A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

I'll admit it right away, there are many of Bill Bryson's books that I really liked. I had read some of Bryson's later books before I read this one, so there was always the thought that maybe his earlier books would not have the same level of humour, and the great style of writing that I always liked. Well, I felt great while reading the book and did not regret it one bit. He writes a lot about travel and adventure, while presenting a great deal of information. And to tell the truth, I had not heard of the Appalachian Trail before reading this book; by the time I had finished, I knew a great deal more. And it was not only me; after this book was published in 1998, there was an upsurge in interest about the trail, with a lot more people wanting to hike the trail.


The book is about the attempt by the author and his old college buddy, Stephen Katz, to walk the 2100 miles of the Appalachian Trail from start to finish. Neither of the 2 is in top physical condition, with Katz in a much worse physical condition. By the end, neither of them has done anything like what they attempted to do, having covered a very small section overall of the trail (and for which the book was criticised to some extent, as a travel book that did not even cover the whole trail).
In addition, the book was also criticized to a large degree because of the depiction of fellow hikers, with the author having been accused of turning them into absurdities.
However, the fact remains that this is not just a travel book. The book is not supposed to be a guide for traveling the trail, instead it is a humorous depiction of a journey, with the focus on the effort and the adventures while on the trail. The book is chock full of humour that makes you laugh, and makes you want to read more. About the travel of the author with his old friend, the entire adventure from the start (preparing what to take, and what to discard), and how whether their physical condition is adequate for the trip that they are considering.
The fear of bears, and maybe of mountain lions, is apparent in the writing, and the time where the author described how a bear came into the camp makes for some riveting reading. The book also tries to explain a lot of geological information (how the mountains and its various aspects came into existence), how the trail was formed due to the efforts of 2 dedicated people, and a lot about the fauna and flora along the trail. You also get to read a lot about the various stops, towns, and fellow hikers that they meet when on the trail.
The only time when the book deviates from the light reading and humour is when you can perceive the author's anger against the mismanagement of the trail by various administrative bodies such as the Parks and Forest Services of the federal Government, as well as the ineptitude of the US Army Corps of Engineers. He is downright hostile to their mismanagement, and when you read the way in which the information is presented, you can tend to agree with him.
Overall, this is a book that is worth reading, and you might find yourself chuckling along with the author.

Made in America - Bill Bryson (1996)

For those of you who have not read books by Bill Bryson before, be prepared for a blast. These books are non-fiction, but are incredibly funny. There has been many a time when I have had to go back and read a section that I just read since it made me laugh (and I wanted to laugh again). Some of the other great books of Bill Bryson that you should read are a 'A Lost continent', 'A walk in the woods', 'A short history of nearly everything', 'Down Under', and so on (you get the picture - I have yet to read a Bill Bryson book that did not appeal).
This book is about the development of English language down the ages, so you will find a lot of detail about how words came to be added to the English used in the United States, such as derived from the American Indians who were living there when the settlers first went in, from various languages (or rather from the immigrants of various countries such Germany, French, Irish, British, and so on,) and from whom many words of the language came to be derived, though many times these were twisted and turned in a way that the original speaker would not have realized.


But is this just a scholarly exposition of the development of the English language used in the United States ? That would be downright boring. To everyone's relief, such is not the case. The book delves into the history of the United States and presents a great many facts while reliving the story, at the same time, debunking many myths that we have. The book is a great read for anyone who wants to read about the history of the United states through its culture, not through politics or war. From the starting, the book is a wonder of facts and learning:
- Giving a lot more detail about the original settlers and whether there were people before them
- About the way that the original settlers almost got wiped out, but survived due to the help of the native Indians nearby
- About the nature of the apparently frigid puritans and the easy prevalence of sex before marriage as a way to measure compatibility and how many marriage were formalized after a baby had been conceived
- A great many myths around the American revolution including heroic words and actions ascribed to people who apparently did no such thing
- The womanizing nature of Benjamin Franklin
- The great debates and concerns around having the different time zones and even more so, the concept of daylight savings time
- A lot of description of the many inventions and the different nature of the investors (their human traits as compared to the noble myths around them)
and so on
Too many to tell, it is better read from the book which is a very enthralling reading.

