Category: Books & Reading
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3 More Big Bike Trips (& 1 Microadventure) You Can Read For Free On This Blog
Happy New Year! Some more holiday reading material for you today, particularly if you’ve enjoyed reading the free serialisation of my first book Janapar. Blogging from the road is something I’ve done since the beginning of my travels. The stories that follow have been written and published from the road itself over several years of bicycle adventuring – from roads in Arctic Scandinavia, Canada & the USA, Europe, and most recently my home country, England, which is perhaps the most unusual tale of the lot. To make reading them in sequence easier, you’ll find navigation buttons after the end of each instalment (just after… Continue reading →
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Just Released – A Brand New Edition Of The Best Adventure Cycle Tour Planning Guide On The Planet
The very first edition of Trailblazer’s Adventure Cycle-Touring Handbook, compiled by veteran bicycle traveller Stephen Lord, didn’t just help me plan my first big journey; it actually inspired that ride’s very conception. I can barely believe that that guide has just seen the publication of its third edition. Have I really been doing this for that many years?! Now with Neil and Harriet Pike (of Pikes On Bikes fame) at the helm, the new edition has been totally revised and updated in light of the changing nature of what’s possible on a bicycle, given a map of the world and a limitless imagination. It’s still… Continue reading →
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How To Cycle Around The World: A New eBook by Tim Moss
Amid all the buzz of the recent Kickstarter campaign (which ended in success – woohoo!), there’s every chance you might have missed the release of Tim Moss’s new ebook How To Cycle Around The World. Link: check it out and download it here. Tim’s website TheNextChallenge.org is one of the UK adventure blogging scene’s long-runners. The sheer volume of practical resources for expedition planning he’s made available online is staggering and frankly puts my own efforts to shame. He’s also just returned from actually cycling around the world himself with his wife Laura, co-founded the Cycle Touring Festival, and set up the largest database… Continue reading →
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New Travel & Adventure Books for October 2014
Every month I post a round-up of the reading material that’s passed through my world, some newly published, and some previously published but new to me. I spent much of the last month on the road in Central Europe (blogs upcoming), giving me a luxurious abundance of reading time. So this month I’d like to draw attention to a book that aims to do no less than unravel what it is that sends people on ‘quests’, and the story of what has often been called the single greatest expedition for a generation. Let’s start with the latter. Dark Waters / The Seed… Continue reading →
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New Travel & Adventure Books for August 2014
It seems to be the season for new books (or new editions) in the world of cycle touring. This month I’d like to showcase three recent releases: two travel memoirs and a revised edition of one of the most useful cycle-touring guides there is. The Road Headed West by Leon McCarron Leon McCarron has a long list of impressive adventures behind him, amongst them dragging a mattress across a desert for a month, walking the entire breadth of the world’s most populated nation, and — of course — attempting a source to sea of Iran’s longest river (accompanied by yours truly). So it is… Continue reading →
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New Travel & Adventure Books For June 2014
This week sees the publication of two new books that I’ve been eagerly anticipating for several months. Both are written by accomplished and experienced writers who I highly respect; both sit within the category of adventure; yet these two books could barely be more different in theme and content. Life Cycles by Julian Sayarer Julian Sayarer is probably better remembered for the utterly epic post-trip rant he published on his blog than for the feat of athleticism he’d achieved during the previous 169 days of riding. His words, preserved online since their publication in 2009, were those of a man who — exposed and vulnerable and at 12 miles… Continue reading →
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6 Books That Inspired All These Adventures To Begin
Adventuring never came naturally to me. When I was younger, to say that I was untalented at sports would be a kind understatement. I never went camping because of the one time my parents tried it and it rained. I wasn’t allowed to join the Scouts because of paedophiles. As a student I joined the TA to make up for it but failed to see out the first year. My list of potential career paths has included computer programmer, disc jockey, hotel manager, lighting designer, barista, ski guide, yardie, carpenter, pot-washer and shit-shoveller — but nothing resembling ‘adventurer’. (Perhaps it was… Continue reading →
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![Walking Home From Mongolia by Rob Lilwall [Book Review]](https://i0.wp.com/tomsbiketrip.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/walking-home-from-mongolia-scaled.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1)
Walking Home From Mongolia by Rob Lilwall [Book Review]
Rob Lilwall’s second book, Walking Home From Mongolia, is a strange yet compelling beast. It is, on the face of it, a linear account of an extremely long and admittedly monotonous walk across the full breadth of mainland China. Rob positions the story deliberately as a sequel to his Cycling Home From Siberia* book of some years ago. As with Siberia, the journey will begin somewhere dauntingly remote; rules few in number but clear in scope are set; and in declaring a final destination of Rob’s home in Hong Kong the foundations are laid for a simple, gruelling adventure. Continue reading →
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5 Top Reads From Last Year
I’ve been reading through some of the older posts I made while on the road in the Middle East and Africa. Let’s face it, they’re far more interesting than the practical advice I’ve been trying to dish out recently — you can’t beat a bit of vicarious adventure! And this was one of the most fascinating and challenging periods of my life. Take a look at the most popular reads from this time last year, which I’ve just updated with plenty of photographs: Along The Egyptian Nile To Luxor How tough it is to fully escape Egypt’s tourist trail, and the rewards… Continue reading →
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The Adventure Cycle-Touring Handbook
One of the most valuable resources I had when preparing to make the leap and begin cycle touring was the Adventure Cycle-Touring Handbook. In fact, I’d say that it’s responsible for my ideas becoming anything more than just ideas. It was summer 2006 and I was living in Edinburgh during the festival season, working as a technician for a variety of venues and productions. I had two days off during those 5 weeks of voluntary sleep-deprivation. On the first, I got up at 5am and went for an epic mountain-bike ride in the foggy Pentland hills. On the second, I wandered… Continue reading →