Tim Danner

Essays that I could relate to - the state fair, the cruise - were fantastic. Others that I felt less of a connection to - tennis, TV, David Lynch - contained great writing and a lot of interesting ideas, but also felt like they went on too long. I think I'm ready for his fiction now.

Hiking, humor, and environmentalism

I love hiking, and this book was a glorious celebration of hiking. It contained quite a bit more on the history of ecological management in the eastern United States than I expected, but those parts were interesting too and served as nice interludes to the primary travelogue narrative.

The first part, O'Reilly's history of the internet, felt like rehashing of stories and anecdotes that I'm already familiar with. The later parts I found much more interesting. They expanded how I think about markets, regulation, and economic systems.

This was a fun read. Looking forward to reading it with my daughter when the hardback comes out.