Dave Barter wrote: ↑Fri Feb 17, 2023 1:43 pm I'm about to re-read Jonathan Livingstone Seagull. This is a book that really is mind candy. If you've read it, you'll know.

One of the best books, ever.

Since my last update, I've read Invisible Women by Caroline Criado-Perez; should be required reading for all men. I've also read Sex Power Money by Sara Pascoe, Hello World by Hannah Fry and am currently on Radicals by Jamie Bartlett (of The Missing Cryptoqueen).

RIP / thanks for the tip of the other book. Your tmiab trip sounds fun.

goditatr - It was already on my list to read and I had started it. I did read TMotB years ago and recall not enjoying as much as the boat trip. The reason i re-read it was that the possibility of a ride from Dresden has increased and my only memory of the book was how JKJ was impressed with the city. It gets a paragraph! I also knew 'Bomber' Harris had redesigned Dresden in the interim. But the railway station looks to be worth seeing, and that is where I would be arriving.

Boab wrote: ↑Fri Feb 17, 2023 7:23 pm

Dave Barter wrote: ↑Fri Feb 17, 2023 1:43 pm I'm about to re-read Jonathan Livingstone Seagull. This is a book that really is mind candy. If you've read it, you'll know.

One of the best books, ever.

Since my last update, I've read Invisible Women by Caroline Criado-Perez; should be required reading for all men. I've also read Sex Power Money by Sara Pascoe, Hello World by Hannah Fry and am currently on Radicals by Jamie Bartlett (of The Missing Cryptoqueen).

I really enjoyed Hello World. Would you recommend Sara Pascoes book?

Dave Barter wrote: ↑Sun Feb 19, 2023 7:32 pm I really enjoyed Hello World. Would you recommend Sara Pascoes book?

I thought Hello World was a bit on the lightweight side, if well written; more for your Mum, than your tech savvy teen. Pascoe's books was not what I was expecting, you can certainly tell that she wrote it; and you can't help reading it in her voice. Entertainingly written, in a lighter and funnier style for subjects that are quite deep and serious. It's also more an exploration of her own assumptions and preconceived ideas and those being dispelled during her research and enlightenment. Two main themes, porn and prostitution, delivered with a healthy dose of her own lived experience. I gave it four stars.

I've just finished Bartlett's Radicals, which I found to be quite thought provoking. Especially since it was finished in 2016, quite a lot of what was "radical" while he was writing it, would be considered almost passé today...

belugabob wrote: ↑Wed Nov 24, 2021 1:34 pm Currently reading https://www.amazon.co.uk/Midlife-Cyclis ... 024&sr=8-1

It is targeted towards competitive riders but even as a somewhat mediocre cyclist, I'm finding it interesting and relevant, as I approach a certain age.
Have taken a few things on board, and will hopefully be able to extend my active years by a little bit

Has anyone else read The Midlife Cyclist, and would you recommend it...? Listened to the rerun of the The Cycling Podcast episode and had already been considering a visit to somewhere like Cyclefit, so was vaguely interested in giving it a read.

Finished Dave's Obsessive Compulsive Cycling Disorder the other day. Now onto Move Fast and Break Things, which is shaping up to be an interesting read; I imagine I'll be spitting bullets at some point.

Off to the library later to pick up The Midlife Cyclist, may as well see if it's worth it before spending any money on it. Also waiting for the postie to drop off Full Tilt, so lots of reading ahead...

"The Lost Rainforests Of Britain" by Guy S, just arrived in t'post. Quite applicable to Us Lot, as many of these remnants are in our stamping grounds of West Wales, the Lakes, and Western Scotland. A little rainforest-specific bikepacking visit will now be on the cards.

Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith. Absolutely fascinating. Apparently octopus have neurons throughout their legs and arms. I can't remember if he actually called it a second brain but he did say that tests have shown that they can operate independently with the brain in the head acting like a command center delegating tasks. If only I had such a system maybe I'd be able to control my bike

Just done Cannery Row & To a God Unknown, both John Steinbeck.
Not sure what's next so it's the Shropshire Way guide & Offa's Dyke guide until I decide

Bike Fit, 2nd Edition by Phil Burt

godivatrailrider wrote: ↑Tue Apr 04, 2023 9:10 am Just done Cannery Row & To a God Unknown, both John Steinbeck.
Not sure what's next so it's the Shropshire Way guide & Offa's Dyke guide until I decide

Love John Steinbeck and especially Cannery Row

AndreR wrote: ↑Tue Apr 04, 2023 1:25 pm

godivatrailrider wrote: ↑Tue Apr 04, 2023 9:10 am Just done Cannery Row & To a God Unknown, both John Steinbeck.
Not sure what's next so it's the Shropshire Way guide & Offa's Dyke guide until I decide

Love John Steinbeck and especially Cannery Row

Cannery Row was excellent.... who knew the value of whiskey in frogs !! Really enjoyed it.
To a God Unknown is quite a bit more melancholy, with a few surprises.

Steinbeck was a fabulous writer. Grapes of Wrath is phenomenal and East of Eden too, Of Mice & Men still makes me cry.

Just finished Full Tilt and as a result have just bought both Tibetan Foothold and The Waiting Land. Just like the Rough Stuff Fellowship, it's amazing where you can take a bicycle if you set your mind to it. It also makes a mockery of all the kit we take for a weekend bike packing locally, let alone cycling across continents.



Have picked up Mescaline: A Global History of the First Psychedelic by Mike Jay to read in the meantime.

Just finished The Secret Network of Nature by Peter Wohlleben and really enjoyed it.

