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Cycling Nomads Book List
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Adventure Cycle-Touring Handbook by Stephen
Lord. A useful guide with tips on routes, equipment and planning for cycle
touring.
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Why don’t you fly? Backdoor to Beijing – by bicycle,
by Christopher J. A. Smith.
A 16,500 mile adventure from UK to Beijing.
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Miles from Nowhere, by Barbara Savage.
A 23,000 mile global adventure, 25 countries in
two years during the late 1970s.
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The Trail to
Titicaca: A Journey Through South America,
by Rupert John Attlee.
Three untrained cyclists set out to cycle from
Tierra del Fuego to Lake Titicaca.
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“You can’t ride a
bike to Alaska.
It’s an island!” by Mickey Thomas.
A once-in-a-lifetime 3,400 mile bicycle ride
from Montana to Alaska.
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Odysseus’ Last Stand.
The Chronicles of a Bicycle Nomad, by Dave Stamboulis.
The story of a seven year and 40,000 kilometre
journey around the world.
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Discovery Road by T. Garratt, A. Brown, and Sir
Ranulph Fiennes.
This is a fast moving tale of self-discovery;
it is full of adventure, conflict, humour, danger and a multitude of
colourful characters. Much more than a travelogue, it proves ordinary
people can chase great dreams.
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Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnazes.
If you need inspiration to get off the sofa,
buy this book. Makes running a marathon look like a piece of cake.
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Moods of Future Joys
by Alastair Humphreys.
Moods of Future Joys is the first part of
Alastair’s 4 year cycling adventure around the world.
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Thunder and Sunshine by Alastair Humphreys.
This is the second
part of Alastair Humphreys' round the world journey of 46,000 miles from
Cape Town he cycles the Americas and then through Russia, Japan, China
before cycling home.
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Left for Dead: The
Untold Story of the Tragic 1979 Fastnet Disaster by Nick Ward and Sinead
O’Brien.
An amazing sea
survival story.
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A Place to Cycle by Rob Penn.
A Place
to Cycle features 25 of the world's most beautiful cycle routes. Each one
has been independently selected for their exceptional beauty and stunning
scenery en route, and graded from an easy, leisurely ride, to more
challenging terrain.
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News from Tartary by
Peter Fleming.
This is one of
Kelly’s all time favourite books. It describes an undeservedly successful
attempt to travel overland from Peking in China
to Kashmir in India
in the 1920s. The journey took seven months and covered about 3,500
miles...With masterly understatement Peter Fleming begins this account of
what is one of the true epics of adventure.
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Living Dangerously, by Sir
Ranulph Fiennes.
Dave first read Ranulph
Fiennes’ autobiography when he was sixteen and this inspired him to lead a
life of adventure and overcoming challenges.
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Endurance: Shackleton's
Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing.
If this weren't a
true story you would consider it too far fetched. The determination to
survive in the face of extreme hardship is mind blowing. Shackleton's
leadership skills are unparalleled and could be applied to many other areas
of life.
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Rough Guides
From Amsterdam
to Zanzibar,
Rough Guides publish over 200 guidebooks, maps and phrasebooks to over 300
destinations worldwide. Make the Most of Your Time on Earth!
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Around The World On Two
Wheels: Annie Londonderry’s Extraordinary ride. By Peter Zheutlin
The story of Annie
Kopchovsky’s attempt to circle the world by wheel has been lost to history.
How did she manage, in the 1890s, to make a trip around the world by
bicycle? How did she free herself from the social constraints that
surrounded women of the Victorian era to undertake such an adventure?
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Midnight’s Children by
Salman Rushdie
One of Kelly’s
favourite books. Saleem Sinai was born at midnight, the midnight of India's
independence, and found himself mysteriously 'handcuffed to history' by the
coincidence. He is one of 1,001 children born at the midnight hour, each of
them endowed with an extraordinary talent - and whose privilege and curse
it is to be both master and victims of their times.
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The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
This is a story of
young twins Rahel and Estha and the rest of their family. The God of
Small Things is at once exotic and familiar to the Western reader,
written in English, that's completely new and invigorated by the Asian Indian
influences of culture and language.
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The Alchemist by Paulo
Coelho
One of Dave’s
favourite books.
A fable about
following one's dreams, listening to one's heart, and reading life's omens.
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Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The life of Pi
concerns the oceanic wanderings of a lost boy. After a colourful and loving
upbringing in India, the
Muslim-Christian-animistic Pi sets off for a fresh start in Canada.
His blissful voyage is rudely interrupted when his boat is scuppered halfway
across the Pacific, and he is forced to rough it in a lifeboat with a
hyena, a monkey, a whingeing zebra and a tiger called Richard.
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The Unbearable
Lightness of Being by Milan
Kundera.
Interweaves story and
dream, past and present, and philosophy and poetry tale of two
couples--Tomas and Teresa, and Sabina and her Swiss lover, Gerhart. The
essential question asked by this book is, is it better to be weighed down
by responsibility, or to chose the unbearable lightness of being where our
actions are "as free as they are inconsequential"?
Anything by Milan
Kundera is awesome.
