Although the pictures are excellent and show all the different areas the trail crosses, what I really enjoyed most about this book is the story. It brilliantly mixes a description of the trail, a little history about some places it crosses, the contrast between multiple-use and protected areas, and an inside view of the thru-hiking adventure. This is not a trail guide and it is not supposed to be; it is a story that makes you feel you are actually hiking the trail, specially if you are familiar with the geography, weather and environmental problems of the area.

I got this book from the library, and after reading it, decided to buy it. This is a book you should own if you like to hike. I had never considered the idea of long distance hiking, but I'm starting to think different after reading this book.

Although the included map contains most of the places the book refers to, I would have made it a little bit more detailed representing the different mountain ranges and ecosystems the trail crosses.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book ! Bart Smith explains that he hiked the PCT intending to photograph it along the way, and soon discovered that Thru-hiking and serious photography are simply incompatible. Bart returned to the trail over a period of 6 years to capture outstanding images of the spectacular backcountry, and then asked Karen Berger to write the accompanying narrative from her own Thru-hike experience. Karen's story blends humor, science, insight, and an obvious love for the trail. I thought her level of detail was perfect, telling the story meaningfully without getting bogged down. If you enjoy mountain hiking and share my facination with the PCT you are certain to love this book.

and it perfectly compliments Berger's and Smith's description of the determination needed to thru-hike the Pacific Crest Trail. I frequently find myself pulling the book from the shelf as the wonderful photography by Bart Smith provides the perfect escape from the "big city" life in Northern Virginia.

I anxiously await Bart's upcoming book, "The Appalachian Trail: Calling Me Back to the Hills" to see what he can do with the the natural beauty in the East!

This book is a terrific resource for those just starting out or those who would like to know more about hiking and backpacking. The author's topics cover everything from the complete basics like, why you should hike, straight through to the more complex, like how to adjust your compass for declination. She also makes extremely helpful suggestions on purchasing products such as tents, sleeping bags, water purifiers, stoves, and basically all types of gear. The author has a writing style that generates interest in the reading material. She also focuses on particular topics, like handling problems only women encounter in the outdoors, or what you should know before taking children hiking. This book is a must have.

Valuable informaton throughout. Well-written. Eye-catching photos. Even the paper used for the book is stronger than most should you want to take it in the field.

I read this book as a novice backpacker, and it help take me to the next level.

I bought this book on a whim for my first ever backpacking expedition, and I loved it the second I cracked the front cover. It covers everything and anything a beginning hiker/backpacker could ever need. (It made my excursion with my husband-to-be on Valentine's Day weekend a blast!) While I still think cotton is just as invaluable as all the high-tech materials out there, she definitely makes her "expert" opinion a time and money saver. I give her little section on women and kids an A++ for motivation. Oh, and did I mention it was awesome.

I had a bilateral mastectomy with tram flap reconstruction in May 2002. The decisions I had to make were agonizing. This book was the best I found on the subject, and I read and re-read the case histories that were closest to my own situation. The information proved to be accurate and gave me a realistic expectation of the process and the results. I recommend this book to anyone undergoing breast surgery, with or without reconstruction, as it covers a wide array of decisions that other women have made.

My plastic surgeon gave me this book to read. It was the best book on breast cancer I've found, and I've built up quite a library lately. It aided me in my treatment decision as well as my reconstruction choice. It also explained my pathology report better than any of my doctors. A great book for any breast cancer patient or her family.

There are many, many books out there dealing with breast cancer and treatment but this was the only one I could find that really helps a woman decide what course to take if she thinks she wants to have reconstructive surgery. I found it so helpful I recommended it to my doctor.Making a decision to have reconstructive surgery is hard enough, but then you have to decide what type you would like to have, what your choices are depending on your type of cancer and treatment, and, when to have the surgery.Especially helpful are the black and white photos of the results of each type of operation as well as touching and honest real life descriptions of experiences by women who have had these types of surgeries.Having actually gone through a mastectomy with simultaneous "tram flap" reconstuction, I can attest to the accuracy of both the medical information and the emotional descriptions contained in the book.

This book takes some of the things tought in the hiking and backpacking book and expands them to make your outdoor trips more enjoyable and safe.

Wannabe, novice or experienced bushwhacker, this book is one definite "gotta-have." Photos, illustrations and side-bars make every subject easy to understand. Besides...it's a good read, too.

