View Full Version : 3rd on the Non-fiction Best Sellers list
Ladytrekker
04-20-2013, 09:32
http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Found-Pacific-Crest-Vintage/dp/0307476073/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366464550&sr=8-1&keywords=pacific+coast+trail
While looking at New Yorks best selling book list ran across this book its listed 3rd on the paperback non-fiction not sure if this book has been mentioned before but thought I would throw it out there. Its listed for sale on Amazon.com
Northern Lights
04-20-2013, 09:48
I really enjoyed her story.
Good book. She's an amazing writer.
slbirdnerd
04-20-2013, 19:14
Very good book. Highly recommend. Her journey is not just about her hike.
moose717
04-20-2013, 21:35
Very good book. ... although she is hiking the PCT in her story, a big part of it is the how & why she started and how she grew and, I believe, overcame her demons and made peace within herself. She's also a great writer. I gave a copy to one of my children who is an English & Sociology major. I'm waiting for her to find the time to read it so we can go together to one of the author's workshops :)
http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Found-Pacific-Crest-Vintage/dp/0307476073/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366464550&sr=8-1&keywords=pacific+coast+trail
While looking at New Yorks best selling book list ran across this book its listed 3rd on the paperback non-fiction not sure if this book has been mentioned before but thought I would throw it out there. Its listed for sale on Amazon.com
There is no such thing as Non-ficion. Your signature line is amongst my favorites.:sun
SCRUB HIKER
04-21-2013, 00:50
I'm almost finished with it right now, and I'm liking it a lot more than I've expected. In a few weeks I'll be able to tell what effect, if any, it's had on drawing Cheryl wannabes out onto the PCT. Could be a good thing, a bad thing, or a total non-issue. We'll see.
Ladytrekker
04-21-2013, 08:13
There is no such thing as Non-ficion. Your signature line is amongst my favorites.:sun
LOL yea I caught that shortly after I posted but was not able to edit it. But hey do hikers really need to spell. ha ha.
Ladytrekker
04-21-2013, 08:15
There is no such thing as Non-ficion. Your signature line is amongst my favorites.:sun
Oh bad me just saw you sign on name how funny get it now.
chiefduffy
04-22-2013, 06:57
I read it, enjoyed some parts. Not much about the trail. Not much personal growth. Lots of sex and drama, mainly the whiney, shockfest kind. YMMV
Ladytrekker
04-22-2013, 08:20
I haven't read it did not know it was racy lol just was surprised that a book with hiking made a lost like this your description of the book is probably why it is number 3
Ladytrekker,
No Spoiler Alert from me. I'll wait until you have had a chance to read the book.
Enjoy!
Wayne
Studlintsean
04-22-2013, 17:25
I read it, enjoyed some parts. Not much about the trail. Not much personal growth. Lots of sex and drama, mainly the whiney, shockfest kind. YMMV
Agreed. Not a bad book at all but not what I'm looking for. I missed the Oprah book club sticker on the back when I bought it.
Train Wreck
04-22-2013, 21:35
You want details on the trail, you get a guidebook.
You want to hear about all the emotion and relationship stuff - you're a woman :)
I heard an interview last year on Geon Ghomeshi's Q show on the CBC it was very interesting.
SCRUB HIKER
04-23-2013, 17:17
I just finished writing an opinion on Wild for my blog. Long story short, I really don't like the idea that hiking is a cure-all for when you're down in life, especially if you're wayyy down like Cheryl Strayed was when she started. I do really like the book as an entertaining read. But that message that the PCT is going to take you from lost to found is bound to disappoint a lot of people.
The fleshed-out version of that opinion is at http://scrubhiker.blogspot.com/2013/04/to-cheryl-strayed-wannabes-thinking-of.html
LOL yea I caught that shortly after I posted but was not able to edit it. But hey do hikers really need to spell. ha ha.
As long as we can think............hopefully like you..............we'll be OK.
rocketsocks
04-23-2013, 18:07
I just finished writing an opinion on Wild for my blog. Long story short, I really don't like the idea that hiking is a cure-all for when you're down in life, especially if you're wayyy down like Cheryl Strayed was when she started. I do really like the book as an entertaining read. But that message that the PCT is going to take you from lost to found is bound to disappoint a lot of people.
The fleshed-out version of that opinion is at http://scrubhiker.blogspot.com/2013/04/to-cheryl-strayed-wannabes-thinking-of.htmlSpot on Scrub, cause no matter where you go...there you are. Good luck on your up coming hike of the PCT, look forward to following along.
DavidDillow
04-23-2013, 19:12
Listened to the book about six months ago. It got a little long and involved about her life before she got on the trail but I enjoyed the part on the trail.
yankeehotelbackpack
04-23-2013, 19:56
I read Wild last year and found it very compelling, both for the details about Cheryl Strayed's hike and for the window into her personal struggles. As a matter of fact, her book inspired my newfound interest in backpacking -- for the physical and emotional challenges it's sure to present. Not sure if this makes me a hiker "wannabe," as a previous poster suggested, but as someone who adores the great outdoors and has just never thought to strap on a pack and head into the woods for a spell, the book spurred me into a direction I'm pleased to be going in. After reading 7 or 8 other hiker memoirs, Wild is the one that sticks in my head. (Although I loved the Barefoot Sisters books, too.)
