Killing the Buddha on the Appalachian Trail: Walking on Through Self-Doubt and Aging

Why read about hiking the Appalachian Trail from someone who at first seems ill-equipped for the task ahead? That is part of the point of this story and the charm of this thoughtful book, which quickly grows on you: to learn from mistakes, to keep going, despite failures. There are the rigors of the AT, the doubts over physical ability and confidence, the way chance and life interfere, but also good things that keep showing up—sunsets, trail magic, ravens—if one just keeps going." - Rick Van Noy author of Sudden Spring: Stories of Adaptation in a Climate-Changed South "Turner’s reference to killing the Buddha symbolically presents an important lesson that must be continually attended while rambling through the wilderness. When we project our own conceptions onto the wild, we fail to become present with the other who stands before us, whether that is a fellow human, plant, animal, or a mountain. Killing the Buddha is a gesture of erasing our conceptions so that we might encounter the wild." - Kip Redick author of American Camino: Walking as Spiritual Practice on the Appalachian Trail