I enjoyed Tim Krabbe's The Rider as a sweet look back at 5 cog steel frame wool jersey racing....the cyclist's pain and endurance is, in much larger fashion, what I feel on tough weekend rides. I've been to the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, CA where his restored pickup w/camper Rosinante is on display...for those who love the book, it's almost a shrine!

I finished all 20 complete Aubrey Materin novels...took me 9 years. After the first 5, I began rationing them out, like a castaway sailor, to put off eventually running out. Once past the need to translate all the nautical terms, and having grown familiar with many, e.g. "spotted dog", the "afterguard", etc., the novels flow so smoothly you can overlook the subtlety and play of dialog and ironic humor. A sort of, but far more sophisticated and rewarding, Star Trek.

For novels, I'd recommend Mark Helprin's "Soldier of the Great War"...one of those that truly are what critics call epic, 'luminous", hard to put down, blah, blah. The protagonist Allesandro Guilliani I still consider a friend.