A Walk in the Woods

I was super excited about this book for a few reasons. 1. Bill Bryson is my boyfriend's favorite author, I read In a Sunburned Country by him and enjoyed it. 2. I just did my 2nd section hike of the Appalachian trail and loved every second of hiking and 3. It was made into a movie fairly recently. I heard the movie didn't get great reviews but given that the book is always better I was still pretty confident in this book.
Unfortunately I was disappointed by the book. It is a funny and interesting story but to me it failed to capture what long distance hiking is like. Granted everyone has a different experience and does it for different reasons so perhaps I am biased. I love to hike; I wish Charles (my boyfriend who I'm always referring to) would come with me but he always declines and after reading this book I don't blame him. Bill Bryson spends the first 15 pages naming all the terrible things that could possibly happen on the trail citing numerous horror stories from places he passed. He describes the hike as stressful and mundane somehow at the same time.
Eventually he decides against doing it all and does some combinations of day-hiking and short sections. There are many humorous moments, he makes some great points about the trail. There were many enjoyable moments but on the whole I was not a fan. I still love Bill Bryson and I won't give up on his other books even though he didn't enjoy the hike.