Christopher Fowler and John Bolton give us here a phenomenal comic strip. It is centered on the mental world in which people can really be free, themselves, without any restraint from society and from their own personal censorship. We are ourselves and free only on this mental level that lies beyond real life. Real life is grey, drab, sad, full of norms and predigested behaviors. The mental plane is free, full of colors, full of adventures. Everything is possible and we meet there the strangest beings we can imagine, all those who have left their bodies somewhere in the real world to live the freedom of their minds. But somewhere there is a myth : the desire of those liberated souls to go back to the real world and see their real bodies. They discover then that in the real world they live a life of total alienation, often pent up in some asylum, whereas on the mental plane they can be free and experience feelings that would be impossible in the real world, because on the mental plane they accept any absurdity as being freedom and real being. Yet, in a way, generally catastrophic from a social point of view, the mental state they are in on the mental plane, can free their social bodies and beings in real society by some supernormal, extranormal intervention. The drawing is creative and rich in colors and strange forms. On the mental plane everything is possible, and the drawing assumes this freedom to produce a vision of real freedom in insanity. We long for the possibility to be there and finally get rid of all our restraints. Even if life on the mental plane is only possible if our bodies are still alive in society, somewhere, in a way or another. A fascinating world that is given a tremendous force by a very creative language.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

This book is really great for teaching kids how the body works. I like how it is written in question and answew form. It makes learning about the body understandable for children as well as interesting. The book covers all the questions that kids always ask about the body. I was impressed with how much information the book covered and how well it was presented. I'm sure kids of all ages will enjoy this book.

Neil Gaiman is my hero. I always have, and always will be intrigued by Punch & Judy. Therefore, Gaiman's Mr. Punch is one of the greatest works I've ever read. Though it is unfair to say "Gaiman's Mr. Punch", as it is equally Dave McKean's, for without him, I'm sure Mr. Punch would lose part of its eerie, strange, subtle power. Mr. Punch is an odd book. I read it in a single sitting, and afterwards, I was actually at a loss for words trying to describe what it is. This was a first; I can praise Neil Gaiman for hours on end, but I was stuck with Mr. Punch. I've seen it classified as Horror, Science Fiction, normal Fiction, and just as a Comic. But it is much more. It sent something through me - something that I am also at a loss of words about. This is a really great story, much like a dream (or nightmare, depending) it is surreal, yet uncommonly realistic; it is disturbing, but also soothing. It's more of an experience than a reading. McKean's artwork and Gaiman's words send you into something of a trance, where you enjoy yourself, get disturbed (actually, more troubled, as the young protangonist would say), and subtly reminded of your own childhood. A must read for any Gaiman or McKean fan, and also a must read for any Punch & Judy enthusiast, or anyone looking for a great read.

Mr. Punch is one of those rare graphic novels that transcends the "fat comic book" and truly explores the possibilities of the medium. The text and illustrations are bound together and support each other, yang and yin, dreams and nightmares, innocence and experience. Dave McKean's illustrations are not only great comic art, they're great fine art, complex, rich, powerful individually but devastating in sequence, and perfectly complement Neil Gaiman's spare, almost naive text

Neil Gaiman has several recurring themes to which he revisits again and again like the swallows returning to Capostrano. Foremost among these is the persistence of memory, which is the theme of "The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch."

The tale revolves around a Punch n' Judy show at a seaside carnival and how it acts as a trigger for a young boys memories of his family. As with much of Gaiman's work, there are tales within tales here, and the real story he tells is more implied than elucidated upon.

Dave McKean's art underscores this theme beautifully, with the "real" characters in the story as cartoon caricatures while the puppets look like photographs, exactly the focus with which young children would concentrate their memories. Can we not all remember a favorite toy more easily than our parents faces when we were little?

A marvelous and poignant tale well worth your time and money.

This is a fine overview of the three major hiking trails that criss-cross the United States. The major focus of the book is on the renowned Appalachian trail, with most of the text devoted to the AT. The Pacific Crest Trail has some useful information, though the chapters on this trail are shorter and less detailed. The Continental Divide Trail is given more sparse coverage, because the trail is not yet completed and is not attempted by very many hikers, except the very bravest souls.

This book is recommended for people who are not in the immediate stages of planning a thru hike. If you're planning on tackling any of these trails, specific books on each individual trail is the way to go. There is too much general information here for those seriously considering a hike in the near future. This book is fine as an overview and to give you a sample feel of each hike, but is less successful for one planning a hike in the coming year.

The writing is excellent and the book is riveting in sections. For all those obsessed with hiking any of the grand thru trails in America, this is an excellent and recommended resource.

For those of us out there who dream of tackling one (or all!) of the triple crown trails, this book is an awesome resource. Karen Berger is realistic and frank yet encouraging in her advice to long-distance hikers.

