Reviews

Accounts of walking tours are worth reading when they are well-written and the author has a perspective and personality worth sharing. It has remarkably little to do with the challenge of the trek itself: Colin Fletcher could make any stroll fascinating. Hanuse was 53 when she walked across the country (her husband accompanied her with a well-equipped RV). Her book is cluttered with diversions of her dog's antics along the way. Outside of admiring her pluck, there is little here for the reader. Meegan, a young Englishman, walked 19,000 miles from the tip of South America to the top of Alaska. Yet that isn't what makes his a better book. Instead it is Meegan's engaging style, his lack of braggadocio, and his amazing capacity to shrug off unpleasantness that makes his book enjoyable to read. It is of little consequence that this is the longest recorded journey. His trip took seven years, with several interruptions, during which he managed to start a family. Recommended for public libraries. Harold M. Otness, Southern Oregon State Coll. Lib., Ashland