grasscutter

Going through a bit of 'touring withdrawl".

You know what it is.

The feeling you get after a nice tour. Whether it be a quick weekend camping trip, or a weeks long multi-state escape. Either way, when I get home and unload the panniers...I get a detached feeling for a few days after. Kind of hard to jump back into the real world of jobs and responsibilities.

Looking for a good list of some good bike books. Stories of bike tours. Bike Trail guidebooks. Etc. What are the good ones? Winter is about here, and a stack of good bike reads, would be great.

Thanks...

capejohn

Hey mom, Can I ride my bike across America.

Share The Road is a really good bike across America video.

BengeBoy 

The best touring "book" I've read is Peter Gostelow's journal on Crazyguyonabike:

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?...c_id=985&v=4gU

Neil_B

David Lamb's Over The Hills. The author is 50, overweight, a smoker, and likes his scotch. He decides to ride across the US and never quite understands the reason. Fortunately he's a skilled writer, so it doesn't matter to the reader.

Ron Mclarty's novel The Memory of Running. A middle-aged, overweight Rhode Islander named Smithy Ide loses both parents in a car crash, and one night while soaked in grief and beer sits down on his old Raleigh. I suggest you read the book to find out what happens. However, be prepared to discover a comic novel with more than a little flavor of "Forrest Gump" about it. Stephen King loved the book when he came across it - it was first recorded as a book on tape - and suggested his publisher accept the manuscript.

staehpj1

I greatly enjoyed it as an audio books.

"Hey mom, Can I ride my bike across America" was fun.

biking nurse

My all time favorite: Miles from Nowhere by Barbara Savage. I also liked Partners in Grime by
Neil Anderson about a riding across Canada.

John Nelson

Miles from Nowhere is probably the most-often recommended touring book. I read and very-much enjoyed it. But Barbara focused more on the trials and tribulations of touring than the joy of it. Maybe that's just what you need if you're homebound for a while.

robertv

Cycling Home From Siberia. Forgot the authors name. It's the bomb diggity.

grasscutter

Awesome! You guys are great! I'v ealready purchased a few of the recommendations. (a great used online bookstore is abebooks.com).

And when I searched for a few of the recommended reads on Amazon...it pulled up other recommendations. You know the sales pitch "other readers also purchased...".

So, I'm ending up with a healthy stack of reads. Nice!

Cheers.

nameless

"Off the Map" by Mark Jenkins is about the first recorded crossing of Siberia on bike. Whether full-length books or collections of shorter stories (The Hard Way, A Man's Life), Jenkins writes about adventure in a way that makes you want to get outside and go have your own, no matter the weather.

+1 for Share the Road. Four segments narrated by four of the riders captures the spirit of touring in America with friends. (A shameless plug for the filmmakers--they're good friends. Brian and I took a group of high schoolers cross-country, unsupported in '05)

Neil_B

While on the subject, let me put in a plug for this fellow:

https://stanpurdum.com/Home.html

Stan Purdom is a former minister and a wonderful writer. He has two books on his tours, Roll Around Heaven All Day and Playing in Traffic. The former is an account of a cross country trip, but it's so much more than that - it's also an account of friendships among people, and how they form and are tested.

jabantik00

i like to go to crazyguy and refresh serendipity over and over and open interesting pics

blaise_f

Around the World on a Bicycle - Thomas Stevens, but maybe I'm just a bit biased on that. It's so much a story of a journal, and why it's enjoyable to me. It's probably a read every tour-cyclist should have at *some* point in their life, as it was the start to the 'sport'!

mattbicycle

Journey to the centre of the earth by nick and richard crane. I've read it three times. It's over 20 yrs old and out of print. It's about two ultra light tourers who travel from Bangladesh to the desert in north west China in less than 60 days. It's an incredible journey and a fascinating read.

MTBMaven

+1 for Miles from Nowhere. I read the book this summer while on a non-cycling tour of Iceland (travel diary available in second blog below if interested). Excellent book!

neilfein

+1 for Over the Hills.

bobframe

In the CGOAB category, I nominate Leon Whitely's "Go West" Journal found here: https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?..._id=4242&v=1Es

cabana 4 life

the books i totally love are from the metal cowboy. they are so much fun and his new one will be out in the next few weeks https://www.metalcowboy.com/ ther also ghost trails https://www.lulu.com/content/4691423 not so much touring but a great bicycling read. right now im reading travels with willie https://www.amazon.com/Travels-Willie...8871362&sr=8-1 im into as of now its pretty good. hope that helps...but seriously metal cowboy is were its at.

sd_mike

While not a book, I've gone to planning my future tours, that seems to help. I've got one planned every year to at least 2015 (2013-2015 are still just in idea stage). Keeps your mind on the next tour, as there will be another.

arctos

Try searching this forum under best touring books.

You will find a wide selection of suggestions.

AsanaCycles

edward Abbey

https://www.solstice.us/abbey/industrial_tourism.html

(1) No more cars in national parks. Let the people walk. Or ride horses, bicycles, mules, wild pigs -- anything -- but keep the automobiles and the motorcycles and all their motorized relatives out. We have agreed not to drive our automobiles into cathedrals, concert halls, art museums, legislative assemblies, private bedrooms and the other sanctums of our culture; we should treat our national parks with the same deference, for they, too, are holy places. An increasingly pagan and hedonistic people (thank God!), we are learning finally that the forests and mountains and desert canyons are holier than our churches. Therefore let us behave accordingly.

Consider a concrete example and what could be done with it: Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park. At present a dusty milling confusion of motor vehicles and ponderous camping machinery, it could be returned to relative beauty and order by the simple expedient of requiring all visitors, at the park entrance, to lock up their automobiles and continue their tour on the seats of good workable bicycles supplied free of charge by the United States Government.

Let our people travel light and free on their bicycles -- nothing on the back but a shirt, nothing tied to the bike but a slicker, in case of rain. Their bedrolls, their backpacks, their tents, their food and cooking kits will be trucked in for them, free of charge, to the campground their choice in the Valley, by the Park Service. (Why not? The roads will still be there.) Once in the Valley they will find the concessioners waiting, ready to supply whatever needs might have been overlooked, or to furnish rooms and meals for those who don't want to camp out.

one_beatnik

Another fun one is Cold beer and crocodiles: a bicycle journey into Australia by Roff Martin Smith

Kazer

we have a small novel going here:
https://journal.goingslowly.com/

bbwolfy

Riding With The blue Moth, by Bill Hancock.

awesomejack

A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins. If you have the touring spirit, you will love this book. This guy had a rich childhood and went to college, then one day, decided that he would walk across America to meet new people and learn about his country.

Honestly, I would not recommend Metal Cowboy. Its about the on the same level as good CGoaB.