The author worked for the German forestry commission and has a really engaging writing style that makes the book easy to read and informative at the same time. The blurb has things like Did you know that trees can influence the rotation of the earth and that earthworms control wild boar populations which nearly put me off the book. Glad they didn't as the way he brings the interconnectedness of different aspects of a woodland together in an entertaining yet factual way is really interesting and gives a (for me) new perspective on woodland life and how it connects.

Would recommend!

Boab wrote: ↑Mon Jul 31, 2023 3:22 pm Just finished Full Tilt and as a result have just bought both Tibetan Foothold and The Waiting Land. Just like the Rough Stuff Fellowship, it's amazing where you can take a bicycle if you set your mind to it. It also makes a mockery of all the kit we take for a weekend bike packing locally, let alone cycling across continents.



Have picked up Mescaline: A Global History of the First Psychedelic by Mike Jay to read in the meantime.

Full Tilt is a good read. Another similar writer Bettina Selby, lives here in Ludlow and I have surprised her a couple of times by knowing who she is.
Some of their complete lack of knowledge of maintenance, like having no idea how to fix a puncture amazes me.

Just finished Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit. A really interesting read, especially if you like Orwell, which I do.

Now on a kids book "Mystery at Witchend" by Malcolm Saville .... very Famous Five, but based in Shropshire around Long Mynd and Stiperstones .... its a jolly good story, lots of bread and tea, ripping adventures on the Mynd, secret spies and last minute rescues. Spiffing !

godivatrailrider wrote: ↑Tue Aug 01, 2023 8:59 am Now on a kids book "Mystery at Witchend" by Malcolm Saville .... !

If it hadn't been for those pesky kids......

One of my favourite "kids" books was/is The Weirdstone Of Brisingamen by Alan Garner. All based around Alderley Edge in Cheshire. Shapeshifters... wardrobes that turn into elevators... chases across bleak moors... escapes through nightmare underground passages... all of it based pretty closely on features of the area... Many the times I played there as a kid, looking over my shoulder in case the svarts came to carry me off to their underground lair... gulp....

godivatrailrider wrote: ↑Tue Aug 01, 2023 8:59 am Just finished Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit. A really interesting read, especially if you like Orwell, which I do.

Oh good reminder, I like both Orwell and Rebecca Solnit, and this was on a 'mental note to self' reading list I had inevitably forgotten!

Finished reading - and savouring Cormac's Stella Maris, and it really was very fine indeed. Just about to start David Vann's Goat Mountain, and have been leant a copy of Roger Payne's Among Whales, which should be fascinating. It was dedicated to his good friend Cormac McCarthy, so it'll be a bit of a remembrance read as they both passed away within days of each other.

Now onto Wild Wales - George Borrow. He keeps popping up and I found this book amongst my Dads things, thought it was time to read it.

Currently enjoying The Earth Beneath my Feet by Andrew Terrill. A young man who walked 7000 miles from the south end of Italy to the North Cape in Norway along the mountain ranges sticking to the high country as much as possible and staying away from civilization as much as possible. Done in the late 90's before internet and Google Maps and in some parts of Southern Italy before hiking oriented paper maps too!

Currently reading 'Riding Out' - Simon Parker
Loss and discovery during the pandemic and a ride from Shetlands to LE and back again.
It's OK. Some is good but it's too rushed. Most books seem like this ... loads about starting out, then they seem to get bored and the detail drops off. Once he's down to Manchester, (it's taken 130 pages to get there) it's about 20 pages to LE and not much of that is interesting detail, just him having to do it in 4 days and being wet ... I understand doing 300 miles in 4 days isn't going to leave much time for sight seeing etc so maybe there simply wasn't much to say.

He's heading along the south coast at the mo.

godivatrailrider wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2023 10:12 am Most books seem like this ... loads about starting out, then they seem to get bored and the detail drops off. Once he's down to Manchester, (it's taken 130 pages to get there) it's about 20 pages to LE and not much of that is interesting detail,

I know exactly what you mean. The book I mentioned a little while ago about the doctor riding around the world was the opposite: the first half was ok, but then I realised he'd got two thirds of the way and there was half the book left... which was because it did actually get more interesting.

godivatrailrider wrote: ↑Thu Sep 22, 2022 11:00 am Rob Lilwall Cycling Home from Siberia .... still.
He's in Uzbekistan so not far from Afghanistan .... there's 28 pages left. He's patently lost interest and just wants to get home. To be honest, since he left Australia the detail has been sparce. Nothing about over 1000miles through Vietnam etc
No worries . After 3 years on a bike I guess 1 day blurs into another.

This was another of the loads of info at the start, bugger-all at the end... I found this infuriating..

godivatrailrider wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2023 11:28 am

godivatrailrider wrote: ↑Thu Sep 22, 2022 11:00 am Rob Lilwall Cycling Home from Siberia .... still.
He's in Uzbekistan so not far from Afghanistan .... there's 28 pages left. He's patently lost interest and just wants to get home. To be honest, since he left Australia the detail has been sparce. Nothing about over 1000miles through Vietnam etc
No worries . After 3 years on a bike I guess 1 day blurs into another.

This was another of the loads of info at the start, bugger-all at the end... I found this infuriating..

I found a copy of this in a charity shop this morning. I thought it was one of the ones you'd un-recommended. The forum was down, so I couldn't check (one of the few times I've needed urgent access to the forum!) but I remembered correctly and left it on the shelf.

Yes I recall reading that book a good while back and it went downhill towards the end. To be honest a lot of travel books seem the same - even Bill Brysons. I was most disapointed in his UK tour one where Scotland took one chapter after having spent the entire book on about a few places in England....

For the last 8 months I've been reading cheap sci fi compilations from Amazon - some are very good with keen insights into the modern world, some are truly terrible...
Now on Conan the Barbarian which is a must read for all Terry Pratchett fans as this is just the stuff he used to take the pi*s out of. Some it is actually a good read!