SCRUB HIKER
04-24-2013, 02:15
I would never take a dim view of people being introduced to backpacking by this book--you've got to get the idea from somewhere, right? I tell everybody that A Walk in the Woods is what gave me the idea to do the AT, and Bill Bryson was not exactly a textbook thru-hiker either (thanks to Baltimore Jack, the word "candy-ass" gets thrown about a lot when referring to him). But my point is that you can't just read Wild, think "Oh that sounds so much like me! I'm going to fix all my problems on the PCT this summer too!" and go out there without much other information about hiking. Well, you can, but you'd be in for a miserable time.
Again, I don't know if appreciable numbers of people are going to do that. But given how enormously popular this book is (it reached #1 overall on the bestseller list last July and is still hovering at #5 for nonfiction), and how it has such a convenient message of self-help and redemption, I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of people out there who prepared for their hike almost entirely by reading Wild.
It would be interesting IMO to see what SoCal Trail angels notice --- particularly the Mann's and Saufley's. Might be fun if they got together to compare notes about particular Wild-inspired hikers and see how they've progressed (the subset still on trail) by Agua Dulce. I could see THAT being turned into an interesting book, or at least an interesting article in the 'PCT Communicator'.
'Wild' itself --- meh. Girl's life is not going so well, she jumps on trail with no meaningful preparation, has a lot of challenges mostly due to her lack of foresight/prep/experience. She doesn't finish the trail, and overdramatizes the experiences. For whatever reason, she's lucky enough to have her book blessed by Oprah. What part of that is supposed to appeal?
I enjoyed the book. It was certainly different from the typical read.
double d
04-24-2013, 17:32
congrats on the success of the book! That is great news! I need to buy it, but I've heard great things about the book.
The target audience loves the book..and that's all you need.
Affluent and/or well educated women early-mid 30s to mid 50s.
Not by coincidence, a good demographic if you want to sell stuff. :)
Affluent and/or well educated women early-mid 30s to mid 50s.
Not by coincidence, a good demographic if you want to sell stuff. :)[/QUOTE]
Or your soul.:mad:
Train Wreck
04-25-2013, 01:35
Affluent and/or well educated women early-mid 30s to mid 50s.
Not by coincidence, a good demographic if you want to sell stuff. :)
Or your soul.:mad:[/QUOTE]
Hey now! :)
......
Or your soul.:mad:
Hey now! :)
......[/QUOTE]
"I'm a-thinking and a-wond'rin' walking down the road
I once loved a woman, a child I'm told
I give her my heart but she wanted my soul
Don't think twice, it's all right." ;);)
Bob Dylan
Train Wreck
04-25-2013, 06:53
Hey now! :)
......
"I'm a-thinking and a-wond'rin' walking down the road
I once loved a woman, a child I'm told
I give her my heart but she wanted my soul
Don't think twice, it's all right." ;);)
Bob Dylan[/QUOTE]
Sounds like you need to write a book as well :rolleyes:
"I'm a-thinking and a-wond'rin' walking down the road
I once loved a woman, a child I'm told
I give her my heart but she wanted my soul
Don't think twice, it's all right." ;);)
Bob Dylan
Sounds like you need to write a book as well :rolleyes:[/QUOTE]
Nobody would believe it, if I did.
Train Wreck
04-25-2013, 08:29
Sounds like you need to write a book as well :rolleyes:
Nobody would believe it, if I did.[/QUOTE]
Be sure to put some vampires in it to guarantee good sales!
Excellent book, worth the read. Some parts I didn't care for but still I would recommend (adult only).
Spirit Walker
04-25-2013, 10:37
I'm in the minority, I guess. I didn't like the book at all, probably because I didn't much like her. I gave up about 50 pages in.
I read the book and did not care for it too much. Just not my style. I give it a "C"
It would be interesting to survey folks who have completed a PCT thru-hike and see how they like it as a group. I guess you could do that at ADZPCTKO --- I live too far away so am not there now, but still --- would be an interesting question. My "wild" guess is that the average rating among that set of people would be lower (and perhaps significantly lower) than for the population at large.
(I do recognize that's not the target audience she was writing for)
Oddly enough, the "Other" hiking book (A Walk in the Woods) is one I enjoy.
In Wild's case my sense of underwhelming had nothing to do with Wild not being a thru-hiking book. Rather, Wild is a Lifetime Channel movie in book form. As a male in my late 30s, I am obviously not the target audience for Lifetime OR Wild. :)
AWITW I thought was a delightful, lighthearted travelogue that just happened to take place on the AT. AS I always say, a good airport book.
