Will Middour - Post 2

I think that the little side stories add a lot to this book. The small, off topic tidbits make the book a lot more interesting. Without them the book would be very bland and not very interesting at all. When hiking there is not much to say besides the scenery, so I'm sure that the author told himself that he needed to come up with a lot of side stories to provide the book with more information and to make it more fun to read. The tidbits of factual information provide the reader with knowledge of both characters pasts which makes the reader feel more connecetd to their experience. I also think that the side stories sometimes last to long, going on for forever. At times, the author needs to know when to stop. I think that the book needs to have these stories because without them it would be boring but they should be less wordy and not rabble on for a long time.
One example in particular is in chapter 6 when Bryson and Katz are stuck in a snow storm and can't decide what to do. In the middle of the storm Bryson gets out a map of the trail and he describes for about 3 or 4 pages about how maps of the AT are useless. He explains that none of the maps are realistic and that they all leave off important details. I think that Bryson was just frustrated with the situation because most people would not get mad about maps. Even if his map was'nt realistic it still provided him with some idea of his position on the AT. This informational tidbit added to the story because it provided valuable information that it is hard to navigate the trail but his rant lasted way to long. AT maps could have been described in just a few sentences.