Great book and a real page turner (surprisingly!). ( )

After randomly stumbling onto a BBC documentary with the same title I was almost instantly hooked onto Mark Beaumont's journey. The four part documentary, as gripping as it was, did not provide me with enough details. Hence I reached for the book. What may turn many people off (e.g., day to day experiences and excerpts form his logbook) is exactly what I was after. The books gives a pretty good insight into the psyche of someone who biked around 100 miles pretty much every day for almost 200 days. There is some repetition, sure, but overall, it was a very enjoyable read. One last thing - there has been talk of US edition of this book, however, it seemed (last time I checked) the US publishers insisted on shortening the book thus making it more suitable for the US market(?). I was originally going to wait for the US edition of this book but upon hearing this news I went for a used one from a book seller in the UK. ( )

Surprisingly gripping throughout. I had thought - even as a cyclist who enjoys road trip stories - that it might begin to pall after a few hundred miles. It doesn't.

Mark decided, very much on a kind of whim, to attempt to challenge the existing World record for cycling around the world. Guinness World records stipulate various conditions, of which the 18000 miles is certainly significant. Mark's preparation was fairly skimpy in some respects, but August 2007 he departed Paris - solo- and this is his book of the journey. Part of the fundraising objectives had secured BBC filmcrew and a documentary, but this is the expanded version, given much more detailed insights.

Fortunately there are very few excerpts from the logbook, as those tended to be brief and stark, rather Mark has written with a gentle narrative style about his thoughts and encounters at the time. He's deeply honest about his reasons for gong, and just how close to the edge he got at a few times. It is these personal insights that make it such compelling reading. The descriptions of the landscape he passes through are sparse - mostly because Mark was often concentrating solely on the ride and road. However now and then there are flashes of just how varied the landscapes, and especially people he met, really were. Despite riding through what some may perceive as the least hospitable areas in the world - Iran or the Australian outback - Mark found that people really are human everywhere, and met some very touching examples of generosity.

One area that is definitely missing is technical appendix - what bike he rode, the gear he took with him, what worked and what failed. Also missing are any journey statistics other than total miles travelled and time taken. It is also a very upbeat account - very few negative people, or incidents - other than a couple of major ones. It does make the reader wonder if there has been some selective editing, or maybe just recall bias. There is a brief epilogue from his Mum about the hardships she endured as Base Camp organiser - surely the hardest job on such a ride! but this is too brief.

Fascinating reading, a real expose of life in different continents and a very memorable achievement from Mark. ( )