[.ca] Spokesongs: Bicycle Adventures on Three Continents (ISBN 1891369172)

From Amazon.com:
Willie Weir loves the open road and bicycles in almost equal measure. Over the course of many years--and numerous different bikes--Weir has pedaled his way across several continents, 22 countries, and more than 35,000 miles. Then, in 1993, while bicycling through New Zealand, Weir had a series of serendipitous encounters that pointed him in the direction of his next journey: India. The bicycle trip through India in 1994 led to another in South Africa in 1995; in 1996, Weir took off for the Balkans with a heavy heart, having done the unthinkable for a professional wanderer: he fell in love. Spokesongs is a charming collection of short commentaries Weir wrote while on the road, delivered via National Public Radio back home in Seattle, Washington. The book is divided into three sections comprising his three separate odysseys; from getting lost on the road to Ratnagiri in southern India to getting robbed in Albania, Weir recounts his adventures with humor, insight, and eloquence.

Singing Wheels!:
This is a delightful little book that you will read and reread many times. But be cautious, it will cause you to dust off that bike and go for a ride yourself, even if it is just a spin around our own neighborhood. If you are one of the lucky ones, you just might find yourself at a Joe (Kurmaskie, the Metal Cowboy) and Willie show. Friends who have gone to the Joe and Willie Show gave it enthusiastic reviews. But no matter, get the book yourself.

Singing Wheels!:
This is a delightful little book that you will read and reread many times. But be cautious, it will cause you to dust off that bike and go for a ride yourself, even if it is just a spin around our own neighborhood. If you are one of the lucky ones, you just might find yourself at a Joe (Kurmaskie, the Metal Cowboy) and Willie show. Friends who have gone to the Joe and Willie Show gave it enthusiastic reviews. But no matter, get the book yourself.

Goes good with Vivaldi and other mediocrities:
Both my wife and I approached this book with enthusiasm, and finished it with vague disappointment. Frankly, the stories are good, but the quality of the writing is throroughly mediocre. I kept imagining what a really good writer would do with the situations described in the book, and how much better they could have been handled. I think that the appeal of this book is mostly to bicyclists who are more interested in the story than the quality of the writing.