TOW 24

A Walk in the Woods is a memoir written by Bill Bryson about his time hiking the Appalachian trail.  At the same time it also offers up a lot of information on the subject.  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.  Bryson employs several tactics based on his target audience.  Bryson targets an audience, which is not made up of avid hikers, but regular people.  It is meant to be a somewhat informational book but is more for the readers enjoyment.  For that reason he uses things such as humor and first person to get his point across.  Using first person makes it easier for Bryson as he can simply tell his story, and at the same time it makes the reader feel as if they are there.  It also helps as he can use it to describe things more in depth.  As he is an observer of the landscape along the way he can comment on it.  In this way it is less like you are building a landscape off of what he is saying but off of what he is actually seeing.  Bryson also employs humor in his writing as, understanding his audience, he assumes the text would be lacking without it.  This aspect adds a kid of personality to the text that makes it feel more alive.  It feels more concrete because not only did he actually do this but also he makes the readers feel like they are getting a direct commentary from someone who is directly talking from their experiences.  It feels as if there is no bumper and is also more entertaining for the audience.