Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

I enjoyed this book. It gripped me from the beginning and I found myself taking every little opportunity to finish it. I'm not sure what made it that way. Cheryl is not a particularly worthy person, possibly her only redeeming quality was how much she loved her mother. Certain parts, the part with the horse, had me cringing. The reason I only gave it 4 stars is because it was rather anti-climatic. She reached the Bridge of the Gods and then... A couple of paragraphs in summation and nothing. There were no words on how her experiences on the PCT caused her to be the person she wanted to be. I would have liked to see what happened next.

So, late to this party, but this was an amazing read.

This book has some beautiful scenes, a lot to say about guilt, grief, and love, but it also tended to be a bit wordy and self congratulatory to me. The author occasionally seemed high on her own supply. I did like it but I wouldn't re read it.

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14443719

I wanted to go into this book hating on the author, because she starts off like a complete dumbass by setting off on a a multi-month hike in the wilderness with literally 0 hiking experience and no physical fitness.

However, the fact that she continues to hike for 3 months straight and by the end is doing 20 mile days, as much as any experienced hiker would do, makes me feel respect for her - at least she didn't give up!

Written by Cheryl Strayed, Wild is a memoir focused on Strayed's navigation of her grief and the mountain wildernesses of the western US. After the death of her mother, Strayed decides to hike the PCT with little planning to "fill the hole in [her] heart."

I've always been curious of hiking (especially backpacking) as my dad loved to tell me stories about the time he spent hiking a section of the Appalachian Trail. I haven't gotten to experience much hiking because I live in Texas, so I was quite excited when I came across this book.

One fault of the book is how similar many of the scenes are. Repetition is an important element of writing, but Strayed overuses it, using more or less the same turns of phrase to describe her emotions. I would have liked to see more of her struggles with grief on the trail itself, not just her grief before she went on her hike. Presumably, she also went through negative emotions on the trail along with the positive + the expected exhaustion.

Frankly, it's amazing Strayed safely navigated the trail alone. She hitchhiked with complete strangers on many occasions, encountered rattlesnakes, carried too little water and a too heavy bag, and walked for a few days with duct-taped sandals as shoes. I can imagine there was a little embellishment involved, but it's still an absolute feat. This comment is separate from my writing judgements.

Wild is an entertaining book for those who love memoirs of nature and grief. I was absorbed by Strayed's story, though some of her arrogance pulled me out of it.

The beginning is incredibly dark! The middle is strangely, considering this is a not-fiction story, a nice mix of beauty, personal challenges, interesting individuals, risk, insight, and reward which normally describes a fiction plot. Thankfully there is an end although it felt like only 2 sentences long compared to the rest of the story.

She doesn't go over her decompression into the world, which I would have liked to know more of but what she provides is also good closure.

Good use of words to describe her inner and outer world.

Really rinsing the audible library this month

I get worried reading nonfiction that people are obsessed with. As someone who has written and read a ton of nonfiction, and has degree in nonfiction, I am picky.

This was excellent. It was honest and moving but not trite. I will read this again.

Cheryl's physical journey and personal growth on the Pacific Crest Trail was inspiring. I was really proud of how she pushed herself through the many hardships she endured how she pulled herself out of her lows even before she stepped foot on the trail. I loved how this was a story about a real person with flaws and who shared her true self and was raw with honesty.

Not sure which way I'm leaning on how I feel about this book

Definitely wants to make you hike, immerse yourself in nature. :)

Of course, it's more than that however I can't stop myself from thinking about hiking the PCT or AT at some point. :)

This has been on my list for awhile, mostly because I enjoy true stories of women travelling and hearing their perspective on the experiences they had. At first I was a bit put off by Cheryl, her life decisions were not exactly what I would call admirable or totally understandable, even though she was going through a tough time. But having said that, it was her life, not mine and she was very raw about it all, which takes a certain kind of courage. Although I didn't approve, part of reading is seeing other people's perspectives and lives that are different from ours and still finding the humanity in it. Where I really enjoyed the book though was when she was hiking the PCT. Even if she was inexperienced and unprepared- which I don't think would be recommended - she also showed some serious grit, determination, insight and even a little humour. Through all the blunders and pitfalls, she just kept going and there IS something admirable in that. I've only ever done small hikes myself, the longest was a single day - I can't imagine going for months! My body and feet hurt after a day! Despite what you think of her decision to go without training or knowledge, it is still amazing to read about what she went through and what she achieved. I definitely found it an engaging read.

