Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

I wish I'd abandoned this one. Honestly, I just don't get what all the hype is about with Cheryl Strayed. Maybe I disliked this because I read Torch first - and I wish I'd abandoned that one as well (I only finished it to see if Bruce would follow through).

Positive point: it's very admirable that she writes so truthfully and seemingly without regrets. I can see this as a reason for people to like her writing so much.

The reasons I didn't like this book: reading some sections felt like I was re-reading Torch, only it was worse since Torch is supposed to be a novel and this was a memoir. And I couldn't believe she actually survived the trail, given her naive and lackadaisical attitude towards a long-haul hike and all the accompanying danger of doing it on your own. As a hiker and a once wilderness ranger, some of her descriptions made me cringe. Overall, it was like watching a train wreck and being surprised that there were hardly any casualties . Granted, some of her attitude changed over the course of the hike, but I came away from the book feeling like she missed her own point of hiking the PCT.

And finally, I do wonder if I ran into her out there - I was working as a wilderness ranger then and the PCT was part of my patrol...at least I didn't have to go out looking for her!