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Not much about hiking the PCT

Revisado: 04-15-25

This is a personal memoir, with a PCT hike as a background to help carry the story along. I found myself astonished to find the author completely skipping mention of some of the more remarkable trail features. You might like it better than I did, especially if you are more interested in a personal memoir that recounting a thru hike.

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Light, humorous, educational

Revisado: 04-15-25

Very casual and light writing style that the author somehow manages to sustain for the whole book. Personal observations paired with expert interviews and speculations. The performance was fantastic. The reader brought the book to life. Perfect book to accompany long walks or driving.

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Boring chatter

Revisado: 11-09-24

Could not get interested in this story which seemed like a recording of a bunch of people chatting at cocktail hour.

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Dreary, not romantic or comical

Revisado: 11-09-24

Dull story billed as a romantic comedy has hardly any romance and no comedy at all. Unlikeable main character seems completely involved in her own problems and has no understanding of anyone else's. Read in a breathy whisper, with no attempt to make different characters' voices sound distinct from each other. Give this one a pass.

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Inner demons and angels

Revisado: 08-15-24

More than many adventure journals, this book throws light on the inner lives of an interesting cast of actual thru hikers. I found it engaging and touching. Also, the comments about the trail itself are interesting and insightful.

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Dull story, poorly narrated

Revisado: 07-31-24

This tedious narrative of how opium was forced on India, China, and other countries by the British and other colonial governments is full of dull details: to name just a a few, long descriptions of how the Indian, English, and American opium traders lived and parties they attended in Guanzhou, China; schools of painting and lives of now-obscure painters who created landscapes and portraits during the opium era; descriptions of obscure fictionalized battles and other episodes from the author's own novels; and on and on. The author even name drops a couple of American movie stars who recently showed an interest in (but didn't buy) the mansion built by one American opium trader.

Amid the dense thickets of details, it's hard to remain interested in the terrible history of opium and how it was used against the poor people who were forced to grow it and the colonized people who were encouraged to destroy themselves using it.

I listened to the book in my car and found myself constantly having to raise and reduce the volume because of the narrator's irritating habit of starting out a sentence loudly, then sinking into a half-whisper part way through. I would have stopped listening if it weren't my book group's most recent selection.

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Window into the limits of endurance

Revisado: 04-21-23

A tragic event, with the rare ability for us to know the details because of many source documents. Well written, but unavoidably a depressing story.

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If you have a hammer everything looks like a nail

Revisado: 12-11-22

Cognitive dissonance is a well documented thought pattern that has been known for decades. The authors enthusiastically apply the theory to a wide range of situations whether it provides much insight or not. If cognitive dissonance explains 20 percent of what's going on that seems good enough for the authors. When they relate the actual science, it's pretty interesting. Their wide ranging speculations were a waste of time for me.

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Opinions without science

Revisado: 06-18-21

Pleasant to listen to, but lacking all but the most casual effort at scientific support for the author's view.

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I had to struggle through this

Revisado: 12-25-20

It was not very engaging, and the writing is pedestrian. I found myself frequently correcting his choice of words in my head, which is very rare for me.

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