I read both books after my thru-hikes. The former book was obviously written for a group much different than me whereas the latter one appealed to my own snarky sense of humor.
My friend's wife OTOH hand LOVED Wild. She's "outdoorsy" to boot.
So it goes.
The target audience loves the book..and that's all you need.
Affluent and/or well educated women early-mid 30s to mid 50s.
Not by coincidence, a good demographic if you want to sell stuff. :)
I'm a male in my 20s and liked the book. I never thought I'd ever read a book that is in Oprah's book club 2.0, but it was well written and I think it's a great story. It's one of 2 hiking related books I like.
I'm a male in my 20s and liked the book. I never thought I'd ever read a book that is in Oprah's book club 2.0, but it was well written and I think it's a great story. It's one of 2 hiking related books I like.
That's nice. But the overall demographic is still overwhelmingly female 30s-50s..aka Oprah's demographic.
I love to bake..does not mean most men do. :)
I'm in the demographic. I thought the book was okay. I liked the part where she's interviewed for the Hobo Times. I had nearly the same conversation with my boyfriend (who didn't hike with me) when I got home. He accused me of being a hobo and I said no I'm not, yes you are, no I'm not, yes you are...
The thing I don't like about the book the most is that EVERYBODY I know or meet asks me if I read it and I always feel compelled to tell them that I did hike the trail but I did NOT have any of the same experiences on the trail that she did. I didn't do any of that stuff.
Train Wreck
05-05-2013, 20:02
I'm also right smack dab in the demographic. I liked the "Wild" book but I loved A Walk in the Woods much more. Not sure exactly where that leaves me in the bell curve :)
The thing I don't like about the book the most is that EVERYBODY I know or meet asks me if I read it and I always feel compelled to tell them that I did hike the trail but I did NOT have any of the same experiences on the trail that she did. I didn't do any of that stuff.
It was bad enough that everyone asked me if I read a walk in the woods when I mentioned the AT but now I have to hear about this book. RRRR! At least my hike was done before the wave a Wild hikers hit the PCT. I have heard the permits are at a record high this year.
Train Wreck
05-05-2013, 20:54
It was bad enough that everyone asked me if I read a walk in the woods when I mentioned the AT but now I have to hear about this book. RRRR! At least my hike was done before the wave a Wild hikers hit the PCT. I have heard the permits are at a record high this year.
But just think of all the selves that will be found this season;)
I read the book and did not care for it too much. Just not my style. I give it a "C"
I also give it a "C".
I was pestered into reading it by friends who thought I'd love it because it contained hiking.
They were wrong. :rolleyes:
susiecruise
05-06-2013, 16:21
Oddly enough, the "Other" hiking book (A Walk in the Woods) is one I enjoy.
In Wild's case my sense of underwhelming had nothing to do with Wild not being a thru-hiking book. Rather, Wild is a Lifetime Channel movie in book form. As a male in my late 30s, I am obviously not the target audience for Lifetime OR Wild. :)
AWITW I thought was a delightful, lighthearted travelogue that just happened to take place on the AT. AS I always say, a good airport book.
I read both books after my thru-hikes. The former book was obviously written for a group much different than me whereas the latter one appealed to my own snarky sense of humor.
My friend's wife OTOH hand LOVED Wild. She's "outdoorsy" to boot.
So it goes.
So funny to read the varied reviews. I liked the book but really didn't care for the reflections on mother dying, sex gone wrong and nasty drug habits. They were so un-present during her hike. It was like two different books. Also, she wrote this years after it happened so I can't help but wonder what parts were exaggerated for story's sake
I liked A Walk in the Woods up to when he quit the thru hike...then I quit the book. I understand that thru hikes terminate for various reasons but I really didn't understand why he had to quit. Then it was just wife dropping him off for the day with a sandwich and doing research on the AT. I guess when you are a successful writer and a publishing company gives you money for a book not written yet you have the freedom to scrape together any story even if it wasn't what was promised. I really thought it was going to be a story about a thru hike.
I really thought it was going to be a story about a thru hike.
Read this book instead:
http://www.amazon.com/On-Beaten-Path-Appalachian-Pilgrimage/dp/1599214970
Think you'll like it.
MuddyWaters
05-06-2013, 22:51
I really thought it was going to be a story about a thru hike.
For his first section, he never had more time available than several weeks to hike, he was not on a thru hike.
He did hope to hike more of the trail, probably the whole thing eventually, but realized it was a monumental task.
susiecruise
05-07-2013, 10:10
For his first section, he never had more time available than several weeks to hike, he was not on a thru hike.
He did hope to hike more of the trail, probably the whole thing eventually, but realized it was a monumental task.
I have to say I really liked the book when I started it. Bill Bryson is a very good writer. I was just so disappointed at the turn the book took. I think I'll read the rest of it on an up coming trip. I'll do a "Cheryl Strayed" and get the paperback and rip out the sections I'm going take and read.
susiecruise
05-07-2013, 10:11
It looks good. I just ordered it.