Who recommended Wild?

8 people have recommended Wild in the interviews, articles and reading lists we track, including Tim Ferriss, Oprah Winfrey, Emma Watson and Shane Parrish. Each name links to their full reading list.

Is Wild worth reading?

8 people we track recommend it. It is best for: a mid-level office worker rethinking priorities after a breakup or loss, wanting narrative permission to imagine a radical life reset and to feel less alone in the messy middle of change; a weekend hiker planning a future long-distance trail who wants vivid, on-the-ground scenes and emotional realism rather than step-by-step logistics; an MFA student or memoir-writer studying voice and scene—useful as an example of first-person intensity, sensory detail, and how memory interrupts travel narrative. It may not suit: you’ll likely put it down when long stretches shift from forward motion to inward flashbacks and repeated reflection—if you need steady plot momentum, the middle can feel slow; annoying if you prefer practical information: this is not a trail guide and contains no hands-on hiking instruction or checklists; lose interest if you dislike confessional tone or sentimentality: the emotional candor is constant and sometimes lapses into repetition.

What books are like Wild?

Readers of Wild also turn to The Hard Thing About Hard Things, The Alchemist and A Guide to the Good Life, based on the lists and recommenders these books share.

Wild by Cheryl Strayed: Recommended by 8 People

Name: Wild
Author: Cheryl Strayed

At twentysix, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother's rapid death from cancer, her family drifted apart and her marriage crumbled. With nothing left to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to walk elevenhundred miles of the west coast of America and to do it alone. She had no experience of lo...