Mountaineering books can afford to stick to nuts and bolts, because climbers are facing a variety of technical challenges at virtually every moment of a climb. Hikers spend very large amounts of time just walking. It is hard to make walking into a technical feat and very few bolts are required, even if there are a goodly number of nuts.

My point is that hiking books almost by necessity need to be about the hiker as much as the hike. In the case of Colin Fletcher, he was solo hiking in remote and untrammeled spots, so there can't even be the drama of interpersonal actions. No dialogue there but internal dialogue. So, you get philosophical refections as a matter of course. It has nothing to do with hippes.

I didn't mind and I wasn't bored. But then, I walk solo through remote places very often and am not bored then, either.