Book Review: Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ever since I spent a week backpacking on the Appalachian Trail, I pick up and devour just about any book I come across remotely related to backpacking. Up until that moment, it was the hardest thing I had ever done in my life and helped prepare me for the several years of the hardest thing I've ever done in my life-- physical therapy school-- that were creeping upon me at that time. I relate so well to the backpackers that its hard to put down. Same story here. In the beginning I got a little agitated with all the background info on the author's life. "Come on! Get the trail!" I practically yelled at the book. But, as with any good story, you have to understand the main characters struggles to be able to celebrate their victories appropriately with them. Just wish the back story would have happened more from flash backs, than the garbled mess at the beginning. But that "garbled mess" rather accurately describes the author's pre-trail life anyway, so perhaps that was on purpose. Over all very entertaining for me, but I could see where others who don't understand the rigors of the trail could get bored with talking about how hard it is for... however many pages this book has, minus the ten at the end when she's finished the trail and the too much back ground info at the beginning. I did appreciate the author being so transparent with her problems and how the time on the trail helped her heal. That's the real story.


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