A Walk in the Woods
Allow me to preface this by saying this type of book is not usually my thing. Rarely do I enjoy memoirs or travelogues. I selected this audiobook because I needed something to fill travelogue and book about nature prompts for a couple of 2018 reading challenges. So, if you gravitate towards these kinds of books, don’t let me deter you from trying this one. It simply is not for me.
As you can see from the screenshot image, I listened to this at 1.75x speed. I’ve never listened to an audiobook this fast before and I did it simply because I couldn’t stand for it to drag on any longer. I needed to get through it and to do so quickly. There were a few moments of interesting history and commentary on the Appalachian Trail, the US Forest Service, and issues facing the land that Bryson hiked through. Unfortunately, those moments were brief and interspersed with unnecessarily cruel and mean depictions of the people that he encountered. I know he said he used false names for the people he described, but still. I think a liberal application of the Thumper Rule should have been used here (if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all). I was appalled by the caricature of Mary Ellen early on and that soured my view of the entire book. I gave this two stars on Goodreads, because there is some good history here, but it could have and should have been handled better.
Tails from the Dog-side 