A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail Audiobook by Bill Bryson

Why the audiobook wins

Bryson's humor lives in the timing of a sentence, and Rob McQuay reads him like someone who's clocked exactly where the joke lands: the deadpan aside, the sudden swerve into genuine awe at the size of the Appalachian forest. A lot of comic travel writing goes flat read aloud; this doesn't, because McQuay treats the comedy and the nature writing as the same voice, not two different registers bolted together.

This is the audiobook to have going on an actual drive toward actual woods, or any long haul where you want company that's funnier and more miserable than you are. Katz's running commentary on the trail's endless, pointless suffering plays even better out loud than on the page; you can hear Bryson trying not to laugh at his own friend.

At just under ten hours, it's a manageable, endlessly quotable listen, and one credit buys you the whole hopeless, hilarious hike.