Independent Reading Entry 15

Bryson, Bill
A Walk in the Woods

After the intense ending of the LeCarre novel that was a spectacular action filled ending i went on to begin the outdoors guide written by Bill Bryson. I had read some of Bryson before and was aware of his comedic genius and was glad that his style of humor continuously showed up in this novel. His subtle, and sometimes not as subtle, sarcasm and various other ways to display humor keep me turning pages. As well as the entertaining humor the information that he includes about the trail and everything involved with hiking the trail is expertly included and there's just enough of it to be interesting and not overbearing or boring. all the information he gives the reader is incredibly novel to me and the geographic info has educated me of some extremely strange occurrences that have happened in the U.S. So far my favorite bit has been about a town in New England that was over tons and tons of coal. There was a fire one day on the edge of town that caught a small chunk of coal on fire. The flame spread to eventually light the entire underbelly of the town aflame. As the whole town began to crumble into the earth with children nearly falling into eighty foot craters the government came up with an evacuation plan. The town is still there today and is almost completely uninhabited. A ghost town. When Bryson walked through the town his reaction and description were entertaining. I've learned a lot so far in this book.