This reminded me of my own time backpacking, which must have been just a year or two before the events of this book (The Grateful Dead were still touring). Lovely combination of autobiography and travel book, made me feel things, and tear up a few times.

This is my favourite memoir of all time. I've read it three times and will likely read it again. I own the Kindle version and the paperback. I might be obsessed ;)
I find her journey inspiring but her writing is so clean and simple, that you can be with her on that trail and not have to decipher her meanings or thoughts.

Going unprepared into the wilderness can surely add up to a whole lot of writing material. She comes across as Alexander Supertramp but without the depth.

Looked at reviews to try and understand why this is so highly rated to find them neatly divided between people with whom Cheryl resonates & those she irritates.

I am very irritated.

I feel like I have just walked the PCT. Part of this book made me grow. I've never felt so connected to a book. The character development is amazing. Cheryl is flawed, yet strong. She's honest and accepts accountability which is makes it easier to bare with. I'm still in awe of this book. I believe this journey has helped change me just like it did Cheryl.

I enjoyed this memoir of a young woman dealing with grief over her mother's death and the disintegration of her family, who decided to hike the Pacific Crest Trail through California to Oregon. The book is presented as a tale of how Cheryl Strayed worked out her self destructive behavior on the trail (“From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail”), but the story doesn't really record the process of becoming “found” so much as present it as a result of doing the hike. The story of the hike is told along with the story of the mother's death, the falling away of her stepfather and siblings, and her drug use and infidelities to her husband. It's clear that she saw the hike as a kind of salvation even before she started it. But once the story reaches the actual hike, it doesn't dwell on salvation or redemption, but on the details of her life on the trail— which are pretty interesting. You as a reader are free to come to your own conclusions about why or whether the hike was redemptive, but in the meantime you get to enjoy a pretty good adventure story.

Deeply extraordinary.

I enjoyed reading this book, I binge-read it over the course of an afternoon. That being said, I didn't quite like the author. Between her personality and oftentimes lack of common sense I felt a disconnect with the narrative that I couldn't quite recover from. As such, I didn't fully immerse myself in the read although it was enjoyable. I am glad that Strayed recovered from her previously rocky lifestyle, and the book was inspiring in that sense.

“The thing about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, the thing that was so profound to me that summer—and yet also, like most things, so very simple—was how few choices I had and how often I had to do the thing I least wanted to do. How there was no escape or denial. No numbing it down with a martini or covering it up with a roll in the hay.”

I very much enjoyed listening to this memoir. The writing is wonderful: honest, evocative and immersive.

Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. and crass. I want the time I devoted to this drivel back!

I heard so many glowing reviews about this book that I picked it up without knowing much about the story and ... yikes. I honestly could not get through this book. Cheryl's story from page one just oozed self-destruction. Yes, she experienced some serious difficulties and it sounds like she didn't have a great support system around her. However, she blames all of her problems on others and misplaces the blame on the people she drove away with her behavior. It truly breaks my heart that she has such a self-hate for her body and her life. For a self-proclaimed feminist, she uses her body as if it's a tool rather than her own flesh. I skipped to the end of the book to see how it ends and sadly although she learned lessons about perseverance, it sounds like she still has a lot of work to do on her heart before she can ever be happy on her own. She writes the story years later and glorifies all the horribly depressing bits as if they were fond memories. It sounds like someone who has not accepted their past and really refused to learn from her destructive ways. If this were a close friend I would have interrupted her story, pray for her and hope that she finds a good therapist to work through the amount of emotional baggage she clearly shoved into her backpack and never took off.

I enjoyed the book much more than I enjoyed the movie.

It's a thoughtful, emotional book. The movie felt cliched to me, but the book laid out Cheryl's journey in simple, but poetic terms that felt more natural and lovely to me.

The story of a young woman who tames her inner demons by tackling a mighty long hike on the Pacific coast trail. I enjoyed this one more than I thought I would. What a trek! The movie does a pretty good job translating page to screen.