I took this hardcover from the Little Free Library on Saville St. in Cambridge MA, while dropping off some books of my own. It inspired the 2014 film.

Later: I dunno... The book opens with the author, six weeks into her trek, losing one hiking boot and throwing the other away in a burst of emotion - and admitting to loving the boots dearly despite the fact that they didn't fit properly and had been doing disastrous things to her feet the entire time. So with this introduction to the character, I couldn't help thinking "dysfunctional relationships, much?" I've never been the type to cling to clothing that doesn't fit, especially shoes, and even more especially footgear that I would need to rely on for months of wilderness hiking. So, yeah, kind of offputting {wry grin}. I suppose it does give a good snapshot of her emotional state at the time, but it didn't make me like her very much!

The scenes of her mother's death were wrenching, as I lost my own mother recently, but I had to allow for the differences: my mother was at the end of a long, productive, and mostly joyful life, and I'd grown up and into retirement age, as we left no words of love unsaid. The author of the book was only 22 when she lost her mother, and had had what sounds like a difficult life up to that point; her desperate need to be told she was loved - more, told that she was "the best daughter in the world"... Another strong sign that she wasn't in a very solid place emotionally.

I admit that I skimmed much of the book, including the sex-and-drugs bits; it's not that I object to them, I just didn't find myself sufficiently involved with the story to want the details. The actual hiking bits were more to my taste, though even then I got impatient with some of her choices (and those painful boots! Seriously...).

I do hope that her journey (and the success of her book!) have helped her to resolve many of the issues she had. As for the hike: I found myself thinking of another long-west-coast-hike I'd read of, The Thousand-Mile Summer, by a man who hiked the length of California in 1958. Very, very different situation, from "man alone" vs. "woman alone" to "simple wanderlust" vs. "total emotional breakdown", yet many aspects of the books compare nicely.

[There's a TV Tropes page on the film, with some comments on the book as well.]

I plan to leave this book on a bench somewhere in the Outlet Mall, while making a release run for International BookCrossing Day. Hope the finder enjoys it!

(For those on Facebook, see the International BookCrossing Day event.)

[See other recent releases in MA here.]

*** Released for the 2018 Into the Wild release challenge. ***

*** Released for the 2018 Movie release challenge. ***

I found this book on bench while shopping
I've never heard of a traveling book so I decided to give it a try