I’ve been writing about cycling for 30 years and over that time I’ve become increasingly fascinated by the exploits of bike racers in the mountains and, above all, by this magnificent terrain itself. This ultimately led to my family leaving our home in the north of England and moving to the French Pyrenees, to a tiny hamlet that’s close to nowhere but is surrounded by mountains, where we can walk and ride endlessly through stunning countryside. I may not be French, but this is where I feel most at home.
Tim has long been one of the funniest writers to cover the cycling scene and its many quirks.
All of his books are very readable, but this one stands out for me because it gets to the heart of the horrendous difficulties and dangers that riders in the early 20th century faced when racing in the mountains.
Tim follows the route of the 1914 Giro d’Italia, and does so on a bike from that era. His tales of how he came by bike and then builds up are hilariously recounted, then lead into the ride itself on what is widely recognized as the toughest multi-day race the sport has ever seen, only eight of 81 starters finishing the event. It’s laugh-out-loud funny.
The 1914 Giro d’Italia: The hardest bike race in history. Eighty-one riders started and only eight finished after enduring cataclysmic storms, roads strewn with nails, and even the loss of an eye by one competitor. And now Tim Moore is going to ride it. And he’s committed to total authenticity. . .
Twelve years after Tim Moore toiled around the route of the Tour de France, he senses his achievement being undermined by the truth about 'Horrid Lance'. His rash response is to take on a fearsome challenge from an age of untarnished heroes: the notorious 1914 Giro d'Italia. History's…
Outdoors has always been a nourishing place for me, even when I edged into risky or dangerous places, especially solo. When I got rid of my car (for financial reasons), I found my options to reach outdoor adventures limited. Soon after, I began working in transportation, tourism, and recreation and sought ways for everyone to access outdoor recreational opportunities, regardless of their abilities or any limiting barriers. Slow travel is broadly inclusive, enabling anyone to benefit from outdoor experiences and their transformative potential. Slow travel helped me feel less alone, more connected, more balanced emotionally, healthier physically, and more creative; it revealed the path to Love.
Yes, give me one woman adventuring on a bike. Yes, have her be a nerd (or a geek or whatever)! Yes, have her teach me fun words about butterfly bugs, like frass, imago, instar, and eclose. Yes, have her take me to a mountain forest in Mexico where butterflies hang from trees like moss. Yes, the journey is the destination.
I applaud Dykman’s awareness of resource use, climate change, and connecting the whole sphere of human influence to ecology and the effect that has on the miraculous migration lifecycle of eastern monarch butterflies. It blows my mind that a little bug somehow knows to fly from Mexico to Canada and back when it takes three to four generations to do so.
Sara Dykman made history when she became the first person to bicycle alongside monarch butterflies on their storied annual migration-a round-trip adventure that included three countries and more than 10,000 miles. Equally remarkable, she did it solo, on a bike cobbled together from used parts.
In Bicycling with Butterflies-praised as "poetic" (Publishers Weekly) and called "a collective cry for climate action" (Booklist)-Dykman recounts her incredible journey. We're beside her as she navigates unmapped roads in foreign countries, checks roadside milkweed for monarch eggs, and shares her passion with eager schoolchildren, skeptical bar patrons, and unimpressed border officials. We also meet…
I was instantly attracted to this book because of its cover—the title Wild Blue is very intriguing and the bike’s shadow that becomes a horse is so clever.
I loved all the illustrations—they perfectly captured how Kayla (the main character) sees bikes to be horses. The author’s word choices, showing us how Kayla is a cowgirl and a budding horseback rider made me smile. I also loved Wild Blue’s character and Kayla’s determination to tame her.
Plus, I love horses, biking, and the great outdoors, so this book is a great fit for me!
In a charming take on a milestone moment, a young girl summons a cowpoke's courage to tame her intimidating new bicycle.
Kayla loves riding her pink pony, a three-wheeled bike, up and down the street, day after day. But then Daddy announces that it's time for a big-kid bike, one with just two wheels. At the store, Kayla selects her mount, but when she tries to ride it, she is thrown-again and again. Can she tame this intimidating set of wheels? Or is the new blue bike just too wild? Tender and relatable, Wild Blue captures the emotions of moving…
As a cyclist from a young age (thanks to the encouragement and engineering of my dad—he literally welded one of my first bikes together from the carcass of another kid’s bike that was run over by a car in his driveway on accident), I’ve always had a fondness for bicycles and, more specifically, *riding* bicycles. So, as is probably common for anyone who is fond of something, I’ve spent years exploring it from as many angles as possible. In the process, I’ve loved studying bicycles in motion, along with collecting artistic and philosophical expressions that center the act of getting around on two wheels under your own power.
