A Walk In The Woods The World's Funniest Travel Writer Takes a Hike

<p><b>'Short of doing it yourself, the best way of escaping into nature is to read a book like <i>A Walk in the Woods.' New York Times</i></b> <p>In the company of his friend Stephen Katz (last seen in the bestselling <i>Neither Here nor There</i>), Bill Bryson set off to hike the Appalachian Trail, the longest continuous footpath in the world. <p>Ahead lay almost 2,200 miles of remote mountain wilderness filled with bears, moose, bobcats, rattlesnakes, poisonous plants, disease-bearing tics, the occasional chuckling murderer and - perhaps most alarming of all - people whose favourite pastime is discussing the relative merits of the external-frame backpack. <p> Facing savage weather, merciless insects, unreliable maps and a fickle companion whose profoundest wish was to go to a motel and watch The X-Files, Bryson gamely struggled through the wilderness to achieve a lifetime's ambition - not to die outdoors. <p><b><i>A Walk in the Woods</i> is now a major feature film starring Robert Redford, Emma Thompson and Nick Offerman.</b></p>