The Search: An insight into the development of Google and search

This book "The Search: An insight into the development of Google and search" is probably one of the most important books highlighting the development of search as a business, focusing on the evolution of the idea and growth. You will get an inside view of how a company named Google became an icon, the undisputed market leader of search and the company feared by many others. You also get an idea of the future potential of the search market, and some trends of how the future of search could develop into.
Google is the main star of this book, and this focus on Google seems quite natural. There have been many search engines before Google such as Altavista that were popular, but the sheer simplicity and power of Google blew away all contenders, and it would be hard to talk about why search is such an interesting topic unless you focus on a company that made search so popular.


The author of the book, John Battelle, is well suited to write a book such as this. After all, when you get a person who has been intimately connected with some of the pioneering influential sites on the Internet arena such as 'Wired' magazine, 'The Industry Standard' magazine and is able to touch base with the heads of some of the leading people in this area - such as the founders of Google, founders of Yahoo, the chief brain behind the Altavista search, and the venture capitalists (who are as connected and important for technological developments as the entrepreneurs themselves). As a result, the book presents a great detail of the inside view on how search as a technology and business developed, how early pioneers such as Altavista and Goto.com pioneered some of the technology, but were almost shoved aside when Google came into the picture.
There are some great number of stories in this book; one among them that always puzzled me was as to why Altavista, at one time the number one leader in the search space lost out so easily in the search game (the suits running the company failed to take advantage of the early lead). If you ever wondered as to how this company called Google came into being and what was the growth like, then this book has the answers. For people who were confused as to the difference between Google and Yahoo, you get a lot many answers in this book.
However, the book does not always go ga-ga over the Google Story, with a fair amount of criticism of the company also included. Thus you get to hear about the internal style of functioning of the company (with the 2 founders almost being portrayed as dictators), about how different the development/organizational model of Google is when compared with other software companies. For me, one important section was about the Google policy of 'Do no evil'. Even though the book has covered the ethical dilemmas of Google when matching this policy with the force exerted by the Chinese Government, it does not cover the disappointment that a lot of people felt when Google compromised and agreed to be a part of the China censorship effort (through its google.cn site).
Overall, this book will take you through the development of search in some detail, including the evolution of Google and to some extent of Yahoo, and some trends in future search technology development. Most of all, this book should enthuse you about what the single-minded dedication (and luck) of a group of inventors can take them. Read the book for some inspiration.

Bill Bryson: Down Under - An extremely entertaining book

This book was published in 2000, and goes by 2 different names. In the UK, it is called Down Under, and in the US, it is called In a Sunburned Country, no doubt because the term Down Under to refer to Australia is not so common.
This is an extremely entertaining book (I read it over a period of 3 days), and I would recommend it to anyone who wanting to visit Australia for vacation, or planning on settling over there. For most people in the outside world, Australia is known for its vast deserts, for some beautiful cities (Adelaide, Sydney (and its Opera House and Harbour), Melbourne, and Perth), for its cricket and rugby teams, and that is all what most people know about Australia.
The book presents an incredible amount of detail about Australia, presented from the perspective of driving from one city to the other. Hence, the author covers a fair amount of Australia through drives greater than 1000 km each; through the book, you get a perspective of how large, and yet how deserted most of Australia. Description of the last habitation for the next 400 km on a road gives an incredible feeling of desolateness.
The most interesting insight you get is into the kinds of creatures who inhabit Australia, a large number of them deadly who can suddenly attack you. From the large Australian salt water crocodile which can suddenly attack you when you are swimming, from extremely small jellyfish that can deal an incredible sting if you come into contact with them, from sharks in some of the major waters, from a number of extremely poisonous snakes, other creatures in the waters who are dangerous and you would not even notice them, a bird who has extremely sharp talons, spiders who are somewhat big and very dangerous. And about people who keep on getting struck by one of these dangers.
There is a lot of perspective on explorers, most of them who seem doomed, but still keep on venturing on; there is a street level perspective on the major cities, including what to see. The saddest part of the book was about the treatment of the original inhabitants, the aborigines and their current dismal health and life statistics, as well as not much of an improvement seen.
Mostly, the book is written in a very outsider perspective, so it seems much more entertaining. It is not a tourist guide, it is not a book about the people or a vacation diary, it seems much more than that. For example, the author wonders at so many unknown facts about Australia; from the fact that one of its serving Prime Ministers vanished into the sea and was never found,
that Australia sent large contingents to the World Wars, that there was no concept of something called an Australian citizenship till 1949. Read this book !!