Bill Bryson

Author of A Walk in the Woods, his memoir of attempting the Appalachian Trail, which Kyle read in 2024 and rated 5 stars. Bryson narrates the hike in the first person (alongside his companion Katz), using it to riff on the trail’s history, American forests, and the country’s car-dependence — noting that “every twenty minutes on the Appalachian Trail” he walked farther than the average American walks in a week. He also deflates Henry David Thoreau’s romantic wilderness, observing that nature was “splendid” to Thoreau only so long as he could stroll to town, and that real wilderness at Katahdin left him “near hysterical.” His core reflection is that “distance changes utterly when you take the world on foot.”

Context: Bill Bryson is an American-British author of popular travel, science, and language books, including A Walk in the Woods, A Short History of Nearly Everything, and Notes from a Small Island.

Where this appears

• A Walk in the Woods — author and narrator; the source of Kyle’s notes on walking, solitude, and American suburban sprawl.