Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail - Cheryl Strayed

I wanted, really wanted, to like this book. I like stories of personal growth. I like stories of the outdoors. I had never heard of the Pacific Crest Trail and the idea intrigued me. But, Strayed, or I should say, an emotionally damaged and young Strayed, is a harsh travel buddy. She does get more likeable as the book goes on, but I just got annoyed with her all the time. She admits to so much of the things that really bothered me about her, but somehow it didn't entirely help in this case. The honesty was fine, but it didn't make me want to hang out with her more.

I know this has been made into a movie and I've heard from people that the movie was disappointing after reading the book. I may check it out just to see how it's done, but I'd have to be pretty bored to do so.

The story starts out with Cheryl on the trail and then weaves back to the points in her life that led her to try backpacking more than 1,000 miles along the Pacific Crest Trail. The narrative weaving worked well. The portions detailing Cheryl's life growing up fit well where they were put into the narrative. I actually am curious about what she did after she exited the PCT. I admire her determination to do something radical to completely change her life. 

In the end, I'm glad I read this book. But it just wasn't as fun or as interesting as I'd hoped.

3/5 Stars.