Since I dont stand around at a bike shop and watch them a lot, I went to Barnes and Noble today and bought 3 books:

Im pretty excited to learn a lot more. Plus the color pic books are so much easier to see.

All I need now is a nice set of tools.

I just picked up Serious Cycling by Edmund Burke a couple weeks ago. I've read some of it before.

I've also read:

Bicycling Medicine by Arnie Baker

and

The Complete Book of Long Distance Cycling by Edmund Burke and Ed Pavelka

and

Travel's in A Strange State by Josie Dew


I've referred to several others as well.

I do the 1/2 Priced Books store and get great deals on manuals and other bike related reading plus other areas. I've scored like new leather bound books for as little as $6.

pride myself on builing a library of bike books. Latest is Inside the Postal Bus.

I asked for and received Zinn and the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance for Christmas. So far it's a great book.

My most recent additions to the library were:

• Bicycling Science
• Tour De France - A visual history of the world's greatest bicycle race.

I have 'Bicycle Maintenance and Repair' by Todd Downs. I rate it as just OK.
I also have 'The Complete Book of Bicycling' by Eugene Sloane, published in 1970. Bicycles have changed considerably since Mr. Sloane wrote 'The hallmark of a good bicycle is a lugged frame.....'

My wife is getting her first road bike this week coming up... so, the other day I bought her a book titled: The New Cyclist edited by Ben Hewitt(I think)

anyways.... it has the basics and some not so basic stuff. She's enjoying it so far.

FYI: it's the first book i've ever bought on cycling(excluding magazine's)

- yes, i read bicycle books... Barnett's is a good example...

- i find the discussion of Loctite 222 in chapter 1 very interesting...

- it's nice to know that this formulation is effective on thread diameters up to 6mm!

:-)

(minutiae aside, there are lots of good things to learn from bicycle books)

Over the years, I've acquired dozens of books relating to bicycles and cycling. One of my favorite types ( many of which have been written over the past 130 years) are books by folks who took off on amazing journeys on a bike. All the way around the USA, following the outer borders. All the way around Australia. From New Jersey to New Mexico, on Schwinn Suburbans, with a wife, two teens, and a toddler. Most of their gear in wire baskets. And so on. Makes me think I might try such a thing someday.

Another "genre" are the "Everything You Need to Know About Cycling" books. It is fun to compare a EYNKAC book from 1970 with one from 2005. Thirty years ago, the assumption was that you would be doing long tours, or commuting to jobs or school. Now the assumption seems to be that you are riding to "get fitter", or "get faster"...

Old-time repair manuals are interesting. Many provide detailed instructions on how to take apart and repair a three speed hub. I've never met anyone who dared to do so , but the old-time books assume any 'ol bike owner might want to attempt that feat.

Funny. We went to B&N today and I got "The 2005 Tour de France" book. Other books I own are a few by/coauthored by Lance. Probably will buy more books written about/by other riders.

complete book of road bike training; bicycle: the history; medical guide for cyclists; long distance cycling; both books by lance; nutrition for peak performance; optimal muscle performance and recovery; the rider; and a couple others in my library. I read them all, and now they just sit for past few years.

I'm trying to get Frankie Andreu to write a book about his career. So far, he's only said "maybe" and "someday".
He doesn't realize how many people would read it.

I wouldn't say I "read" bicycle books so much as I consult bicycle books. That's to say that I don't typically pick up a cycling related book and read it cover-to-cover but rather I'll use it as a reference for when I need to look up some handy piece of information much as I consult an encyclopedia. I pick up a few new books every now and then but most of the time, I like to peruse the library system's regular booksales. They usually have something going like, "$5 per grocery bag of books" so I stock up.

Most of the new books I buy are things like trail and ride guides such as the ones from Terragraphics which have excellent maps and route descriptions. One book I really treasure is my personally signed copy of Ned Overend's Mountain Bike Like a Champion because Ned is my cycling hero and was my inspiration during the early 1990s when I was racing XC. And Bicycling Science is a great book... especially if you're a technogeek like myself.

Here's a picture of a portion of the somewhat disorganised cycling section of my book shelf. A few books are missing because they're sitting on coffee tables or my desk.

http://www.neebu.net/~khuon/albums/v..._003.thumb.jpg

I keep coming back to the "Ballantine's Bicycle Book" I bought in the seventies. A great resource, and well written too.

Erling

Do any of these books have good info on the more modern components, like STI?

Bicycling Magazine's maintenance and repair book and the Zinn road and mountain bike books have released new editions within the past several months, so newer componentry is covered to some extent.

Aside from maintenance and repair books, I've read some good bicycling-related fiction and memoir/diary type stuff. Tim Krabbe's "The Rider" was great. And I'm going to start Joe Kurmaskie's "Metal Cowboy: Tales from the Road Less Pedaled" as soon as I finish Stephen King's last Dark Tower book.

I'd also like to pick up Mike Magnuson's "Heft on Wheels," since he was one of my university program's professors while I was a student.

Well, I got "The Ultimate Bicycle Book" and "Bicycling Science 3" for christmas. I read "The Art of Urban Cycling" by Robert Hurst a couple of months ago, and watched Ned Overend's Performance Mountain Biking video.

The stuff that sticks with me are some of my older books like "Bicycles In War" by Martin Caidin and "Between my Legs" by Chaim Sil.

I have a couple of maintenance books and several training books. I also have Lance's books.

I tend to gravitate towards touring books. Just finished "Riding with the Blue Moth" by Bill Hancock. My grandfather just passed away, so it was especially relevant. Good stuff.

About a week prior wrapped up "It's Not About the Bike" by Lance. It was pretty cool getting his inside scoop, although I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to a non-cyclist.

The more technical the better.
Pictures are great too. :)