Berger's love of these magnificent trails is what makes this book--klike her other books, especially "Where the Waters Divide"-- shine; she obviously has a profound respect for these national treasures and realizes the importance of making others aware of them as well. It's easy to read, has some great photos, and offers shorter hikes to those less inclined to set off on a 6-month thru-hike. The book is useful as both a general hiking reference tool as well as in the planning stages, especially for the At and the PCT; it is also useful for those who wish to do shorter hikes on any of the triple crowns.

"Hiking the Triple Crown" is an awesome volume. If you're not familiar with any of America's three great Wilderness trails, this is a head-first dive into refreshing waters.

Even those who consider themselves pseudo-expert hikers, well-read on these thru-hikes (like myself), will find delightful insights when seeing them presented back-to-back-to-back like this. For example, many PCT- and CDT-hikers tend to refer to the Appalachian Trail as "that wussy trail back East" because of its shorter mileage, lower elevation, and the fact that you really don't need a map because of crowds and blazed markings. However, she explains that the AT is actually the most difficult of the three when it comes to frequent steep climbs and rocky footpaths. Having only hiked sections of the PCT and CDT myself, I never knew that. Ground-leveling comparisons like that (no pun intended) abound through the text.

Being one of the few people ever to have finished the whole Triple Crown, Karen brings great perspective to the nature of America's greatest trails that few can claim to have. A fantastic book for anyone interested in ANY of these trails.

No other volume of the magnificent Sandman series so perfectly captures the darkly magical essence as this one. Many people dislike it, and many will say that you should read other tales first, but for me personally, I think that if you like "A Game of You" then you will like all others, and if you dislike it, you probably will dislike many others as well. It is not as important to the story overall as some arcs, and the Sandman himself harldy interacts with the human characters until well into the story. Also absent are most of the Sandman's family, with Death being regelated to a cameo. However, this is what makes the issue so special. It uses the Sandman mileu to create a unique fantasy world of its own, one which uses archtypes to allow readers to identify with it and yet be startled around every turn. If the "death" of the world is not heartrending, then perhaps you lack the imagination that fuels such a world. Read this and enjoy.

Neil Gaiman does it again! He takes Barbie, a marginal character in the "Doll's House" storyline and makes her into a 3 dimensional character. He also introduces some other great characters like Hazel, Foxglove, Clarissa, and my personal favorite in this volume, Wanda. After reading this tale, I was struck by how the characters matter so much in Sandman stories. How Neil cares about them so much that they keep popping up again and again in unlikely places. Even when someone mentions another person, I can tell that Neil has a character description written up for that person and they will appear in another story. Clarissa will appear again in "Kindly Ones", while Hazel and Foxglove are in both "Death" mini-series. (Also Foxglove is mentioned by another character in the "24 Hours" chapter in "Preludes and Nocturnes.")

That aside, "A Game of You" is probably the most personal story of the entire Sandman oeuvre. It's primarily the story of Barbie and her childhood dreams that become very real. The heart of the story is Barbie's relationship with Wanda which is both funny and touching. Dream doesn't appear much in this one, but the story is so good and the main characters so interesting that you won't mind at all.

In an age where almost all comics are aimed towards mass media entertainment, such as X MEN and the rest, it's refreshing to read comics with more depth and content to them. A Game Of You is one of my favorite books in the Sandman series. It showcases amazing characters, great storytelling, and a main character who is almost not in the book at all, which I enjoyed because the King of Dreams has always personally annoyed me with his pride and arrogance. However, on a lighter note, this book is amazing, but I would not recommend it as the first book for one to read in the Sandman series.

Ms. Berger covers the essentials and also provides little tips and suggestions that are usualy aquired knowledge from extensive experience in outdoor living. The book is a very practical addition to any novice's library. One facet I appreciate is her approach to preventing challenges on the trail through pre-planning and common sense. This is the kind of book I would, and intend to use as a classroom book for the scouts and new adult leaders in our Boy Scout troop in the future. Rather than drawing from the myriad ofsources available, this concise book offer me all I need in basic instruction material. Coupled with 30 years of experience in introducing youth to wilderness living in an ecologically sound manner it makes my volunteer committment much easier to accomplish. Additionally, in a time when more women are outdoors with their sons, Ms. Berger adequately addresses the outdoor living skills and information women always search for and in many cases are not covered in other reference materials. Bravo, Ms. Berger!

THis is a great book for the beginners all the way to the experts. It gives 1001 helpful tips that are very useful when applied in the field. As a beginner, I found this extordinarly useful. Karen Berger gives tips from the best way to lace your boots to simple menu planning. There is also a section on repairing your gear. If you don't all ready own this book, I recommend that your invest your money and buy it.