Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart MP3 CD – MP3 Audio, September 27, 2016

Writing a book on long-distant hiking is a difficult task. Hiking is mostly many hours a day with the sound of crunching under your feet and eating uninteresting food. Hikers spend most of their thoughts on their feet, water, and food. Not a compelling read without some effort. Writing about the trail can be misleading. Books and blogs and journals tend to focus on the only events such as storms, animals, or weird encounters with people in towns. This focus can make hiking seem like a constant stream of events - exciting, ever changing and stimulating. Long hikes are not this way. Most of the time, it is crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch - feet moving for hours and hours and hours. Readers of these adventures will often make a decision to hike and find most of hiking is "not what they thought it would be." It is monotonous, painful, and often lonely. As a section hiker on the PCT, I have (so far) hiked only the first 700 miles of the PCT (only is a relative thing if you are a short day hiker). When I started reading, I suspected I would not be compelled to read further once the portion of the trail I had hiked was covered in the story (I enjoyed being able to visual each stop, each section). I was wrong - I digested the book cover to cover..I have read many hiking books, A Blistered Kind of Love, The Fastest Hike, of course A Walk In The Woods, and others. The "others" titles escape my mind for a reason. Like I said, it is difficult to write on this topic and be interesting.I could feel the authors writing style and her willingness to expose a little more of herself evolving as the book progressed, likely evolving along with her spirit as the trail tends to do this to a person. For people that are not avid hikers, I suggest you stick with this book until Ramen is introduced. Much like Katz in a walk in the woods, this fortunate addition adds a depth of humanity that extends beyond trail life.I fell in love with Carrot and her honesty. Along the trail she tackles difficult subjects like lost childhood, existential questions about what we are doing with our lives, and the complexity of love and sexuality. The subjects are not explored in high-minded philosophical language or over wrought terms, but in a style that mimics how we all actually think "in real life". It is honest and gentle.In summary I can tell you this book is worth the read for hikers and non hikers alike. Thank you Ms Quinn

I’ve been reading a lot of “voyage of discovery” memoirs lately. This is the most recent, and if you are in the mood for the genre, it will be a good read. Be advised that this kind of tale almost always has its best stuff near the end, where you can see all of the effects of the adventure coming together. You won’t really get the best of it unless you finish. You also should take a clue from the title and realize this is a lot more about the narrator than it is about the trail per se.The book describes the impact of multi-week wilderness hiking on a novice. It also includes a lot of personal background and introspection on philosophy of life issues. The writing is compelling enough that I lost most of a night’s sleep finishing it.So why is a compelling read not five stars? I tend to agree with the more negative reviewers on their inventory of flaws. There is decidedly too much information and coarseness in a lot of it, details that do not contribute to the theme of the book. I am around young folk enough to recognize that this is an authentic reflection of current voices, but a good book isn’t required to be a mirror of irrelevant unpleasantness. There are a few nits to be picked on grammar and editing, although these are relatively few and far between; in general, I was pleased with the mechanical quality. Lack of perfection is not uncommon, and I’ve read a lot of books that failed more in detail and succeeded less in theme.For me, the narrator is a sympathetic and believable character, and the lessons she learned are worth sharing. I read it under the lending program, and I liked it enough to buy it after I finished. I will also be most interested in any broader autobiography that more fully illustrates how Quinn arrived at the beginning of the hike.

I so enjoyed reading Carrot’s thru hike on the PCT. It’s written in such an open, raw, honest style. Several times I let out an audible gasp or laugh. High recommend to anyone - not just hikers. Bravo Carrot - thank you.

This wonderful book arrived in my life with exquisite timing, so much so it must be magic. Book magic. Thank-you for being the kind of narrative voice I could trust and sink into fully. I loved hiking the PCT with your heart as a guide. The writing is vivid and unique.

Carrot began hiking her own hike somewhat timid in what to expect. I'm still onĺy halfway through the book but now she has transformed into a truly hard-core hiker. The title suggests that when she finally completes the Pacific Crest Trail she is stopped in her tracks as to, what next ?What can possibly follow that ? How do I return to normality? We must all read on and see.

Das Buch hat mir sehr gut gefallen. Es ist in sehr erfrischender Erzählweise geschrieben. Wenn man selber mal Langstrecke gewandert ist, kann man das Geschriebene sehr gut nachvollziehen. Am liebsten hätte ich meinen Rucksack gepackt und wäre auch gleich wieder losgezogen. Das Buch ist anders, hat mir aber gerade deshalb viel Spaß beim Lesen gemacht. Es ist kein Reisebericht im klassischen Sinne, wo es in erster Linie um die Landschaft oder Beschreibung der besuchten Orte geht, sondern es werden die Emotionen, Selbstzweifel und Gedanken, die einen auf einer solchen Tour überkommen beschrieben. Wer Keith Foskett und ähnliche Autoren mag, wird auch hieran seinen Gefallen finden.

This feels like an authentic trail story, warts and all.Joy, extreme hardship, grief, memories, reflection and endurance, like a rollercoaster.

Great detailed story, totally felt like I was on the trail as well, super inspiring. Was afraid it was gonna be a short ebook, but had a good weeks worth of reading! Loved it.