New Leaf September Nominations • Over the Hills and Far Away: Journeys

[CRussel]

I can see already that I'm going to have a difficult time deciding which books to vote for. This is a good slate! And, of course, there's still one day left to add others.

[JSWolf]

I'm nominating A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. 294 ePub pages (untouched) and 260 ePub pages cleaned up.

God only knows what possessed Bill Bryson, a reluctant adventurer if ever there was one, to undertake a grueling hike along the world's longest continuous footpath—The Appalachian Trail.

The 2,000-plus-mile trail winds through 14 states, stretching along the east coast of the United States, from Georgia to Maine. It snakes through some of the wildest and most spectacular landscapes in North America, as well as through some of its most poverty-stricken and primitive backwoods areas.

With his offbeat sensibility, his eye for the absurd, and his laugh-out-loud sense of humor, Bryson recounts his confrontations with nature at its most uncompromising over his five-month journey.

An instant classic, riotously funny, A Walk in the Woods will add a whole new audience to the legions of Bill Bryson fans

In the company of his friend Stephen Katz (last seen in the bestselling Neither Here nor There), Bill Bryson set off to hike the Appalachian Trail, the longest continuous footpath in the world. Ahead lay almost 2,200 miles of remote mountain wilderness filled with bears, moose, bobcats, rattlesnakes, poisonous plants, disease-bearing tics, the occasional chuckling murderer and—perhaps most alarming of all - people whose favourite pastime is discussing the relative merits of the external-frame backpack.

Facing savage weather, merciless insects, unreliable maps and a fickle companion whose profoundest wish was to go to a motel and watch The X-Files, Bryson gamely struggled through the wilderness to achieve a lifetime's ambition—not to die outdoors.

Back in America after twenty years in Britain, Bill Bryson decided to reacquaint himself with his native country by walking the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine. The AT offers an astonishing landscape of silent forests and sparkling lakes—and to a writer with the comic genius of Bill Bryson, it also provides endless opportunities to witness the majestic silliness of his fellow human beings.

For a start there's the gloriously out-of-shape Stephen Katz, a buddy from Iowa along for the walk. Despite Katz's overwhelming desire to find cozy restaurants, he and Bryson eventually settle into their stride, and while on the trail they meet a bizarre assortment of hilarious characters. But A Walk in the Woods is more than just a laugh-out-loud hike. Bryson's acute eye is a wise witness to this beautiful but fragile trail, and as he tells its fascinating history, he makes a moving plea for the conservation of America's last great wilderness. An adventure, a comedy, and a celebration, A Walk in the Woods has become a modern classic of travel literature.

Overdrive: https://www.overdrive.com/search?q=a...he+wood+bryson
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000S1LSAM
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/a-walk-in-the-woods-1
Kobo: UK: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/a-walk-in-the-woods-2
Kobo CA: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/a-walk-in-the-woods-9
eBooks.com UK: https://www.ebooks.com/en-gb/book/60...s/bill-bryson/
eBooks.com US: https://www.ebooks.com/en-us/book/45...s/bill-bryson/
eBooks.com CA: https://www.ebooks.com/en-ca/book/77...ds/bill-bryson
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0035OC826

[CRussel]

Hunh. I could have sworn we read A Walk in the Woods for the MR book club, but apparently not. Definitely worth a read, and I admit I quite enjoyed it when I read it. And certainly fits the theme.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Hunh. I could have sworn we read A Walk in the Woods for the MR book club, but apparently not. Definitely worth a read, and I admit I quite enjoyed it when I read it. And certainly fits the theme.

Now all we need is a second and I think we'll be ready for the vote.

[gmw]

I second A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson.

As promised.

[CRussel]

I'll try to get this up tomorrow morning before I have to go out. But if that doesn't happen, it will be sometime after 10:30 AM PDT. Be patient, you'll still get the same amount of time to vote. And, from the looks of this slate, that might well be a difficult choice.