On Trails

An Exploration

By: Robert Moor

Narrated by: Jason Grasl

Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

From a brilliant new literary voice comes a groundbreaking exploration of how trails help us understand the world, from tiny ant trails to hiking paths that span continents, from interstate highways to the Internet. In 2009, while hiking the Appalachian Trail, Robert Moor began to wonder about the paths that lie beneath our feet: How do they form? Why do some improve over time while others fade? What makes us follow or strike off on our own? Over the course of the next seven years, Moor traveled the globe, exploring trails of all kinds, from the miniscule to the massive. He learned the tricks of master trail-builders, hunted down long-lost Cherokee trails, and traced the origins of our road networks and the Internet. In each chapter, Moor interweaves his adventures with findings from science, history, philosophy, and nature writing-combining the nomadic joys of Peter Matthiessen with the eclectic wisdom of Lewis Hyde's The Gift. Throughout, Moor reveals how this single topic - the oft-overlooked trail - sheds new light on a wealth of age-old questions: How does order emerge out of chaos? How did animals first crawl forth from the seas and spread across continents? How has humanity's relationship with nature and technology shaped world around us? And, ultimately, how does each of us pick a path through life? Moor has the essayist's gift for making new connections, the adventurer's love for paths untaken, and the philosopher's knack for asking big questions. With a breathtaking arc that spans from the dawn of animal life to the digital era, On Trails is a book that makes us see our world, our history, our species, and our ways of life anew.

©2016 Simon & Schuster (P)2016 Audiobooks.com Publishing

A spectacular observation of the origins of Hiking

Moore references several biological triggers that emerge in humans when we embark on trails. As an avid hiker I couldn't put down this book. Several concepts and paragraphs that dive deep into the sole of the outdoors. A well rounded and greatly performed masterpiece.

Excellent book!

'On Trails' is one of the most interesting and engaging books I've had the pleasure to read this year. A true gem!

Neemor liked it.

Interesting book. Very diverse world views and stories. Kept my interest all the way through.

Disappointed and Irritated

The premise of this book was so exciting in the description! While the information presented was incongruous and somewhat scattered, it could’ve been saved by a decent narration. Dude, STOP with the fake accents! This narrator drove me bonkers with the voices and deliberately not-monotone monotone.

Engaging, With Good Human Anecdotes

Progresses through the trails of microbes to insects to prehistoric animals to current animals and then humans, focusing on the Appalachian Trail and its international extension, though he covers others near the end.

The narrator employed an unusual feature, taking on the regional and international English accents of the various people in the vignettes. You get used to it, and he is good at it.

There will be stand-out moments, and they will be the human anecdotes, from the house in Morocco to the old man at the end.

A particularly stick-in-the-mind moment was when he was addressing a park service gathering of kids about the geology, and he was mentioning rocks that were (a mere) two million years old, and the lady in charge of the kids came up and grabbed the mic (just imagine the audacity of that alone), and told the kids, "He meant to say two-thousand years old" (to fit Christian dogma). She then upbraided him for not respecting their beliefs. The outrage is that she did not respect reality and our need to survive in it, and that she was insane as well as suicidal, it was socially condoned.

He let it go at that, and I'm sure the lady's actions were so unexpectedly outrageous that he had no worked-out response at the ready. I did not let it go at that, and I had to ponder the correct response, which would have been:

"You are right, ma'am, I should give you your due regard, and here it is: No, kids, the rocks are two million years old. Now let me give you some wise life advice, kids: Get as far away from this whacked-out, mind-controlling cult lady as soon, and as fast, as you can, definitely when you grow up, and don't look back - because she does not have your best interest in mind - she does not have a grasp on reality, and she is trying to keep you ignorant and your minds in the dark so you will conform to what she has ignorantly conformed to, just to justify her ignorantly conforming to it."

Even that would not have been emotionally satisfying enough for me, but I think I would have called Social Services on her and the kid's parents, to see if they actually knew what kind of person they entrusted their kids to, and if they wanted their kids to be that out of touch with reality.

So the book stimulated extended life-situation ponderings like that, which was worth it right there.

The author does occasionally venture into philosophy, but only casually and in passing, and the results were a good reflection of Continued Universal Human Cluelessness (read the Philosophy of Broader Survival for the details).

This is a great book

I recommend it. This is more than just a “trail” book, actually as much exploration as trail.

reader kept changing his voice

The narrator changed his voice when reading quotes and it threw me off when listening.

Might change your life

The strength of this book is that the author is pretty objective (especially in interviews). It is mostly just telling stories. So his main points are shown, not told (just as recommended in any writing class). The last section, however does have some moralizing. The reader was clear and a good match for the book.

Walking, woods, and philosophy. Narrator is great

This book blew my mind at least four separate times. I didn’t necessarily expect such an intellectual take on environmentalism. I’m not sure why. I’m of course pleasantly surprised, even though the chapters on sheepherding and deerhunting were a bit lingering. However, there’s literally no way I’m not going to immediately listen to this again, so I’m sure those aspects will come together more as part of the whole. Just like a network….of….trails ahhh mind blown again! Thank you audible for promoting this in a sale. The narrator is also great - no complaints.

Decent book, poor audio

The text itself was fine, albeit a bit too self-centered. The performance however, was grating, especially the dumb voices he used when quoting others.