Bill Bryson has a gift. He can take a subject like hiking the Appalachian Trail in the Eastern United States and make it infinitely entertaining even to a Canadian residing across the continent under the shadow of the Rocky Mountains.
Part travelogue, part history lesson, part slapstick, this tale is also a rumination on growing old and on the extreme diversities found between the various regions of the U.S. We follow Bill and his unlikely companion, Katz, with glee as they painfully inch their middle-aged way north along a 2,000-plus mile wilderness trail.
The wilderness here is tough and these guys are by no means athletes, so every mile is an exercise in pain and suffering and every day is an ordeal. The duo makes just about every mistake possible, yet somehow still manage to cover nearly 800 miles before calling it quits, and we gain an appreciation for the splendor of this wild corridor as it's described by Bryson.
Bill Bryson is likely the world's most popular travel writer and all of his books are overwhelming bestsellers. Weirdly, collectors have been a little slow to catch onto this - a signed first edition of most of his books can be found for well under $100.00.
