Recommended Read – the Barefoot Sisters Southbound

I am a huge fan of books.  I read almost everyday, not because it’s something I schedule but because I enjoy it. It’s a glimpse into another world. sometimes one you’d like to really visit, sometimes one you are glad was created out of someone’s imagination!

I just finished reading Wuthering Heights after it was mentioned on a summer reading list  on another blog, Parkesdale. Believe it or not I’d never read it and I couldn’t believe how much I liked it. I decided that with all of the reading I do I should be recommending some of the ones  I really like!

The Barefoot Sisters Southbound is one of a very few books I’ve read that when I was done I realized – hey, I’d love to do that!

the Barefoot Sisters Southbound

This is one of my favorite non-fiction books I’ve read over the past few years.  It’s written by two (wait for it….) sisters who decided to travel the Appalachian trail barefoot. The barefoot part makes it a little more interesting since they candidly talk about it’s ups and downs, but that’s not really what the book is about.

It’s about the journey.  The book reads like you are reading their journals. Like a good work of fiction you can get lost in the book and suddenly realize you’ve been reading for much longer than you intended to . But this is a true story,  reading it made me feel like I knew a little bit of what it’s like to hike the Appalachian Trail. As they attempt to thru-hike the entire 2,175 miles of the Appalachian Trail you travel with them through excitement, triumph, doubt and fear. You get to meet and know various people they meet on the trail.

The Barefoot Sisters don’t seem to sugar coat the trip, plenty of their trip didn’t go according to plan.  But nonetheless I wasn’t halfway through the book before I decided that this is something that I’d really like to do.  I couldn’t hike the entire trail before my kids are done growing up, but I may have to do a weekend or week hike sometime much, much before that.

If you’ve read this book I’d love to hear what you thought about it, if you haven’t go read it!

Have you ever thought about taking a large portion of time out of your regular life to do something like hike the Appalachian Trail?

The Boulevard Trail

The Boulevard Trail (Photo credit: Wikipedia)