Tim Danner

Hiking, humor, and environmentalism

I love hiking, and this book was a glorious celebration of hiking. It contained quite a bit more on the history of ecological management in the eastern United States than I expected, but those parts were interesting too and served as nice interludes to the primary travelogue narrative.

Essays that I could relate to - the state fair, the cruise - were fantastic. Others that I felt less of a connection to - tennis, TV, David Lynch - contained great writing and a lot of interesting ideas, but also felt like they went on too long. I think I'm ready for his fiction now.

The first part, O'Reilly's history of the internet, felt like rehashing of stories and anecdotes that I'm already familiar with. The later parts I found much more interesting. They expanded how I think about markets, regulation, and economic systems.

This was a fun read. Looking forward to reading it with my daughter when the hardback comes out.