce Canyon National Park] was found in 1923 and in less than half a century under Parks Service’s stewardship lost seven species of mammal—the white-tailed jackrabbit, prairie dog, pronghorn antelope, flying squirrel, beaver, red fox, and spotted skunk” (Bryson 92).
This example shows how the Park Service was actually killing off species of wildlife, not protecting them. This was interesting to me because I assumed that the Park Service was protecting the wildlife. I thought that it was their job! An interesting fact about the trail is:
“If four million [people] is right, and we assume that probably three-quarters of that hiking is done during the six warmest months, that means an average of 16,500 people on the trail a day in season, or 7.5 people for each mile of trail. One person every 700 feet” (Bryson149).

This example shows how many people attempt to hike the trail in a year. I find this interesting because not many people complete the AT, and I didn’ t know that so many people try and then walk off.
A major problem in this book was all the swearing. Personally, I hate to hear people swearing; there is no point to it. It is very inappropriate and crude. One example of swearing in the book was, “ ‘ Then f— you,’ [ Katz] said and turned on his heel and walked out” (Bryson 252). This is just one of the many times Katz says this swear word. I think that it did add some amusement to the book, but it could have done well without it.
Finally, the thing I liked most about this book was all the different people Bryson and Katz meet and how they are described. For example,at the beginning of this book they meet Mary Ellen: “ She was from Florida, and she was, as Katz forever after termed her in a special tone of awe, a piece of work” (Bryson 51). I think that this example seems to shows how much they really admire her, but in fact, they really don’ t like her at all and find her extremely annoying. They pretend to like her! They also meet many other interesting people:
“ The waitress—let’ s call her Betty Slutz—stopped and looked at me, then slowly swaggered back to the table, staring at me with majestic disdain the while” (Bryson 102). Bryson and Katz meet this waitress in Gatlinburg. I think that she is very stuck up and is annoying. Both of these examples show the strange varieties of people you can meet when you go on long journeys like this.
Overall, my likes outweigh my dislikes of this book. I enjoyed this book, and it has a lot of helpful information to offer if you are considering hiking the Appalachian Trail. Even if you don’ t want to hike it, it is still a very interesting and funny book to read. If you don’ t like reading about trailsm and wildlife, I wouldn’ t recommend this book to you. But if you do, I would recommend you read it!