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Cycling Home From Siberia (2009)

by Rob Lilwall(Favorite Author)

3.85 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

034097981X (ISBN13: 9780340979815)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Hodder & Stoughton

review 1: I originally bought this book because I was researching a book of my own that it is set in Siberia, and was initially a little disappointed that the Siberia section was over by 25%. However, the story that Lilwall tells was pretty interesting and good enough to have me reading until the end.There were times when I felt a little frustrated and found it hard to like the narrator, particularly when he would wax lyrical about his faith (something that was kind of annoying) and then gloss over other sections or leave explanations hanging. He would mention wondering about something, then just forget about it, leaving the reader wanting some kind of conclusion. In such instances it would probably have been better to have just left those musings out. We get endless monologues abou... moret his religion, yet when someone throws a drink carton out of a window he points it out then moves on. Did he pick it up? Did he feel annoyed about it? This kind of thing happened quite often. He sees a guy get hit by a car and then cycles off. Yeah, it was in a busy street and he's right that he couldn't do anything to help, but how did he feel? It's summed up in a single line. Yet when he next meets a pastor we get another page of religious exposition.However, by the end I had begun to find Lilwall's obvious humanity appealing. He doesn't pretend to be a hero or some kind of superman, and that he mentions his frustations and his poor attitude at times makes him far more likeable. It's for these reasons that I could recommend it.As for the travel aspect, he obviously goes into a lot more detail about the more exotic places. Japan and the whole of Europe are summed up in about three pages each, while there are several chapters on places like Siberia, Papua New Guinea, and Afghanistan. For anyone looking to travel to those more offbeat places, this book is quite an insight.
review 2: Fantastic book. I love the adventure of flying to Siberia and figuring it out from there. It is so refreshing from daily life of planning everything. Rob is one crazy man! His training to start this incredible 35,000 journey was playing badminton several times in a month! They start their journey towards the end of summer and end up in Siberia on bikes in winter. The list of crazy things goes on. I really enjoyed seeing how insane it could get. Ultimately, the book demonstrates the kindness of human beings but also showing how cruel and broken the world can be. It convinced me anything can be done but you need to stick with it. less

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