Mr Tom Bruce

An OK read. The route was interesting, and the photos and descriptions were nice, but the book itself read more like a series of events than a story. Not much about the folks the author meets, not much about how the author felt. The brief chapter at the end by his friend Harry was more what I was hoping for. Humor, wonder, failures, successes - there was more of that in Harry's chapter than the rest of the book combined. To me this book reads more like a gazetteer, sadly. But of course what I look for in a read isn't what everyone looks for so take my opinion with that in mind.… (mehr)

This is a fantastic travel memoir detailing a trip around the world on a bike. At the beginning, Tom has managed to capture his thoughts about leaving his family and girlfriend behind as well as the excitement of the trip ahead. And it is great when his Dad and girlfriend and friend Harry all join him at different points along the way! I really enjoyed the mix of describing the countryside and countries being travelled through, the food being eaten, the difficulties of sticking to a budget, the boredom (at times), the friends met along the way, the kindness of strangers, the illnesses, the tiredness, the changes in his level of fitness, the technical problems, the emotions, the weather etc. etc. Somehow, the author has managed to include all of these things, without being too detailed about any of it. The journey moves on through the book at a good pace and there are pictures at the end of each section, which really add to what has been written. I particularly enjoyed the section on 'the stans' as this is such an unfamiliar region of the world to me - the problem of visas was especially insightful. And the journey through America, reflecting on the differences to Eurpoe and Asia was also fascinating. There are sections at the end covering statistics, technical details of the bike and letters from two friends who cycled with the author - also a great contribution to the book overall. Brilliant!… (mehr)