Celebrate National Trails Day...with a Book!

Today (June 2 every year) is National Trails Day! To be clear, you should first celebrate by taking advantage of some of our thousands of amazing trails and getting outside! Check out a paved walking trail (wheelchair accessible) in a local park, a hike with an amazing view in a state or national park, or even a portion of one of our long trails that criss-cross the nation. Grab a friend, leave the earbuds at home, and get outdoors to experience nature up-close.

But, then...when you get back home (or, even better, back to your campsite), you can curl up on the couch (or on the deck or porch!) with a book about hiking and get engrossed in some immersive stories, where the outdoors play a big role.

To get you started, check out my latest book column at Shelf Awareness, Take a Hike!, which offers four different books in which hiking and the outdoors are a major part of the story. Two are memoirs and two are novels, and I enjoyed all four of them immensely. Click the link to read all about them, but the 4 books included there are:

• A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (skip the movie and read the book!)
• The Optimistic Decade by Heather Abel
• Wild by Cheryl Strayed
• Celine by Peter Heller

One other to consider is The Hearts of Men by Nickolas Butler, which is no longer in print but still available used or at your library. It's an emotionally complex and absorbing novel that takes place at Camp Chippewa, a Boy Scout camp among the forests and lakes of Wisconsin. This immersive story follows three generations of boys and men from 1962 to the present as they navigate life’s ups and downs, experiencing bullying, aging and friendship over the years.



So, get outside for a bit today, then relax with a good book about the outdoors! Happy Trails Day!