I’ve just added this book to the “Appalachian Trail. Planning Guides.” category:
Davis, Zach. Appalachian Trials: A Psychological and Emotional Guide to Successfully Thru-Hiking the Appalachian Trail. [San Francisco]: Zach Davis, 2012.
This is one of the very few guides to planning for the MENTAL challenges of a thruhike.
And it doesn’t hurt that there’s some humor thrown in.