Book Review: The Walk

This was a book my mother mentioned to me well over a year ago and encouraged me to read. I must have a thing for reading books about people going on walking journeys. Who knows ... maybe there's a walking journey in my future someday (I'm tired after my two miles a day. I doubt I could log 25 like this main character.)

I still preferred The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, but this was also an enjoyable read. I'm pretty sure I will stick with it through the whole series. There are five books in the series and my library has every one. Several reviewers on Amazon felt hoodwinked into paying for five installments for a story which could have been told in one. If my library didn't have these books available, I probably wouldn't be willing to part with money to continue the story ... but since they do, I'll keep going.

Within six brief weeks, Alan Christoffersen loses his job, his home, and his wife (the love of his life). He is shattered. Looking at a map, he selects the farthest point away from where he is (Seattle, WA) and decides to start off on a walking journey to Key West, Florida (having been there before, I can attest that it is a worthy destination). As the blurb on the back cover of the audio version proclaims: "The people he encounters along the way, and the lessons they share with him, will save his life - and inspire yours."

It was, indeed, an inspiring read. I will now seek out the second of the series, a book called Miles to Go. It was interesting to note that the biographical information on the back cover offers up the author's mailing address. I've not seen that often. It might be fun to send him a letter of appreciation and see if I receive a response (another thing I've not experienced often). Thankfully, my library has all five books in audio form, so I can continue to walk while I listen to the story of Alan Christoffersen's walk.