A rescue book but i already have a well loved copy. Bill heads off to walk the Appalachian Trail with an old friend, Stephen Katz who thinks camping food consists of twinkies and Sarah Lee Cakes.
Very funny stuff with Bryson's caustic wit the only thing keeping him going at times.
One i go back to time and time again.
About to go out in a bookray to the following group

vicar-of-dibley - Aberdeen Scotland
deebookfairy - Aboyne Scotland
daizysdad- Grimsby England
cartref- Derby England
Scarlett17 - Cardiff Wales
Pequete - Tras 0 Montes Portugal

then into the hands of fate

RELEASE NOTES:

off to Aboyne and deebookfairy first leg of a book ray

book arrived in post today. Next in my to read pile!

Bill Bryson with his usual amusing dialogue. I enjoyed this, but not as much as Notes from a small Island. Still worth a read if you like Bryson. Will send to daizysdad when I receive address.

received this morning as part of the vicar of dibleys bookring. will read as soon as I have completed my current book.

The first Bryson book that I have read and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I will be reading more of his work. Thanks to Vicar of Dibley for starting this ray. Will post first thing in the morning to Cartref.

received by post today from daizysdad, part way throught a bookring book, so this will be next. many thanks, Thanks for the acebookmark daizysdad :)

Found the story interesting, in that learned a bit about the trail Bill Bryson was walking, but did feel it lacked as much humor as other books I have read of his.found this book more informative in telling you about places, but did miss the humor compared to his Notes of a Small Island book.

Will be posting it on to scarlett17 after Christmas.

Released on Tuesday, December 21, 2004 at about 5:00:00 AM BX time (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada) at postal release in Derby, England United Kingdom.

RELEASE NOTES:

posting onto scarlett17 next in the ring, enjoy

In the usual manner for bookring books, this is one of three which landed on my doormat today! However, by chance I opened this one first so I shall read it first and look forward to a little humorous festive reading.

Released on Friday, December 31, 2004 at about 7:00:00 AM BX time (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada) at Fellow BookCrosser in Postal release, Postal Release Controlled Releases.

RELEASE NOTES:

posted to Pequete today

Received it today, thanks Scarlett17! I'll read it asap and then post a call for new readers in the Portuguese Forum.

I’m having a hard time to read this book, but I don’t want to stop the ray, so it is going to new homes now:
1 cristina-m
2 syrin
3 BookHaven01
4 eu-lene
5 Pequete again for a 2nd try
6 you?

On its way to cristina-m. Enjoy!

Received it today. Thank you, Pequete! :)

A true "Bill Bryson" that made me laugh out loud, sometimes in public, and a huge curiosity to walk in those woods. Thanks!

It's travelling now to syrin.

Came in the mail today.
I'm now officially swamped... again... but I promise not to keep it too long! :)
Thanks for sharing

Maybe the timing wasn't right, or maybe it was all the details and historical facts that Bryson kept blurting out, but I had a hard time finishing this book. [Or maybe it’s just that I'm not much of a hiking person. I'm more of a city person, so I'm guessing this book is the closest I'll ever be to hiking the AT. LOL. But shhh, don't tell anyone!]

Still, I liked the tone of Bryson's books, he had some nice observations, and Katz was really funny too (I loved the “And may Allah bless our potatoes” joke!). I’ll definitely look for some more of Bryson’s books

The books is all packaged and ready to go, so next Thursday it’ll be on its way north! Thanks for starting this bookring, Pequete

[31/05/05] Sorry about the delay. The book is on its way to BookHaven01 today

It has justa arrived.
I'm sort of surrounded by bookrings, but i'll try not to stall this one.
thanks a lot to you all!

i thought this was a really funny book with lots of interesting details about america and it's people. by this i mean facts that like parks being a huge industry and not just a place for people to hike and that most of its workers not knowing it properly, but at the same time i do see the same here, so what am i babbling about? what i mean, is that it reminded me of some of my american friends.

i really enjoyed it...
it is so funny, that there were people staring at me in the bus while i was laughing out loud during some hilarious moments of the book.

oh, by the way, i think one of these days i will try to start walking in the woods, it seemed hard, but rewarding.
thanks a lot for sharing.

i am waiting for eu-lene's address to send it to her.

está comigo!

It is with me again, since quite a long time, but I forgot to make JE - sorry! I will give it a 2nd try and then I'll put it on the road again.

This was my first book by Bill Bryson. I liked his travel journal style, with all natural history, history and sociological information interspersed with dialogues that made the reading very enjoyable. I also liked his humor a lot. However, I was disappointed at a few comments of his that show a deep ignorance on biology / forestry. Of course he is not expected to be an expert on these areas, but since he's making some very caustic comments linked to them, I should expect him to get thoroughly informed before writing them. That's what I'd do, at least. One example: when commenting on the aphid plague affecting hemlocks, he refers that The National Park Service board can't afford to treat the trees because there are too many of them over too wide an area to make a spaying programme practicable. And he goes on “Well, here's an idea. Why not treat some of the trees? Why not treat a tree?”. Well, here's another idea. Why not read a bit about plagues before making such a ridiculous comment? When you have infected trees over continuous areas, you either treat the whole forest, or you will only be throwing away money if you make a partial treatment, because it takes only one infected tree to re-infest a whole forest. So either you choose to throw away tax-payers money on cosmetic actions that would leave the public happy thinking that something was being made, or you get serious and raise money – no matter how much – and treat the whole forest. If you can't, then you may as well do nothing. Like this, there are other examples, such as the one of the grassy balds of the Smokies. I will not comment on that because I think it would get fastidious for other Bxers, but no matter how strange that might seem, doing nothing is, in this case, the right thing to do. I don't want to leave the impression that I didn't like the book. I did enjoy it immensely, as my rate shows, and I will definitely read more books by this author. I just regret these kind of comments. If it weren't for them, I would have given it a 9 or a 10. Thank you, vicar-of-dibley for the opportunity to "meet" him and sorry again for keeping this book for so long. As agreed, it will now go on in its journey to the following bookcrossers:

H2omem
pipmts
sophias
Marcenda
pazyryk
... and then?...

Sent yesterday to H2omem. Happy reading!

Vou le-lo o mais depressa possivel, mas ainda vai a Dublin pelo caminho :$ lolol

Ja o li. Realmente toda a quantidade de informação sobre o trilho que o Bryson debita torna o livro um bocadinho maçudo. Mas se não fosse assim, o livro teria metade do tamanho e não teriamos uma ideia do real tamanho do trilho... bom, eu também não fiquei com uma ideia assim tão grande. Pois para mim, milhas, pés, polegadas e graus Fahrenheit são uma espécie de conjunto de unidades obscuro!

Mas o livro é engraçado! Tem partes muito boas... E até dá vontade de ir fazer um passeio como o dele... mas em dias amenos! LOLOL

Leiam e divirtam-se!

It arrived today!!
Thank you, Pequete and H2omem!
I'll try to read it asap... ;)

Here you can find an excerpt of this book .

I really had a good time reading this book. As I was reading it, I was thinking "Oh, I've got to get a copy of this to keep!".
The story of the journey was funny and it made me want to go out and start hiking somewhere! I loved the way the author describes the places he visits, the villages, motels, the different people he meets during his trip, Nature and the woods, the little disagreements he has with Katz, etc.
Sent to sophias last Monday (26/June), but I could only make this JE today...

its on the pile for reading..maybe by the seaside

update is needed. i have started to read this book but the tbr pile grew and i had to put this aside. hope to get back to him as soon as i can.