kaila brown post 2

During A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryon goes many different tangents through out the book. These tangents tend to take up more than a paragraph or two and are very in-depth. While some may find them annoying, I think that they add to the story. They seem to make it more realistic. Instead of just a book that is being read.
As I can imagine the AT must be beautiful. Its one of those places that you don’t really understand unto you have hiked it. I think that Bryson goes off on these tangents to make it feel like we are right there with him, so that we can paint a picture in our minds. For example, in the beginning of Chapter 6, Bryson talks about the mental aspect of walking on the trial. He says that time has no meaning and that the world is huge but you (the hiker) only knows this. Bryson says that after awhile walking the trail becomes like second nature…natural. That walking for hours and miles doesn’t affect you like it did before. Bryson explains how you are in mobile Zen mode. I think that Bryson adds this to help the reader “feel” like what it is like to walk the trail. Not the physical pain but the mental cleansing ness. This tangent helps the reader really know what walking the trail is like. Because we cannot physically hike the trail, Bryson gives us the mental aspect of the AT. It puts us right into Bryson’s shoes, furthering the enjoyment of the narrative.