Cycling books

I found his iron curtain book entertainment enough to read to the end. Haven't read that one.

There's always a nugget in those books, even for cynical nerds!

Nah. Popular ‘factual’ writing can f off. I hate it, constantly trying to convince you their special interest is special. Bore off.

I found his iron curtain book entertainment enough to read to the end. Haven't read that one.

No offence to the writer (may well be On Here!) and I probably will have a go at starting it. But if anything gets up my nose in the first two pages, chances are I’ll give up.

The only cycle books I value are Richard Ballantyne’s masterpiece and Jobst Brandt’s book on wheelbuilding. How-tos, basically.

i’ll have it off your dog (when he she has done with it) as his account of trying to coax a donkey along the camino de santiago was v funny

I read his similar book about the Vuelta route in 1942. The non cycling context was very good as it all dealt withe Franco omerta that still seems to operate about the Spanish civil war and WWII.

However the illustrations and funny bits seemed destined to appeal to Skully's [well meaning relative] and if anything I err to Skully's opinion. Sounds like your family have stuffed you.

I think The Escape Artist is a beautiful book, as much about loss as it is about cycling.

I was going to say. Sometimes not all books about cycling are about cycling.

The new Jobst Brandt book by Isola is excellent.

I think The Escape Artist is a beautiful book, as much about loss as it is about cycling.

Thanks Andy. That actually has piqued my interest. I’ll give it a go sometime, still unread on the shelf. I think sometimes the cycling element to a book is just an immediate turnoff for me.

I think sometimes ‘demand-avoidance’ is a thing with me: if someone gives me/tells me to read a book … “you’ll love it” … I just won’t be told.

I'm a compulsive buyer and eventual reader of all cycling books anyway so the opposite of poor Skulls. I do enjoy Tim's books more than the more scientific/training stuff I used to read a lot of. I'm more into the travel ones and reading one now about cycle tourists doing the first crossing of the Darien gap which is pretty cool.

Ian Hibell did some amazing rides

That's the guy.

Into the Remote Places, from 1985.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0722145381/