A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

About a month ago I got the great idea (some of you may remember a certain email) that we should hike a segment of the Appalachian Trail.  Actually, it's something I'd been thinking about for almost 20 years -- I briefly dated a guy who wanted to hike the AT and I was so inspired by his interest that I bought into it and thought I wanted to do it too (but not with him).  Naturally, as an avid hiker, hiking the AT or even a section of it seems like the pinnacle of cool hiking.

In addition to my email to the Selby girls, I also suggested to Marc that we should hike some of the AT as a family.  Sometimes he's a really good sport about things and he said, "okay".  I figured I needed to do some research after getting agreement from both the Mathewsies family (kids are all for it) and the Selby girls and I came across Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods. 

I loved this book!  It was hilarious, like the snort-coffee-through-your-nose-from-laughing-while-reading and annoy-the-people-around-you-reading-sections-aloud-to-them kind of funny.  Especially the first half. It also has some thought-provoking insights into the AT, American culture, and the environment.  It also may have saved us all from a miserable experience.  My brief obsession with hiking the AT is now cured.  Thank you Bill Bryson.  Marc read it after me and he agreed: great book, not a place we need to hike.  The AT sounds like a pretty funny place with some interesting people along the way but I think we can skip it for some better options.

Now, anyone want to hike Rim-to-rim in the Grand Canyon?  That I'm still doing for sure! 

And, read the book.  You'll love it. 

I am the Messenger - Markus Zusak

Dear readers/listeners,

while I'm currently getting through Skippy Dies (possibly good, but not the most uplifting thing in the world. I review it as "interesting, but I don't really like it." Jeff is funny, despite), I keep going back to the good feelings I had while listening to my previous book, I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak.

First of all, if any of you have read The Book Thief, and liked it (which I think is the general response), I heavily recommend this. It deals with an individual going through a life change in a series of event that has a detective-do-gooder and "growth as a person" feel to it. You really get to like the 1st person stance of Ed, self-deprecating as Ms. Bossypants, which I believe is only increased when you listen to the audiobook (it takes place in Australia, and the narrator is Australian. (Visitors... we are primarily Americans here and love a good accent.)


I don't want to write a complete review of The Book Thief here too, since I haven't read it that recently, but I also really like the audiobook version since it had a lot of German vocabulary in it, spoken with a (well attempted) German accent. The disadvantage to his audiobooks is that (correct me if I'm wrong!) the actual books tend to have little illustrations on the chapters. I probably would never have liked Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close quite as much if I hadn't had the visual references, but you can't read a book whilst biking and walking to work, however, and thus stay I attached to my ipod.