Is there an audiobook of A Walk in the Woods?

Yes. A Walk in the Woods has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Rob McQuay.

How long is the A Walk in the Woods audiobook?

The A Walk in the Woods audiobook runs 9 hr 44 min.

Is A Walk in the Woods on Kindle Unlimited?

No. A Walk in the Woods was not included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on July 5, 2026.

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson book cover for the Book of the Day travel book review

Our score

4.5/ 5

Outstanding

Listen to A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

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EDITION PUBLISHEDMay 2006

PublisherAnchor

Genres

Non-Fiction Travel Nature

Themes

Friendship and shared misery on the trailThe value and fragility of wild placesHumor as a way of seeingRediscovering a country on foot

A Walk in the WoodsRediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

Name: A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
Price: 9.99 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson and his hopeless old friend Katz set out to hike the Appalachian Trail in A Walk in the Woods, and the result is gut-funny travel writing that's also a sneakily serious tribute to the American forest.

The Review

Our take

Newly returned to the United States after two decades in England, Bill Bryson hits on a plan to reacquaint himself with his native country: he will hike the Appalachian Trail, the 2,100-mile footpath running from Georgia to Maine through the great eastern forest. He has, by his own cheerful admission, almost no idea what he is doing. His only companion is Stephen Katz, an old friend from his Iowa youth, now wildly overweight, recovering from various excesses, and constitutionally allergic to physical effort. A Walk in the Woods is the chronicle of their stumbling, bickering, frequently hilarious attempt, and it has become one of the best-loved travel books of its era for good reason.

Bryson is one of the funniest writers alive, and the comedy here is close to perfect, much of it generated by the magnificent figure of Katz, who hurls food out of his pack to lighten the load and greets every hardship with profane despair. The two men's grumbling rapport, the parade of oddballs they meet at shelters, the small daily indignities of the trail, all of it is rendered with Bryson's gift for the perfectly timed sentence. You laugh out loud, repeatedly and helplessly, and that alone would carry the book.

But underneath the jokes runs something more substantial. Between the blisters and bear scares, Bryson keeps stopping to tell you things, about the geology and ecology of the Appalachians, the alarming decline of America's native trees, the history and mismanagement of the trail and the forests around it. He is genuinely alarmed by what is being lost, and the book quietly becomes an argument for the value of wild places even as it mocks the discomfort of being in them. The one thing readers should know going in is that Bryson and Katz do not, in the end, walk the whole trail, a fact that frustrates some hikers who want a completist's account; this is a book about the attempt and the woods, not a triumphant thru-hike.

Why you should read

Readers who want travel writing that's genuinely funny
Anyone who loves hiking or the American outdoors
Fans of Bryson's curious, digressive nonfiction
Those who like a heartfelt tribute to wild places under the jokes

What to expect

Big laughs and a great comic sidekick in Katz
Real natural history and forest ecology woven in
An attempt at the trail, not a completist thru-hike
A funny book that turns surprisingly tender

What you're left with is a rare hybrid: a book that makes you laugh until you ache and then, almost without your noticing, makes you care. The comedy never curdles into mere mockery, and the natural history never hardens into a lecture; the two hold each other in balance the whole way. It is the sort of travel writing that sends some readers straight to the outfitter and others straight to the couch, grateful to have done it vicariously, and either way it leaves you with a deepened tenderness for the American wilderness and a real unease about how casually we are letting it slip away. Warm, funny, and quietly elegiac, it has earned its long life on the shelf, and it remains the rare book that can make you snort with laughter and then, a page later, feel the genuine ache of something irreplaceable being lost.

Reviewed by Ellis · How our reviews are written

Our verdict

4.5/ 5

Outstanding

Listen to A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

Buy on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Prices may vary.

Where to read or listen

Is there an audiobook of A Walk in the Woods?: Yes. A Walk in the Woods has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Rob McQuay.
Listen to A Walk in the Woods free with an Audible trial
We earn from qualifying Amazon purchases.
How long is the A Walk in the Woods audiobook?: The A Walk in the Woods audiobook runs 9 hr 44 min.
Is A Walk in the Woods on Kindle Unlimited?: No. A Walk in the Woods was not included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on July 5, 2026.
How much does A Walk in the Woods cost?: On Amazon: Kindle $9.99, Paperback $8.07, Hardcover $29.09. Prices as of August 27, 2026 at 3:45 AM EDT and may change.

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Common questions

What is A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail about?: Newly returned to the United States after two decades in England, Bill Bryson hits on a plan to reacquaint himself with his native country: he will hike the Appalachian Trail, the 2,100-mile footpath running from Georgia to Maine through the great eastern forest. He has, by his own cheerful…
Is A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail worth reading?: We scored A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail 4.5 out of 5. Bill Bryson and his hopeless old friend Katz set out to hike the Appalachian Trail in A Walk in the Woods, and the result is gut-funny travel writing that's also a sneakily serious tribute to the American forest.