TOW 20

            A Walk in the Woods is an odd book to say the least.  It walks the line between a lighthearted memoir and a serious factual book.  It teeters between telling the story of the author, Bill Bryson, and his friend, Stephen Katz, on their attempt at the Appalachian Trail, and a book on facts about the ecology and simply general facts about the area.  This structure though is a very beneficial style of writing for what Bryson is trying to do.  His book is meant to be a pleasure book, something you can pick up and read for fun.  Now a trip backpacking on the Appalachian Trail is not to exciting, at least to someone listening.  It is mainly the same thing day in and day out, wake up, eat, hike, eat, hike more, set up camp, eat, sleep, repeat.  Even with a few stories sprinkled in it is not the makings of a very interesting book simply because it is repetitive and would get boring after a while.  This is where Bryson’s interesting structure comes in.  Bryson mixes up the story telling by adding in commentary and facts about things such as the American forestry services, the history of the trail, ecological facts and other things that fit in the context.  These offer him a chance to stray from the mundane repetitive story and spice it up a little.  This then makes the story much more interesting.  With this technique of mixing up the styles and almost completely the topic of the book Bryson keeps the reader active.  The reader no longer is just paying attention to a flowing story but a split up one.  The reader must remember where it left off and where it will go and this makes a mundane story much more interesting.  For that reason Bryson’s odd styling proves quiet effective for this book.