CBR11 BINGO: Travel (BINGO! Pajiba square to Science square)
This is one of those books that I heard about forever ago and passed by constantly on bookshelves. Novels with nature as a character are kind of my thing but non-fiction generally is not. Once again, Cannonball Read BINGO has pushed me to read something I most likely would have never gotten around to. (I’m just 3 squares from a black out, people. THREE and I will see it to fruition!) A quick Google search of “best travel books” landed on this familiar title and I was off to the library.
American born Bill Bryson returns to the United States after 20 years living in England and hatches a plan to re-introduce himself to his homeland by hiking the Appalachian Trail. After purchasing the appropriate tools for his hike from the local outfitters, and enlisting an old college buddy to join in on the fun, Bryson hits the trail in Georgia heading north.
The hubris of the two men becomes evident pretty quickly, but for a pair of self-described out of shape, middle aged guys they do fairly well under harsh conditions. Clamoring over rocks, marching through rain, wading through knee high snow and living off of noodles, raisins and Snickers bars for days on end is not for the faint of heart.
The trudge up the trail is interspersed with trail history, anecdotes about the flora, fauna and myriad personalities they meet along the way. While the witty banter between the two men is laugh out loud funny, I really enjoyed the bits about the development of the trail and the ongoing evolution of plant and animal life. The discussion about what was already or was close to extinction more than 20 years ago was sobering considering our current environmental situation.
I enjoyed the book but was uncomfortable with some of the “jokes” along the way. While a lot of Bryson’s humor was self deprecating, a considerable amount of jesting was just arrogant and entitled. I’m generally not an overly sensitive special snowflake. I understand that what stands out as bigotry now may not have been as obviously problematic in 1998 when this book was published. I just could have done without all the mocking of rural Southerners and overweight hikers. Did anyone else find bits of the book to be cringe worthy?