Expert Amateur

Bill Bryson's book offered a refreshing, new perspective to our class. As Onno said, Bryson really commits to being an expert amateur, which I feel shows in the content of his writing. Bryson constantly emphasizes his outsider mentality and his inability to do certain things the way people who were more qualified would. The combination of self-deprecating honesty and more than generous amounts of exaggeration create a comical tone for the novel.

This is the type of book I wanted to keep reading and reading; this may be a result of humour but I am not sure why else. Onno questioned our class if Bryson's book was the kind of book that inspired you to go hike the AT. I immediately thought, "No way." Then wondered why I found this book interesting. It didn't inspire me to do anything, it almost sells itself as a book about hiking the entirety of the AT trail but isn't a book about that, and it's pretty long and detailed.

I wonder if it was because of how common Bryson made himself seem. He successfully pulled this off by using the second person in relatable instances. This allowed the reader to become apart of the experience rather than an observer of the experience. Was that why the book interested me? I felt like it was a journey I was also embarking and I needed to know how it'd end? I am still unsure of Bryson's purpose. What was his intended goal? Who is his target audience?

One thing I really enjoyed about this book was when Bryson would go into serious scientific detail about the nature or culture around him. One part that really stuck out to me was when Bryson mentioned the Jack-O-Lantern mushroom that received that name because it glowed at night. This image was beautiful to me, the fact that that mushroom exists is amazing, and it also reminded me of the one of the beginning chapters in Ed Kanze's book that we read this summer. When Kanze goes under his house he finds a glowing moss commonly referred to as "Goblin's gold." When I read that part of the book I thought that was incredible; that was the strongest, most intereseting aspect of the book for me. It was interesting to have a similar experience like that in Bryson's book.