Why the Most Popular Hiking Memoirs Don’t Go the Distance

I resolved that one day I would hike the trail the right way: from end to end, in one continuous trip—what’s often called a “thru-hike.” Credit PHOTOGRAPH BY MYLOUPE / UIG VIA GETTY When I was eighteen, I bought a copy of Bill Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods,” which remains, if my conversations with strangers are any indication, the only book anyone has ever read about the Appalachian Trail.