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sarakomo 's review for:
2022: Too high expectations left me feeling that this book was good, but not great.
This book had been recommended to be a lot which is nice, because it means that my brand of absolutely loving National Parks and wanting to visit all of them is going strong. However, as privileged as a comment as this is, I feel like I've been to too many of them to enjoy this book. These stories serve best to inspire travelers to go to the mountains; unfortunately, having been to most of the parks referenced in this book, it felt more like Knighton was regurgitating stories that I already learned at many visitors' centers.
The only elements that were new definitely turned me off a bit. Knighton spends a lot of time talking about his failed relationships, and searching for new love on the trail. I was okay with his recounting his various hookups throughout his year-long adventure because I thought he was going to end up with one of them by the end of the book. Spoiler alert: he does not. Instead, he spends time getting mad at Claire, and then sexualizing Jessica even though she gives zero indication that she's even interested in pursuing anything romantic, only to get upset that she already has a fiancée. Ugh!
I also was not a fan of his "well I don't know what to do, and I don't have any money, so I guess I'll plan a giant year-long trip" because that's not how it works. Also, to not have a contract in writing with CBS before starting the trip sounds like a horrible plan. I also don't feel like he was really able to truly experience any of the parks, because of the pace of his travel and the logistics involved in getting to all of them.
The biggest thumbs up that I can give include Knighton's decision to include a lot of his cameraman's backstory. But was that really his story to tell? Or should we have let Efrain write his own book? And I want to give +1 for a solid discussion of the lack of diversity in the outdoors and for including Outdoor Afro in his chapter. However, maybe it shouldn't have been in just the second to last chapter of the book and feel like it was added as an afterthought. Overall, not very impressive. Maybe I'm just sour that Knighton got to write this book before I did.
This book had been recommended to be a lot which is nice, because it means that my brand of absolutely loving National Parks and wanting to visit all of them is going strong. However, as privileged as a comment as this is, I feel like I've been to too many of them to enjoy this book. These stories serve best to inspire travelers to go to the mountains; unfortunately, having been to most of the parks referenced in this book, it felt more like Knighton was regurgitating stories that I already learned at many visitors' centers.
The only elements that were new definitely turned me off a bit. Knighton spends a lot of time talking about his failed relationships, and searching for new love on the trail. I was okay with his recounting his various hookups throughout his year-long adventure because I thought he was going to end up with one of them by the end of the book. Spoiler alert: he does not. Instead, he spends time getting mad at Claire, and then sexualizing Jessica even though she gives zero indication that she's even interested in pursuing anything romantic, only to get upset that she already has a fiancée. Ugh!
I also was not a fan of his "well I don't know what to do, and I don't have any money, so I guess I'll plan a giant year-long trip" because that's not how it works. Also, to not have a contract in writing with CBS before starting the trip sounds like a horrible plan. I also don't feel like he was really able to truly experience any of the parks, because of the pace of his travel and the logistics involved in getting to all of them.
The biggest thumbs up that I can give include Knighton's decision to include a lot of his cameraman's backstory. But was that really his story to tell? Or should we have let Efrain write his own book? And I want to give +1 for a solid discussion of the lack of diversity in the outdoors and for including Outdoor Afro in his chapter. However, maybe it shouldn't have been in just the second to last chapter of the book and feel like it was added as an afterthought. Overall, not very impressive. Maybe I'm just sour that Knighton got to write this book before I did.