《泰晤士报》说：“比尔・布赖森是目前活在世上最有趣的旅游文学作家。”《纽约时报书评》周刊说：“布赖森绝对是旅行的好伴侣，而且也是一位用谐谑之眼观察入微的作家！每个阅读他作品的人都会不断地遇上乐趣，而且惊觉自己在他的发现之旅中有着高度的参与感。”的确布赖森的书有味道极了，而且一点也不余秋雨式地端着，一点也不余秋雨式地“文化”。

Back in America after twenty years in Britain, Bill Bryson decided to reacquaint himself with his native country by walking the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine. The AT offers an astonishing landscape of silent forests and sparkling lakes--and to a writer with the comic genius of Bill Bryson, it also provides endless opportunities to witness the majestic silliness of his fellow human beings. For a start there's the gloriously out-of-shape Stephen Katz, a buddy from Iowa along for the walk. Despite Katz's overwhelming desire to find cozy restaurants, he and Bryson eventually settle into their stride, and while on the trail they meet a bizarre assortment of hilarious characters. But A Walk in the Woods is more than just a laugh-out-loud hike. Bryson's acute eye is a wise witness to this beautiful but fragile trail, and as he tells its fascinating history, he makes a moving plea for the conservation of America's last great wilderness. An adventure, a comedy, and a celebration, A Walk in the Woods is destined to become a modern classic of travel literature.

From perfectly formed potatoes to adulterous US presidents, and from domestic upsets to millennial fever, Bill Bryson just cannot resist airing his opinions and standing up for his (mostly) law-abiding fellow American citizens. But of course after twenty years in England, he is now back on the other side of the pond, and is obviously having a little trouble finding his true American self again. After vigorous exercise on the Appalachian Trail comes this edited collection of Bryson’s most splenetic comic pieces culled from his humorous regular column in the Mail on Sunday.