AWOL on the Appalachian Trail

[attroll]

This is one of the top two books I have read on someone’s thru hike of the Appalachian Trail. It came very close to one other book and the reason I chose this book was because it included some of AWOL’s own personal thoughts that he was thinking during his thru hike. To me that gave it a personal touch and put things into prospective. The one thing I think he should have included more of was posting the dates as to help put the whole thing into a timeframe. I had a hard time placing a mental timeframe when reading this. Others may not have a problem at all. That was my only thing that could have been improved on. He could have included some more of his personal thoughts but then I realized a lot of people do not want to read about some personal stuff but only want to read about the trail and the experiences on it. To me the worries and heartache and concerns a person is thinking about is also part of the trail experience too. I gave me ideas of some of the mental things I need to prepare for when I do my thru hike.

The reading was very down to earth and easy to keep up with. I liked the comments on the bottoms of the pages that explained the hiker slang and where he sometimes explained things about other hikers and locations and even what happen later on to hikers that he mentioned. I think these are called cliff notes. I know most of the hiker slang but for hikers that are thinking about thru hiking and do not know this stuff it will help them out a lot. The pictures where an added bonus and not bad for black and white either.

I am a very slow reader and sometimes when I start reading a book I will put it down for a month or two sometimes before I pick it back up again. This one I could not put down. I have a very short lunch break at work where I work and I would read this during my lunch break every day. I use to read the newspaper during my lunch break but once I started this book I did not read a newspaper again until I was done reading the book.

I would highly recommend this book as a good read. The one thing I would point out about this book to someone that is planning to thru hike the Appalachian Trail is that 95% or more of the hikers that thru hike the Appalachian Trail do not hike high mileage days like AWOL did. Other then that it was a great book and I highly recommend it.

[PJ 2005]

[highway]

I also enjoyed reading it. It was a very good book, enlightening & entertaining, in my own county, no less.

[Footslogger]

Guess you could say that I had a vested interest in the book since I met AWOL (and his family) and even hiked some with him during my thru in 2003.

Although I could have never done the miles/day that AWOL did, I am able to relate to his accounts and the range of feelings and emotions he describes.

I like it because it is not a "how-to" book. Rather, it is an actual "account" of one hiker's experience.

Glad to own and have read the book (twice now) and even moreso to call AWOL my friend.

'Slogger

[Blue Jay]

Great book and a great guy. What I liked best was the inner dialogue. Most AT books talk about what the hiker does, AWOL also talked about the thought process that went along with it. I rank it up there with Model T Tates book, and that's saying a lot.

[Butch Cassidy]

One of the best books on thruhiking I have read, I recomend it highly. Butch

[Jan LiteShoe]

You are not alone in your opinion:
http://www.smokymountainnews.com/issues/10_06/10_25_06/book_minick.html

[Rain Man]

You guys are gonna make me add this to my "must have" AT books!

Is this the same AWOL who hiked part (all?) of the trail in 04? I met an AWOL in Wesser, NC at the NOC when we picked up my daughter Grass there for a weekend in March 2004.

RainMan

.

[Ewker]

I have the book but haven't read it yet. Looking forward to reading it based on comments from this thread

[Skyline]

AWOL had a booth at Trail Days this year, where I bought his book and t-shirt. Add my name to those recommending the book, and he was an interesting guy to speak with.

[Outlaw]

I too just recently completed AWOL's book and thoroughly enjoyed every word he wrote. AWOL did such a fine job writing, that at times I felt like I was hiking right along side of him (although there is probably no more than a snowball's chance in hell that I could ever hike the amount of miles he did in a day!).

I liked the photos AWOL included, but would suggest that the print quality was somewhat lacking.

The use of footnotes were well used throughout the book. They were quite informative as well.

I would highly recommend this book to any long distance hiker or potential AT hiker.

[attroll]

You guys are gonna make me add this to my "must have" AT books!

Is this the same AWOL who hiked part (all?) of the trail in 04? I met an AWOL in Wesser, NC at the NOC when we picked up my daughter Grass there for a weekend in March 2004.

RainMan

.

No Rain Man this can not be the same AWOL because thsi one thru hiked in 2003.

[Jan LiteShoe]

I liked the photos AWOL included, but would suggest that the print quality was somewhat lacking.

Did you buy your book through Amazon?

The reason I ask is that I was picking AWOL's brain at the Gathering about book production stuff, and he mentioned that books from Amazon as their source were POD, or print-on-demand, and a lower quality. He wasn't happy with that version as much as the conventionally printed books he himself sold.

Just as an aside, self-publishing trail books is a money-losing business normally; generally folks do it for other reasons than financial success. Amazon and retailers take the majority cut of the cover price. Another self-published author friend told me that through Amazon's arrangement, he had to ship the book, and his overall profit was $2 a book. That would take alot of $2 book sales to recoup a $3-6,000 investment! (Most self-published trail books sell in the "under 1,000" range.

What I learned is that if you have a chance to buy the book directly from the author, not only do you get to make that contact and conversation, but more of your book purchase goes directly to the one who actually wrote the book.

I'm not dissing the marketing systems of Amazon or retail bookstores/outfitters, etc - but sometimes knowing a little bit about how these things work can help you make an informed decision.

I've alerted AWOL about this thread; maybe he'll choose to sign up and weigh in.

[Awol2003]

Rain Man: My thru-hike was in ’03. In ’04 I hiked from Erwin to Damascus, so I don’t think we met.

Speed: I don’t think of myself as a fast hiker. Most of the young’uns are faster, and my 146 days on the trail is not far off the norm. I did start fast and didn’t have a zero until Hot Springs. In the end I had 18 zeroes, due mostly to injuries and family visits. I walked 43 days over 20 miles, 42 days 15-20, but my longest day was only 30.

Print Quality: I just received the second printing of my book, and the inside pictures have improved resolution, and they are framed and captioned. eArThworm helped me to rid the book of typos. The new book is 20 pages longer because I increased the font size. For the moment, the new book is only available from www.AWOLontheTrail.com, but I’m not trying to undermine other retailers. My priority is to get the new copy to retailers (like Amazon) as quickly as possible.

Awol

[WhoAh]

I read AWOL's book when it first came out earlier in the year. I rank this one high up in the list of must reads. And I purchased mine directly from David.

And you get the nifty little bookmark which I have shown to many individuals that don't have a clue where the Trail is.

[Wanderingson]

I'm reading AWOL on the AT right now. Well written and great read. I've read a few exerpts to my wife and she is ready for me to finish so she can read it as well.

AWOL--Thanks for sharing your thoughts and insight in a language we can appreciate.

[Jan LiteShoe]

Just thought I'd share an interesting ranking - a familiar trail book has into broken Amazon's Top 25 ranking, in the very broad category of Adventure.

Look who is up there with Jon Krakauer, Bill Bryson and the Road Atlas - no mean feat for a small publisher: http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=1&at...6df5de0ebe918e

Congratulations, AWOL!

[Doughnut]

I've read it twice, a very good book.

Dough Nut

[Peanut]

My uncle recommended it and let me borrow his copy. It is one of my favorites. I felt I could relate to him and enjoyed reading his inner thoughts as well and what he was doing.

[Hooch]

I finally ordered my own copy of Awol last night. Can't wait to get it in!