There and Driven Home Again

I read a great book while I was out called "A Walk in the Woods". It's not a new read, so you may have heard of it. There's something in this book for everyone at the TITB.
- It involves a very long hike (Hooray!) along the Appalachian Trail, which is a legendary wooded, contiguous pathway from Northern Georgia to deep Maine. Hiking this trail are the two heroes, Bill Bryson, the relatable author with a sometimes readable English accent, and his friend Stephen Katz. Once you get to know Katz, it's impossible not to superimpose Johnny onto your mental image, which only adds to the humor of his antics.
- The book is hilarious, and written in a way that lets you know that Bill isn't some fitness or nature nut. He's just a guy who really liked the idea of a long adventurous hike, and is deathly afraid of bears.
- This long, hard journey by foot through 2000 miles of forest is somehow reminiscent of a Tolkien tale. I mean, here's a bespectacled guy leaving his cozy home in New HampShire with 40lbs of pots and pans rattling on his back. He's not young. He was 45 years old when he left to walk through the last fading days of an earlier, more wild and romantic age, writing every moment down for his book, walking stick his kids gave him in hand. The guy even smokes a pipe. He might as well have the last name Baggins. The mountains he walks through aren't quite Misty, but they sure are Smokey. The parallels are endless.
- He clearly articulates the severe differences between Vermont and New Hampshire. Volvos and lattes vs. pickup trucks and hunting hats. Alex.