You might already know, but I have been venturing lately into the territory of ARCs—advance reader copies. This means that sometimes publishers or publicists approach me about reading a book and reviewing it before it has been published. In the past, my response was a no, 100% of the time. Recently I read ARCs of Orphaned Believer and then The Good Slope. Then I was approached by someone on behalf of Rachel Durchslag’s While I Walk. I don’t have the time (or will) to read tons of ARCs, but so far a few people have really gotten my vibes before they approached me, and this was the case with all three of the books I just mentioned, including While I Walk. While I Walk appealed to me because I love to hike and travel and I live in North Carolina and it is a travel memoir from a woman out of Asheville, NC. It is about solo hiking, specifically, which Durchslag has done all over the world. Cool. Sold.

Let’s just be forthright here: I would recommend this book, but it is going to appeal to a niche market. So, if you are in that niche, then recommend. If, for example, you are considering hiking far from home (or even a little closer), then for sure. If you already hike: for sure. If you have a quirk of hiking vicariously, then yes. And there is one more niche: if you enjoy more down-home accounts of self-discovery and lean more toward, say, naturopaths than GPs, and/or if you want to support local authors in Asheville (or even NC), then you’re good. Outside that, there’s a limited reach, which I think you’ll understand with the full review.

While I Walk has a unique set-up. Each of the fourteen chapters cover one hike, in chronological order, that taught Durchslag something important about hiking/herself/life. The first hike takes place in 2016 and the last in 2021. (She has done several more hikes in that time, with the pics to prove it at the end of the book.) Each chapter begins with a really cool, graphic “map,” the hike stats, a quote, and the lesson, before Durchslag tells her story. At the end of the chapter are some photos followed up with the logistics (in case you wanted to do the hike), recommended reading for researching the hike, a few words in the local language, and a regional recipe (keeping in mind that Durchslag is vegan). The front matter consists of Durchslag telling us how she ended up writing this book (friends’ suggestions during the Pandemic). At the end, there is a FAQ for the curious, photos of her other hikes, and 100 tips broken down into 10 tips about 10 hiking things (safety, packing, comfort, etc.). All in all, I not only see myself keeping this book on the shelf, but pulling it down and using it, especially when it comes to those 100 tips at the end.

And I’m wondering: do I want to do a solo (or couples) hike on one of these super-cool trails that exist out there in the wide world? Even though I hike on a weekly basis, locally, and I have hiked in a few places across the globe, I never realized there were these pre-determined, multi-day hikes everywhere, some of them not even very difficult (but some of them, very). And if she’s going to break it down for me, take me on a tour before I even set a foot out the door… Durchslag’s enthusiasm for the trail and the great outdoors—for the challenge—is infectious.

But here’s the thing. I am a literary person. I swing between literary snobbery and embracing whatever works and pleases, but I do often break down books that I review from a literary standpoint. At the least, I’ll say something like, “It has no literary merit whatsoever, but if you want a novelty item for your coffee table and you love zombies and Jane Austen, then have at it.” (That’s basically what I said for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.) So even with the literary critique, I sometimes recommend books based on other merits, because I’m a realist who realizes not everyone cares about breathtaking language or proper grammar when they’re being entertained or informed by a book. Which I suppose you know by now means that While I Walk is not the most literary of books.

Durchslag is not a writer. She’s not even a storyteller, really. She is experienced in life and hiking and when she was being kept home by the Pandemic, she thought that she could produce a book that would help other people find their way to solo hiking. I can’t really tell if the book is self-published, but Foss and Flora Publishing doesn’t have a web presence I can find, so at least it’s indie. And it looks it, to me (inside and out), though is likely to impress some people who think indie publishing is always shoddy—it’s not; it’s more the photo quality and font choice and the way the copy looks on the page that gives it away. And there are some amazing photos, but Durchslag is also not a photographer or a chef, so most everything about the book is, shall we say, down home. Including the writing. Which is mostly in present tense, a choice which I found distracting and, well, not a good one. Stories are conventionally told in past tense, and though I understand why she would choose first person for a memoir, I think present tense was a bridge too far. And the stories themselves were, well, pedestrian, by which I mean that the craft of storytelling is not honed. The stories are interesting, but they are often missing something, like in the departments of pacing, revelation, wordsmithing, tone, etc. I mean, writers ideally learn and gather tools of the trade over decades in order to get this stuff right. And as a foodie, I could tell that while Durchslag has a passion for eating food, she doesn’t have the kind of knowledge or experience that would lead her to write a cookbook or open a restaurant.

Like I said, that’s not to say this isn’t a certain kind of book that I would recommend, because it is. But as a reviewer who discusses the literary merit of books, that is the full skivvy, here: just know what kind of book it is and you won’t be disappointed by what it isn’t. I totally enjoyed reading this book and only wished that she had included some of the other hikes we saw glimpses of at the end. I will be using the tips and will be riding out on the wings of Durchslag’s inspiration and enthusiasm, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that meant I’ll be participating in a more far-flung solo hike sometime soon. (I just did a solo hike across my home city, a couple months ago.) So thanks to Durchslag for sharing and if I come across someone who fits the niche of this book, I will be for sure recommending it.

QUOTES:

“My husband and I came up with a term to capture how we were living [during the Pandemic]: malaising” (p1).

“It’s as if my heart is breaking a little so it can grow larger in size” (p12).

“I now understand that the most profound growth lies not in what I accomplish but within the journeys themselves” (p12).

“Generally speaking, I try to find the positive in what could be perceived as a negative experience” (p31).

“…I …. do my best not to cry or panic (both feel surprisingly hard to resist). I spend every ounce of energy on hope…” (p34).

“I consider my options, which are none” (p41).

“But if there’s one thing I’ve learned while traveling, it’s that being attached to a particular experience or outcome is never beneficial” (p77).

“‘In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect'” (Alice Walker, p84).

“As I write these words now, five years wiser, I hope that I will never again acquiesce to uncomfortable situations simply to avoid awkward conversations. I’ve learned that sometimes it is necessary to hurt someone’s feelings to uphold integrity and self-love” (p106).

“I wait for my emotions to emerge, but there is nothing. I am not yet ready to grieve” (p112).

“If you have not been to Lake Bled or have never heard of Lake Bled, go” (p119).

“…the act of climbing a peak changes you by the time you reach its topmost point” (p123).

“I remind myself to always prioritize the experience of being somewhere truly stunning and unique over earning bragging rights…” (p132).

“I recognize that I’m in the throes of an ego-versus-reality battle” (p140).

“At one point, I loudly scream, ‘I AM OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE!’ …. Sometimes you just need to fall apart a little to go on” (p153).

“…connection is so much bigger than verbal communication” (p154).

“…bad decisions are made when panic sets in …. [but] this experience is not about effort but surrender” (p156).