Best books about touring?
 

I seem to recall seeing a thread there not too long ago (maybe a year or so?) about all our favorite books about touring, but now I can't find it. I did find a short thread ffrom back in 2004, but there wasn't too much in that one. Anybody have a link to the more current thread? If not, what are your favorite books about touring?

I really, really, REALLY like Miles from Nowhere by Barbara Savage. Also - Joe Kurmaskie is a personal friend and I enjoyed his Momentum is your Friend book a lot.

Josie Dew's books are a good read, e.g. Wind in my Wheels, Travels in a Strange State
Second your nomination of Barbara Savage
Marty Basch has two interesting books including Against the Wind
Cold Beer and Crocodiles by Roff Smith (and more so his National Geographic articles) inspired
me prior to riding around Australia
I'm not much of a Dervla Murphy fan but she comes well recommended
Scott Zamek's book One More Horizon is pretty impressive though also an example
of not the best advanced planning

My bookshelf has half a dozen other touring accounts, but list above include my favorites.

You can find all kinds of books at your local library. You can also go to Adventure Cycling for maps and even subscribe to their magazine along with books you can buy. You can also do a web search for "bicycle Touring" and turn up many good sites on touring including Ken Kifer and Crazy Guy on a Bike just to name a couple. Just do the research and have fun learning.

I really like John Foster Fraser's "Around the world on bicycle". Three british chaps rode around the world during the late 19th century. They had quite an adventure to say the least.

All,

I believe that Nancy is referring to this thread: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=490143

I made my preferences known there, so I'll refrain from repeating myself. I'm currently reading Fat Man on a Roman Road by Tom Vernon and it's enjoyable but I don't think it will replace any of my top favorites. Next up will be Off the Map by Mark Jenkins and A Fork in the Road by Anik See.

Happy reading (and cycling, natch) to all.

I think Nancy might be familiar with these two resources in particular ;)

Thanks 7speed - that is exactly the thread I was referring to. I knew it was there somewhere!

Thanks to all for the great books listed - I'm always on the prowl for a good read. (Although right now I'm mostly limited to whatever I can scrounge up in traveler hotels!)

Not specifically about touring itself, but Graham Robb "has written an excellent history of France as seen from the provinces and from the seat of a bicycle". It's a fantastic read if you are at all interested in history / France or the both, and comes from a man who biked it. You can often gather where he was or how it was to be there from his writing, but he doesn't write about riding / etc.

I enjoyed Neil Peart's The Masked Rider, about a tour through Cameroon.

I forgot about The Masked Rider! I started reading that and then lost the book so never had a chance to finish it.

I really liked "Miles from nowhere" by Barbara Savage, and also all three of the Joe Kurmaskie (Metal Cowboy) books.

You would think, but my local library has less than two shelves of cycling books, and only 4 titles about the adventure of touring.

Two of those are Kurmaskie's Metal Cowboy books. Great reads for the aspiring tourist.

The other two are "You Can't Ride a Bike to Alaska. It's an Island!" and Going the Distance: the George Thomas story (which technically is about ultra-marathon riding and Race Across America). Neither of them are particularly awesome. I would recommend neither to a non-cyclist. But since I'm prepping for a summer tour they're getting me a little psyched up.

Nancy,
Here's another older thread on touring books. http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...51#post1196051
Wells