What have you read recently that’s not cycling related and been dead interesting, I am looking for some inspiration.

Recently finished Home Run about escapees from Nazi Europe in WWII followed by The Darkness Beckons, a book about cave diving by Martyn Farr (I actually met him once)

Carrying the Fire by Michael Collins

Biography of Lawrence of Arabia. Makes you wonder what you have done with your life.

Amazon link

Old chest nut

“Touching the Void” if you’ve not read it goes top of the list

sailing

“left for dead”

“a voyage for madmen”

artci exploring

“The worst journey in the world”

Oop some of then I read a while back. Does it matter

Enjoyed the disappearing spoon – popular science book about the elements of the periodic table. The people and times behind the discoveries are well drawn.

Touching the Void is a great read
It’s not about the bike??

Amazon Linky.

Renulph fiennes, Mad bad and dangerous to know, loved it!

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown.

Thoroughly depressing, so find something light and fluffy to read at the same time.

Bravo Two Zero?

Some Thoughts by Neal Stephenson.

Re-read recently.

Let My People Go Surfing – Yvon Chouinard. Patagonia CEO.

Mike, I think “It’s not about the bike” now counts as fiction, which is a shame as it was quite an inspiring read at the time.

“We Die Alone” came highly recommended. It is good.

The Dam Busters and The Great Escape by Paul Brickhill are both corking reads. In a similar doubleheader vein, Into Thin Air and Into The Wild by Jon Krakaur are ace.

12 Years A Slave by Solomon Northup. Haven’t seen the film but the book is well worth the 99p it cost on the Google Play book store. Gruesome and brutal in places but well written. Mind-boggling that slavery was seen as normal for hundreds of years and exists to this day.

Legionnaire by Simon Murray – autobiography of an English guy who joined the French Foreign Legion, out of boredom more than anything else, and had a wild time running round the desert blowing stuff up. Also, read Spike Millgan’s ”Rommel? Gunner Who?”, similar stuff but absolutely hilarious.

In Search of Captain Zero by Allan Weisbecker – autobiography of a surfer who went on a road trip to find his mate who has disappeared in Central America, and did some drug running along the way.

Vulcan 607 by Rowland White – entirely true but still unbelievable stuff about getting a Vulcan down to the Falklands.

Shackleton’s Boat Journey.
If it was a Boy’s Own Adventure, I’d dismiss it as being too far fetched.

“We are homeless and adrift”

Chickenhawk by Robert Mason – stunning account of flying and helicopter warfare in Vietnam.
Dispatches by Michael Herr – surreal Rolling Stone account of the Vietnam war.

Bravo Two Zero?

That’s fiction.

Enemy at the Gates for a bit of WW2 Eastern Front history.

I enjoyed Blind Descent by James Tabor about extreme cave exploration.

just getting torn into the king in the north by max adam – fascinating stuff.

not long finished the forever war by dexter filkins and the good soldier by david finkel. neither cheery but excellent

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown.

I tried to read that, but the recurring theme got to me after a while…

+1s for Shackleton ‘South’ and Chickenhawk.

Blood River (author’s name escapes me) is a good read. Chap follows the Congo river through some of the dodgiest areas/countries in the world.

‘Home’ by Bill Bryson is a fascinating history of the extremely ordinary. Similarly ‘The Lost Continent’ by him is a properly funny and insightful travelogue (see also all his other books).

Vulcan 607 by Rowland White – entirely true but still unbelievable stuff about getting a Vulcan down to the Falklands.

Doesn’t go down too well in our family as my Dad had to land his Hercules on pallets in Port Stanley after liberation

Try this;

And/or any of his other work.

Also, try a little Simon Winchester, especially this;

Am currently reading this…. he [probably] wouldn’t get away with it today.

‘Nothing to Envy’ by Barbara Demick.

It’s a collection of accounts of life in North Korea by people who managed to escape.

Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey – he was a park ranger in Utah in the 50s. Great read.

Any books about climbing mountains in the 50s and 60s. Truly epic adventures.

Second the Patagonia book, Chickenhawk, Spike Milligan and a vote for Eric Newby – A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush and Love and War in the Apennines. Real adventure again.

Renulph fiennes, Mad bad and dangerous to know, loved it!

+1

Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey

Superb book.

or, and not very similar –

I’d also second the Eric Newby recs, especially “Love and War in the Apennines”. On the table in front of me as I type!

Bencooper sed: Some Thoughts by Neal Stephenson.

He goes on a bit, but the section on telecommunications from Porth Curnow is fascinating.

Love and War in the Apennines.

I read this during a blissful summer of archaeological survey work in the Apennines.

Amazing landscape. Amazing (Maremma) shepherd dogs, too.

“Eastern Approaches” by Fitzroy McClean is good. Boy’s Own adventures in Stalin’s Russia & Tito’s Yugoslava. It’s a lot more fun than it sounds.