Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart: the book

/ carrot quinn

thru hiking will break your heart

Boom! My book is available on Amazon.

Two years of work to make this 390 page adventure tale that I’ve looked at so much I no longer have any idea if it’s any good or not.

Check it out on Amazon here- Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart

Also, Amazon makes a free kindle app that will allow you to read the book on any screen- free kindle app

This book is the story of my 2013 PCT thru-hike; as such, if you’ve read my journal from that year, you already know most of the plot twists. It is, however, heavily edited and polished to make for extra-pleasant reading flow and there is a dash of backstory and more character development and even a romance (or two). I chose to focus on just my 2013 thru-hike because there is nothing like the wonder and beauty of a person’s first long-distance trail, and I wanted to preserve some of that.

If I owe you a paper copy of the book, you should’ve gotten an email/update from me in the last day or so. If you received no such email/update, please email me directly at carrotquinn4@gmail.com. You should receive your physical copy in the mail by May 5.

If I owe you a digital copy of the book, you’ll receive an email within the next week with details on how to download yours.

As for everyone else, the book is available on Amazon as an ebook for now. I’ll make the paper version available to the general public this fall, after I return from hiking season. I’m doing this because I have a terrible fear, even though I had editing help, that there are typos that I missed. (If you find a typo, please email me at carrotquinn4@gmail.com.) (update: I’ve fixed some typos. Thank you!) I can easily update the ebook file in the fall and fix any typos I find, which will also update everyone’s downloaded copies, but paper copies are not so easily fixed, especially while I’m on the trail.

Don’t fret tho. The ebook version is inexpensive, which is cool. It also uses no paper, weighs nothing, and as I mentioned above, Amazon makes a free kindle app that will allow you to read it on any screen. Get the app here- kindle app

After you’ve read the book, if you feel like you’ve gotten something from it, please leave me an honest review on the book’s Amazon page- Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart

The more reviews the book has, the more visible it will be on Amazon, and the better chance it will have of surviving Amazon’s internal algorithms.

There are a lot of great thru-hiking memoirs out there, and I’m excited to add mine to the canon. And… to move on to something else. For the love of god.

I start the 2,800 mile Continental Divide Trail on May 5. I’ll write a blog post for each day that I’m on the trail. As exhausting as it is, I love blogging while I’m on the trail. There’s nothing like it! I’m excited to share this trail will y’all.

Next winter I’ll likely work on my next book, which has nothing to do with hiking. The book is about riding freight trains, and the irreconcilable contradictions of the universe, and learning to forgive my mother. Also about growing up in poverty in Alaska, and Catholicism, and the inherent/inherited tendencies of goodness/evil. And just generally about how really bad shit can happen and there’s not any reason for it. But also beauty. And is suffering inherently beautiful? Etc. The book is called The Sunset Route.

Enjoy this hiking book, y’all. I hope it’s escapist for you, and makes you stay up past your bedtime, and maybe even makes you cry a little bit (in a good way).

61 thoughts on “Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart: the book”

  3. Congrats Carrot!
    Just downloaded it from Amazon. My first ebook, no kidding. I’m totally looking forward reading. It’s going to double the excitement for my PCT thru next year. Thanks for writing, sharing and yep, being an inspiration.

  5. I’m going to have my wife get the e-version from Amazon.
    I sure enjoyed reading your blogs, and look forward to more of the same on your next adventure!
    I see you are a survivor of Catholicism…me too. I went to primary school from ’50 to ’59.
    You take care of yourself Carrot!
    Best wishes from Camp Hays

  6. Just bought it. I will need to resist the urge to binge read it since I am studying for my ARE exams right now. Thanks and good luck on the CDT!

  8. Intelligent decision to postpone the print version ’til the typos are weeded out. In describing your first few days on the trail, you used both spellings: tendinitis and tendonitis. Maybe you want to stick to one or the other? ~~ eArThworm [retired Librarian and amateur proofreader]

  10. Just bought the Kindle version of your book “Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart”. Really look forward to reading. Wishing you good fortune and success on your CDT hike. Stay safe!

  11. Both are correct and mean the same – inflammation of a tendon.

    Bought your book to support fellow writer and adventurer. Looking forward to reading it.

