Best book you've read on bicycle travel

[SwampYankee]

While touring this summer I read (listened to) a number of books on bike travel. Including On Roads That Echo by Charlie Walker - exceptional..because he told his story, not just a travel journal. Well done and kept you wondering what challenge and obstacle was next.

What's your favorite bicycle touring book and WHY?

Thanks, SY

[John Nettles]

The classic Miles to Nowhere by Barbara Savage.  Just a really good book.

[Westinghouse]

The classic Miles to Nowhere by Barbara Savage.  Just a really good book.

Same here. I read it six times.

[TCS]

I guess I need to reread Miles From Nowhere.  I read it right after it came out 38 (!!!!!!!!!) years ago and my impression then was for a journey of global exploration and personal enlightenment, it sure seemed to written in a minor key.  Hmph.  It must be a classic; it's stayed in print all these years.

I really enjoyed The Boy Who Biked the World by Alastair Humphreys.  The pages are filled with such a wide-eyed sense of joy.

[RonK]

French Revolutions by Tim Moore. Highly amusing.

[John Nelson]

I also enjoyed Miles From Nowhere, but I would have a hard time saying exactly why it is so good. Perhaps the tragic fate of its author adds to its mystique.

[HikeBikeCook]

Not a bicycle book but an adventure book based on a true story - South - Ernest Shackleton's story.

"In 1914, Ernest Shackleton set out on an 1,800-mile trek across Antarctica. During the three-year expedition, his team overcame shipwreck, treacherous glaciers, and a bitterly hostile climate. They faced the elements on this icy continent with extraordinary determination, resourcefulness, and courage. This account by one of Britain's greatest explorers is at once thrilling, harrowing, and inspiring."

 

[David W Pratt]

The one I am writing.  Reading and rereading my journals.  Likely, I will be the only audience, but it brings back echoes of the experience, and, often, new insights about the riding, the people, and, the author.

[BikePacker]

I also enjoyed Miles From Nowhere, but I would have a hard time saying exactly why it is so good. Perhaps the tragic fate of its author adds to its mystique.

Does the book have a sad kind of an ending John? 
I am ready to grab a copy but have gotta refrain from doing so if the ending is sad.
Thanks in advance for your hoped for update.

[BikePacker]

What's your favorite bicycle touring book and WHY?

Though not a story or journal about touring ....
a thoroughly detailed* & well organized 'how to text.'
Why is it my favorite?
Cause it, more than any other information source,
enabled me to fully appreciate touring with the minimal self-inflicted : ) trials & errors.
I relish re-reading quickly thru it about once every 5 years to remind myself
of how much I have forgotten &/or still never knew!
Available from the Adventure Cycling Store:
https://www.adventurecycling.org/cyclosource-store/search-results/sp/essential-touring-cyclist/
*Full dislosure ~ It does not address current digital/internet-dependent gear.

[HikeBikeCook]

https://randomlygenerated.blogspot.com/2011/02/punch-to-gut.html

Barbara was killed in a cycling accident shortly before the book’s publication; the story of Barbara and Larry Savage’s two-year, 25,000-mile, round-the-world bicycle adventure continues, however, to embrace a wide readership and to generate letters from readers who have come to know Barbara through her book. The author’s husband, Larry Savage, created this award in cooperation with The Mountaineers Books by donating royalties to encourage adventure writing in the genre of Miles from Nowhere.

[driftlessregion]

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. Short enough for a one week tour and, well, it's Steinbeck.

[HikeBikeCook]

Loved his In Dubious Battle - pretty close to last year's current affairs

[misterflask]

I read this initially as Best book you've read about bicycle travel.  English is hard.

In which case it would be 'You & a Bike & a Road' by Eleanor Davis.  It's a sketch chronicle of her cross-country trip with some accompanying poignant text on notable encounters and wrestling with personal struggles.  I thought she brilliantly and hilariously captures some of the banal experiences of touring, like life at the convenience store counter.

[HikeBikeCook]

The question in the post was:

What's your favorite bicycle touring book and WHY?
Thanks, SY

I do not see that the question limits the subject of the book, it asks "what is YOUR favorite bicycle touring book". When I read that I take it to mean what is MY favorite book to read while bike touring. Besides, I haven't written a bike touring book yet, so there are no books about bike touring that are mine.