Originally Posted by vkalia

One was "The Man Who Cycled the World" by Mark Beaumont, who set some sort of pointless Guinness World Record for.. wait for it... cycling around the world. His route took him to some very interesting places (Iran, Pakistan, Eastern Europe etc) and I was looking forward to reading about his experiences there. Sadly, this book is extremely disappointing. If you want to read a day-by-day detail of the minutiae of his trip, it's fine. But for any insights into the places he visits, it is extremely shallow and indicates a level of self-absorption that is amazing - even allowing for the author's young age and relative lack of exposure to the world. For example, he cycles through Pakistan - which is having enough problems at the moment - and some cops are assigned to follow him and make sure he is safe. Apparently, there are some miscommunications and they try to get him to ride in their jeep a few times instead of cycling through some unsafe regions of Pakistan.. pretty much a whole chapter is dedicated to his complaining how those people do not understand the importance of what he is trying to do (nevermind the fact that his cocooned desires are putting the lives of these underpaid policemen at potential risk, all for some obscure world record).