General Cycling Discussion - Books you would recommend and why

It seems like there is a myriad of books on cycling...and I imagine that some of you hard-cores have already weeded through some of them....so, what books would you recommend and why?

I meant this thread for cycling books of all kinds, but why stop there? *shrugs. I'm proposing some categories so this thread isn't a soup sandwich:

MECHANICS
DIET
RIDING
WHAT I READ WHEN I'M NOT RIDING...other than bikeforums.net :)

Safety on the road, plus light treatment of other topics:
Franklin, John; "CycleCraft"
Allen, John S.; "Street Smarts"
Forester, John; "Effective Cycling"

John, when can we expect your book? ;)

Eye of the World by Robert Jordan. Best book I have EVER read. Awesome.

Gotta agree, Jordan's Wheel of Time series in terrific. :) One of the things I like is that (you men may not realize how rare this is in fantasy books) the female characters all have actual personalities of their own. :P (Though Jordan does certainly seem to have bondage and torture fantasies....)

I lean more toward humor--here are some of my favorite humor series:

1. Terry Pratchett's Discworld series--a wonderfully silly fantasy series, which improves and adds a wonderful cast of characters as it goes on. The Grim Reaper is a regular character, and somehow one of the most endearing.

2. Robert Asprin's Myth series and Phule's Company series. Myth Adventures feature the adventures of a wizard's apprentice, Skeeve, as he learns magic, works to become successful, and then is nearly destroyed by success. Funny and interesting, unfortunately Asprin got writer's block and left it unfinished. Tending toward navel-gazing toward the end. Phule's Company is the story of a rich executive who takes command of the worst unit of the space legion, and turns it around using his money and management skills.

3. Douglas Adams Hitchhiker series. The basis of all modern fantasy/science fiction humor. Monty Python In Space. Gotta read.

4. Pat McManus's books--outdoorsman's columns from a sporting magazine, with hilariously skewed adventures from his youth. (At least read the articles "Deer on a bicycle" and "The Two-Wheeled ATV.")

5. A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket--a so-called childrens series filled with dark humor, clever wordplay, and melodramatically parodic situations. If you think while you read, you will snicker through the entire series. "If you are allergic to a thing, then it is unwise to put that thing in your mouth, especially if the thing is cats."

6. Junie B Jones--another kids series (younger) about an irrepressible kindergartner. Hilarious, at any age.

Originally posted by Inkwolf
Gotta agree, Jordan's Wheel of Time series in terrific. :) <snip>
Can you believe all the websites devoted to this series? Says something.

Highly recommended:
Jobst Brandt The Bicycle Wheel - everything you've ever wanted
to know about wheels and some stuff you don't want to know
Edmund Burke Serious cycling - great if your training
for whatever, TdF, Century or just riding.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez 100 years of solitude great book but difficult at times.
Vladimir Nabokov Lolita probably the best 20th century
novel written, highly misunderstood
Thomas Pynchon Gravity's Rainbow Bizarre book about
post WWII search for buzz bombs.
Jimmy Buffett Tales From Margaritaville Fictional Facts and
Factual fiction . . . nuff said.

thats my short list.
Marty

I highlr recommend Greg Lemond's Complete Book of Bicycling. Thoughtful, well-written with a lot of useful training info and great stories. I also like thew Joe Friel training books. Brandt's The Bicycle Wheel, like Marty said, is excellent, if a little dated [though it may only be my copy that's dated].

Thoman Mann's Buddenbrooks is probably the greatest family soap opera of all time, and Robert Musil's Young Torless and The Man of No Qualities are brilliant, if chilling character studies of how pathology can be normal. I also recommend George Orwell's essays -- the greatest short-form non-fiction writing in the English language -- and Homage to Catalonia. I think he mentions bicycles a few times.

One under-appreciated classic is Andrei Biely's St. Petersberg. In it the protagonist is a revolutionary in Czarist Russia, wandering around the city with a ticking bomb, trying to decide if he can throw it at an Imperial government official... who happens to be his father.