Did you know that Oprah started up her book club again? It is an online thing. It's called Oprah Book Club 2.0 or something like that. I stumbled across it recently, and found a video clip of her current book choice. It looked interesting, so I got the book for my Kindle. It's a special Oprah Book Club edition, so it even includes highlighted areas and footnotes at the end, written by Ms. O herself. Whoopie ding.
The book is Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed. I really enjoyed this book. It's a true story about the author's 1100 mile hike along the PCT. She does this in order to help heal herself from grief and life's upheavals.
I found her tale to be very engaging and fascinating. I used to fantasize about doing a long hike like that. Even though I didn't ever do the hike, I found myself identifying with her for some reason.. I guess that's a sign of good writing. (The longest hike I ever did was one overnight back-packing trip in a national park.)
She did the hike alone, which would have scared the bejeebers out of me. She works through difficulties along the trail including exhaustion, heat, cold, and losing her hiking boots. She also works through memories, emotions, and decisions about her life. These things come sneaking into her consciousness despite herself and in a variety of ways. She sets out to think things through, but finds that she doesn't intentionally think about those things except occasionally. Her changes come gradually and more "naturally" as she lives in nature for an extended period.
It was a good page-turner and a well-told survival story. 5 of 5 stars!
1 comment:
C: I luv the images you add to your Friday book posts. They are always so clever. Thanks for the info about the book, too. Sounds interesting.
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