Cover Image: The Wilderness Idiot

The Wilderness Idiot

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Member Reviews

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. I had high hopes for this book but it was not what I expected and I struggled to get through it.

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This was a fun and untense book that gave me anxiety repeatedly. Wilderness/outdoor fiction is so overdone as a genre and I don't feel it has too much new to offer. This was definitely fun thought and I would recommend it to people I know who enjoy the outdoors.

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This book is filled with amusing anecdotes, but do not be fooled by the moniker of "Wilderness Idiot." As a vicarious armchair traveler, I enjoyed this book.

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A book of adventures some entertaining some hilarious.Perfect for someone like me who loves to read about others adventures not go on any.#netgalley#romanlittlefield

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A somewhat interesting book. Some good adventures in it, but the writing wasn't very engaging. Not much to say about it, I was underwhelmed. I am left wondering why the author is still alive. The title Wilderness Idiot is appropriate.

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From reading the description of this book, I was ready to crash headlong into a series of comedic and interesting essays about various wilderness adventures that were had by the author. After reading this, however, I was left feeling disappointed and unfulfilled. The book started off strong and while there were a number of chapters throughout this that I absolutely loved, most of it was lackluster and uninteresting. It felt thrown together and not cohesive whatsoever and I struggled to have this hold my interest. While I definitely think that I would enjoy reading the author's stories, when meshed together in a book like this, they just weren't hitting any good spots for me. Separately, most of these had the potential to hold their own, but together I just couldn't find the appealing nature. I do intend on looking into more of Alvarez's writing and adventures because it was overall interesting but this book just wasn't it for me.

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I fell in love with Ted Alvarez's new book, "The Wilderness Idiot" in the prologue. His wilderness mantra is, "Just say yes." No matter the conditions or the terror of the wilderness, it is worth the pain and the struggle for the stories you will be able to tell and the camaraderie you will build on a backpacking trip only accessible by sea plane.

"The Wilderness Idiot," are stories of Alvarez's adventures in some of the most obscure and dangerous places around the globe in his expeditions as a writer for Backpacker magazine. He takes readers on his treks through volcanic mountains in Iceland. He also journeys through the Northern mountains in Japan. He travels through inlets from the Pacific ocean on a kayak through the edges of the Great Bear Rainforest on Vancouver Island in British Columbia searching for white "spirit" Kermode bears. He also does some hiking around where I am from in Colorado, which is a fun retelling of places that I too have journeyed.

His wilderness approach is that there isn't any challenge that is too hard or scary not to try at least once. On a survival trip with a buddy he even gets used to rodent meat he traps and scorches to ensure all disease is properly expunged.

I loved this book. It inspires me to get "off-trail," do some backpacking and face/overcome my fears in the wild. I think part of my journey of conquering fourteeners is similar to his approach to "say yes" to challenge. I want to live a life of embracing difficulty and pushing myself to my limits to grow and see what is possible.

I received this as an eBook from Rowman & Littlefield - Falcon Guides via NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review of the title. I did not receive any compensation from either company. The opinions expressed herein are completely my own.

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This was not a significantly compelling read and I was not able to finish it. I just could not get into this one. The content of the story was good, but the formatting got in the way of my enjoyment of the book itself.

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I really enjoyed this collection of outdoor adventure stories. Some are entertaining, some are informative, some are touching and many are a combination of the three.

Thank you to Rowman & Littlefield and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

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This was a series of pretty interesting outdoors essays. It was a quick, enjoyable read, as the essays all varied in topics and some were funny, while others made you think. Overall, a very enjoyable book even if you're not an avid outdoorsman.

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Not sure what I expected, but found this book a little hard to read. Easily skimmable, and at time I skipped sections as they didn't catch my attention. He travels to different places and describes his adventures, but for the most part were not ones I could relate to. Perhaps if I was in my 20s and single...would recommend.

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