I've read Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods". I loved it! Hysterically funny in places, but certainly gives a good feel for thru-hiking a long trail.

Another excellent Bryson-style thru-hike book I've read was by a New Zealander named George Spearing. The book is called "Dances with Marmots". If you click on this link to the book, it also includes a number of reviews of the book -- all positive! Here is an excerpt from one of those reviews:

Quote:
As soon as I began this book I was simply hooked. From the first page to the last, this is a totally enjoyable hiking memoir packed with humour and much inspiration.
We follow George on his journey and experience all the highs and lows along the way. From a bear wandering around his tent at four in the morning ("If there are any adrenalin freaks reading this, then this is what you've got to do - try lying on the ground about 2m away from a 250kg bear that is roaring its bloody head off - trust me, you will not get a bigger buzz!") to his encounter with a deer, this is certainly a light-hearted but entrancing read which made me laugh so many times.
We also learn of his encounters with other hikers along the trail (Ziggy, The Gimp, Mountain Goat Vern) and read about a few mishaps too ("This was definitely uncool, and I was glad that only the Sierras and myself were witness to my close-up inspection of their snowy surface".)
I literally found it impossible not to laugh from the first chapter to the last. George writes about his time on the Pacific Crest Trail in an easy-to-read style with humour in almost every sentence. I have never read a more funny, gripping trail book as this. Even if you don't intend to walk the PCT, this book is still fun and totally absorbing.

CaT

If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them more than the miracle of technology. We must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it.
- Lyndon Johnson, on signing the Wilderness Act into law (1964)