Raymond Johnson Post 2

I personally find the asides and historical anecdotes to be somewhat obnoxious. While I realize that Bryson uses these as a literary device to help the reader have a greater appreciation and to see his viewpoint, they interrupt the flow of the story. Despite the fact that Bryson’s deviations from the story can be distracting I found a number of them to be quite intriguing. For instance, at the tail end of chapter 9, Bryson is comparing the two types of hikers that can be found on the Appalachian Trail. He mentions the “thru-hiker” which is the classification Katz and Bryson would likely be placed in. Thru-Hikers are more serious than casual tourists out for a weekend stroll and generally intend to travel the entire length of the trail from Georgia to Maine. He describes one man who in 1991 decided to run the entire trail. It was incredible for me to hear that this man ran the ridiculous distance of 38.3 miles each day and cleared the entire AT in a matter of only 56 days. Almost more incredible and inspiring was the other section of this tidbit that talked about the 350 pound man who had hiked the trail purely with the goal of losing weight. Like Bryson, I also felt an incredible sense of admiration for this fellow who even claimed he would repeat his journey. This was one of the examples of a side story that I felt actually did help add to the mood of the story and help the reader feel an emotion. In other sections,however, Bryson rambles about environmental issues too often. While I understand that this is an important issue to Bryson I feel that sometimes his environmental conservation asides provide so many facts that the reader is almost overwhelmed and then has difficulty shifting back into Bryson's story.