If you’ve ever found yourself commuting by bicycle across a city on a wet winter’s night, or wondered about riding across the country, there are nuggets of raw truth and solidarity in the essays, interviews, stories, artwork, and poetry that compromise The Best of Boneshaker.
Ten years in the making, this throwback, almanac-inspired collection features contributors that range from Lee Ranaldo (of Sonic Youth) to writer Kjerstin Johnson, poets Michael Bazzett and Susan Moore, and Colorado Book Award-winning author and journalist Jonathan Waldman.
It’s been called a delightful companion for you and your bike, and for good reason. If you’re looking for inspiration to get out on your bike more often, it lies within these pocket-sized pages.
I’m a writer, living in southwest France since 1995, and previously in Kenya for 20 years. Travel has always been my passion. I’ve written about hiking across France in Best Foot Forward, touring the perimeter by camping car in Travels with Tinkerbelle, cycling through the Marne Valley in The Valley of Heaven and Hell, and a Kenyan safari in Safari Ants, Baggy Pants and Elephants. Recently, due to COVID and with an elderly dog that suffers from separation anxiety, I couldn't leave for any length of time; I satisfy my wanderlust by reading other people’s adventures. My taste is for tales that include plenty of humour, and I’ve selected five which I have particularly enjoyed.
This made me laugh until I cried. It blends a harebrained idea with a social experiment. Two men decide to cycle from the southernmost tip of England to the far north of Scotland. They have no bicycles. They also have no clothes, food, or money.
Barefoot, wearing nothing but Union Jack boxer shorts, off they set in a freezing gale. The outcome of their journey will depend entirely on the kindness and generosity of strangers.
"...spent last night laughing so much my coffee came out my eyes..." "...this book is quite simply the best I've read in years..." "...a completely bonkers challenge and a brilliantly funny read, I couldn't put it down..." "...it reminded me of some of Danny Wallace and Dave Gorman's best bits..." "...this wonderful story had me crying with laughter more often than not..." "...inspiring, uplifting, need I say more? Quite brilliant..." "...funny, totally engrossing and actually quite moving..." "...one of the most heart-warming, genuinely funny books I have read in a long time..."…
I’m an OB/GYN, passionate about adventuring beyond what’s expected. This has led me to pivot multiple times in my career, now focusing on writing. I’ve written a play, The Post-Roe Monologues, to elevate women’s stories. I cherish the curiosity that drives outer and inner exploration, and I love memoirs that skillfully weave the two. The books on this list feature extraordinary women who took risks, left comfort and safety, and battled vulnerability to step into the unknown. These authors moved beyond the stories they’d believed about themselves–or that others told about them. They invite you to think about living fuller and bigger lives.
I found the author's gorgeous writing and deep reflection to be irresistible. Harris is a true explorer of the world and the self as well as a brilliant writer.
This book showcases the curiosity and awe that drove Harris and her best friend to bicycle across the Silk Road. While pedaling out of bounds on her bicycle, she effortlessly led me to new territories of thought and imagination. Her descriptions are vivid, and I identified fully with her love of wildness.
"Lands of Lost Borders carried me up into a state of openness and excitement I haven't felt for years. It's a modern classic."-Pico Iyer
A brilliant, fierce writer, and winner of the 2019 RBC Taylor Prize, makes her debut with this enthralling travelogue and memoir of her journey by bicycle along the Silk Road-an illuminating and thought-provoking fusion of The Places in Between, Lab Girl, and Wild that dares us to challenge the limits we place on ourselves and the natural world.
As a teenager, Kate Harris realized that the career she craved-to be an explorer, equal parts swashbuckler and…
Until recently, my lovely in-laws kept a home in southern France near where my father-in-law grew up. Their hilltop village was everything my summer-in-France fantasies could imagine: red-tile roofs, overflowing flower boxes, croissants on every corner (or at least four), bustling markets, and palm trees framing a snowcapped peak. Downsizing in their eighties meant selling the house, but some of my fondest memories will always reside there. This summer most of my travels will take place from my garden in Colorado. I plan to trek the world through books. These are some of my favorite reads for an armchair trip to France through romance, mysteries, exploration, and cooking.
This book is a delicious food memoir, travelogue, and two-wheeling adventure around France. London-based food writer Felicity Cloake sets out on her own Tour de France: a cycling tour to taste France’s iconic regional delicacies. Now, I’m an ardent Tour de France fan—from my sofa!