  12. Kudos to you, Carrot, for:

    (a) Sticking out the tough, boring, and anxiety-producing writing/editing process;
    (b) Going DIY; and
    (c) Offering the eBook at such a reasonable (ungreedy) price. I’m sure this strategy will only bring you more readers in the end.

      • I think you are seriously undervaluing yourself by selling it for such a low price. I would have paid triple (at least) for it.

  13. CONGRATULATIONS, CARROT! CAN’T WAIT TO READ IT. I KNOW I’LL LOVE IT. VERY BEST TO YOU, NANCY PARKER ASHLAND, OREGON

  16. I look forward to buying the hardcopy, as im too dumb for e-reader shit. please let us know when the hard copy comes out so i can buy buy buy! cheers and best wishes!

  17. Yay! Congratulations, Carrot! I’ve been holding out on ebooks, but I simply cannot wait until fall to read your book! Downloaded Kindle for my Android and now my weekend is planned! I will probably have to get a hard copy too because the cover is rad. I am so excited for your CDT posts because that is a whole new world for me. Rooting for your book’s success. Posted it on FB and will leave a review for you soon!

  18. I keep praising your writing to my wife and friends– I bore them with my hiking stories, but your descriptions and insights are much more thoughtful. I just downloaded the Kindle app to my iPad so I could read this; I also would like a hard copy when it comes out. Please keep me on your list for the next book. David

  19. Wishing you the best of luck this summer. I’m looking forward to reading your book when it arrives. I hope you find as much or more beauty and magic on the CDT as I did last year.

  20. I started following your blog in the middle of PCT 2014 (when you appeared on Metafilter), and I love your writing style. Your recent links got me following a bunch of other trail blogs, and now all my spare phone time is spent catching up on the far-flung journeys of you, Notachance, Sheriff Woody, Jason Reamy, and Wired. You’ve sparked an obsession, and I’m stoked to get out camping and hiking as soon as my schedule will let me. Going on a great long-distance thru-hike is now high on my long-term goals; perhaps I will have a trail name some day as well.

    I just bought the e-book (haven’t read about your PCT 2013 hike yet from the archives, though I’ve read several of your older posts and they’re amazing too), and I’m looking forward to reading it. Thanks for being so sharing and putting such goodness out into the world. Your lifestyle is an inspiration to me. Looking forward to CDT!

  21. It is good! I stayed up way past my bedtime last night reading it. Thanks for writing it. Have a marvelous hike on the CDT. I’ll be hiking the Colorado Trail in July but suspect you’ll have passed me by by then. Rebecca

  22. Hi Carrot! Sparkle Motion here. I hiked the PCT last year with our now mutual friend Jason Reamy, or “Thigh Gap,” as I am more accustomed to calling him. I was just catching up on his blog and noted that he is in need of some new media to listen to on the trail. I was gonna suggest that he listen to the audiobook “Through Hiking Will Break Your Heart” written and read by Carrot Quinn, before I realized that you haven’t released the audiobook yet! When will your vocal cadences bring these stories alive for all the your co-walkers out there?

  23. Thanks for sharing this! Writing a memoir about thru hiking is something many people dream of. I’m glad you did it and it’s out there! Cheers!

  24. Way to go, Carrot! It takes a lot of courage to self-publish a book like this. Cannot wait to read more of your writing this summer.

  25. Congrats, Carrot, on finally completing The Book! I might have to wait for a paper copy as I have no Kindle, tablet, smartphone, or other electronic device on which to read an ebook…except my laptop, which would be excruciating. And just be forewarned that cell service is spotty, if not impossible, to come by in much of Montana, so daily blog posts might be a wee bit of a challenge when you get here (as will finding water, I think—it’s so damn dry right now)…but my agua offer still stands if you need it. : )

  27. Thanks for writing this book – it’s entertaining and incredibly motivating. There were such random bits at the beginning that I identified with – I also began 2012 living in a travel trailer in a friend’s driveway in Portland, and I used to walk by the classical music house all the time…that part made me laugh. I’ve read a few thru-hiking memoirs and yours kept me reading till the end, which isn’t something I can say about all of them. Keep up the good work documenting your experiences!

  28. When will the book be available on paperback? I am a reading, underlining and folding pages kind of reader.

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