Editor’s note:  When I featured Bryson’s “The Body”, a good friend recommended this book which is hilariously funny.  Written in the late ‘90s, Bryson details his (and a friend’s) non-hiker experiences on the greatest hiking trail in the world.

Favorite excerpts (Bryson’s wry humor deserves two):

“Hunters will tell you that a moose is a wily and ferocious forest creature. Nonsense. A moose is a cow drawn by a three-year-old.”

“What on earth would I do if four bears came into my camp? Why, I would die of course. Literally shit myself lifeless.”