As for cycling, I stick to quiet bike paths. I’m in awe of Cloake’s tour and bravery. She cycles long distances on motorways. She crests mountains. She lugs camping gear. She camps! I felt right there with her, rolling through gorgeous places, struggling uphill, savoring stunning meals, and envying every croissant, even those she rated less than ten out of ten.
I enjoyed the audio version so much that I bought a paper copy for the included recipes.
'Joyful, life-affirming, greedy. I loved it' - DIANA HENRY
'Whether you are an avid cyclist, a Francophile, a greedy gut, or simply an appreciator of impeccable writing - this book will get you hooked' - YOTAM OTTOLENGHI
The nation's 'taster in chief' cycles 2,300 km across France in search of the definitive versions of classic French dishes.
A green bike drunkenly weaves its way up a cratered hill in the late-morning sun, the gears grinding painfully, like a pepper mill running on empty. The rider crouched on top in a rictus of pain has slowed to a gravity-defying crawl when,…
I’m a writer, living in southwest France since 1995, and previously in Kenya for 20 years. Travel has always been my passion. I’ve written about hiking across France in Best Foot Forward, touring the perimeter by camping car in Travels with Tinkerbelle, cycling through the Marne Valley in The Valley of Heaven and Hell, and a Kenyan safari in Safari Ants, Baggy Pants and Elephants. Recently, due to COVID and with an elderly dog that suffers from separation anxiety, I couldn't leave for any length of time; I satisfy my wanderlust by reading other people’s adventures. My taste is for tales that include plenty of humour, and I’ve selected five which I have particularly enjoyed.
This is possibly the worst cycling adventure ever undertaken. It makes my list because everything that can go wrong does. Her bicycle is too big. Everything is shut. There’s no hot water in the showers. Yet still they pedal on.
Even the Greek island cruise is a disaster.
Acerbic, honest, extremely non-PC, it’s a schadenfreude delight. I rather unkindly couldn’t wait for the next catastrophe to strike this couple, because it made me laugh so much.
“Inspiring proof that you need neither be under 25 nor even bearded to have a terrific adventure.” Alastair Humphreys, Author & Adventurer When Donna and Iain, a couple in their late forties with no previous cycling experience, decide on the spur of the moment to cycle across an entire continent, you can rightly assume things might not go according to plan. Armed with little knowledge but much determination, they attempt a self-supported cycle tour, carrying everything they need and camping along the way, normally the domain of hardy, beardy adventurers or Olympic athletes. Join The Beardless Adventurer and her inconvenience…
Plus, Jacqueline's
3, and 8-year-old's favorite books.
Why did Jacqueline's
3-year-old love this book?
My three-year-old adores the magical, miniature adventures that the twin sisters in the Chirri and Chirra series take together—especially the beautiful food and drinks and gifts the sisters get to choose from wherever they go.
In this installment, she loves the family of badgers and their colorful underground river boats, and she always stops to study the illustration of glowing fantasy flowers blooming in a dark cave. (She likes to point out which one she would pick.)
Behind a hole in their basement wall, Chirri and Chirra discover a network of tunnels. Join them as they visit moles, discover caves full of glowing flowers, poke at the roots of growing plants, traverse a subterranean lake, and spend the night with a family of badgers! The fourth book in the Japanese Chirri & Chirra series, this underground adventure is sure to charm and delight.
I’m a writer, living in southwest France since 1995, and previously in Kenya for 20 years. Travel has always been my passion. I’ve written about hiking across France in Best Foot Forward, touring the perimeter by camping car in Travels with Tinkerbelle, cycling through the Marne Valley in The Valley of Heaven and Hell, and a Kenyan safari in Safari Ants, Baggy Pants and Elephants. Recently, due to COVID and with an elderly dog that suffers from separation anxiety, I couldn't leave for any length of time; I satisfy my wanderlust by reading other people’s adventures. My taste is for tales that include plenty of humour, and I’ve selected five which I have particularly enjoyed.
A beautifully painted account of the author’s journey through Africa, as much about his conflicting emotions as about cycling. Mainly eating jam sandwiches, and sleeping in dangerous places and filthy hostels, he pedals his way towards South Africa across Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and war-torn Sudan. He finds friendship in unexpected places, and disappointment in others.
It appealed to me as both a cycling adventure, and having lived in Kenya I was keen to read about his experiences in Africa.
This enthralling account details Alastair Humphrey's epic journey across Africa, through Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya. His experience is at times brutal, and though he faces loneliness, despair, and harsh conditions, he also survives through trust in the kindness of strangers.
Moods of Future Joys is a story of the triumphs over adversities, of one man who set off from his home in Yorkshire to cycle the world, fundraise for charity and... to live a little.
