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I'd totally get murdered in the woods

I got Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods. It's pretty spiffy so far, but he hasn't actually set out into the woods yet. He's kinda just talking about all the ridiculous equipment you need to not be eaten alive by raccoons. Something that's on page one hooked me:

"Who could say the words 'Great Smoky Mountains' or 'Shenandoah Valley' and not feel an urge, as the naturalist John Muir once put it, to 'throw a loaf of bread and a pound of tea in an old sack and jump over the back fence'?"

Yes. That thing right there. Because HIKING. I love it so much. Some weird combination of my hatred of staying still, my liking of nature and general love of being in a location where contemporary civilization isn't obnoxiously present and I can say 'I AM LEWIS AND CLARK'S UNMENTIONED THIRD PERSON.'

So yes, kind of a cliche, but hiking is the greatest. The day I get actual hiking boots will be a banner one for the Alice/Shaan household (my roommate is named Shaan and he is the awesomest). 

The only downside is I'm also really into true crime, and so I'm convinced if I go into the woods on my own, I will be murdered. So I always need to recruit someone, and that is not the easiest. "You want to go walk around trees for five hours while carrying a backpack and living off nothing but our wits, these fancy water bottles and this Trader Joe's trail mix? I know, right, like that's even a question."



I like Bryson. I like his writing style. And he distracts me from Bette's ridiculously terrible downward spiral. TURN IT AROUND, BETTE. So thanks, people, for recommending awesome things. I'm still really near the beginning of Cloud Atlas and it is SO GOOD I CANNOT. Really looking forward to getting to the next section where the style changes. He is ROCKING the 18th century form of writing. Color me multiple shades of impressed.

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