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Cycling Nomads Movie List
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Into the Wild
Freshly
graduated from college with a promising future ahead, 22 year-old
Christopher McCandless instead walked out of his privileged life and into
the wild in search of adventure. What happened to him on the way
transformed this young wanderer into an enduring symbol for countless
people. (English language)
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La
Lengua de las Mariposas.
A beautifully shot, perfectly paced film set in
a small town during the months leading up to the Spanish Civil War. This
harrowing but uplifting tale concerns a schoolteacher and his 8 year-old
pupil. (Spanish with subtitles)
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The Motorcycle Diaries
In 1952, two young Argentinian men, the medical
student Ernesto 'Che' Guevara and friend Alberto Granada set out on a road
trip to discover the real Latin America.
Guevara's own journals form the basis of Salles's film of this journey of
self-discovery as the two experience the region's rich and varied life and
landscape. Gorgeously filmed, it avoids overt politics while leaning
towards Guevara's later political life. (Spanish with English subtitles)
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Bombon El Perro
When a middle-aged mechanic made redundant
after 20 years helps a stranded motorist he is paid with a purebred Dogo
Argentino named Bombón, a dog almost twice his size. He begins to dream of
a different life after his dog wins first prize at a local dog show and,
aided by a trainer, he discovers the world of dog shows, where he reclaims
his dignity and discovers a new calling. A simple, lovely film from the
director of Historias Minimas. A film from Argentina (Spanish with English
subtitles)
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Historias Minimas
Aka
Minimal Stories. A Patagonian road movie and an affectionate portrait of
three small town heroes pursuing their dreams. Beautifully shot. A film
from Argentina
(Spanish with English subtitles).
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City of God
Perhaps the most exhilarating film of 2003, and
one which takes street crime in the shantytowns of Rio
as its subject. The slum is the battleground between rival gangs and
corrupt cops. It's a story served up with passion and energy but which is
also full of social and political insights. A Brazilian film (Portuguese
with English subtitles).
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Central Station
Aka Central Do Brasil. A film which will win
many hearts. Dora, a crusty middle-aged spinster, unwillingly becomes
responsible for a small boy, Josue, when his mother dies, and the film charts
the adventures and disappointments in the mini-Odyssey of this odd couple,
as they travel to find Josue's long-lost father. A Brazilian film
(Portuguese with English subtitles).
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Nine Queens
Set in Buenos
Aires over the course of 24 hours, this is a taut
heist thriller in which nothing is what it seems and no one can be trusted.
A naive young con artist teams up with an experienced master criminal for
what could be the crime to end all crimes. An Argentinean Film (Spanish
with English subtitles).
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Amores Perros
Voted best film by the critics at Cannes 2000.
Amores Perros explodes onto the screen with a bone-crunching car crash. The
lives of its three victims are then imaginatively interwoven in this
visceral eulogy to life and loss on Mexico's mean streets. A
Mexican film (Spanish with English subtitles)
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Pedro
Almodovar Box Set
An excellent collection of recent films from the
inimitable Spanish director. Features All About My Mother, Bad Education, Live
Flesh, Talk To Her and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (Spanish films with English
subtitles).
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La
Comunidad
In Madrid,
Julia (Carmen Maura) is a property broker of fifty and something years,
trying to sell an old apartment. Julia finds a neighbor, an old man, dead
in a very dirty apartment, along with three hundred million pesetas in his
apartment. She becomes trapped by the other weird neighbors that want to
get the old man's money for themselves. This tale is one of suspense and
greed. A brilliant black comedy. (A Spanish film with English subtitles).
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Volver
One
of the most acclaimed films of 2006, Volver has been seen in many quarters
as Almodovar's masterpiece. Penelope Cruz has never been better than as
Raimunda, a hard-working woman whose life is a mess. Her sister, meanwhile,
is shocked when their mother (Carmen Maura) returns to lend a helping hand.
A warm, delightful film with strong performances (the female protagonists
shared the Best Actress award at Cannes)
(Spanish with English subtitles)
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Amelie
Aka
Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain. Innocent young Amelie discovers that
her true vocation in life is to right wrongs and to help others find love
and happiness. However, something is missing from her own heart, and when a
mysterious photo album land at her feet, it sets her on a delightfully
twisted path through Parisian streets to meet its handsome, mysterious
owner and her own destiny (French with English subtitles).
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Paris
Je t’aime
20
directors, 20 short films, 20 vignettes about life and love in one of the
greatest cities on earth, with an international cast including Steve
Buscemi, Gaspard Ulliel, Miranda Richardson, Willem Dafoe, Juliette Binoche
and Nick Nolte. There's something for all tastes here, and as ever with
such collections, there's much enjoyment to be had from seeing the
undoubted successes side by side with the films that don't quite come off
(French with English subtitles).
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Kolya
When
a financially strapped former symphony cellist, now making a meagre living
by playing at funerals, gets pressured into a paper marriage with a
friend's single-mother niece, his roving-eye bachelor life is turned
upside-down. Winner of the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.
(Czech with English Subtitles)
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What’s
Eating Gilbert Grape?
Johnny
Depp, Leonardo Di Caprio, Juliette Lewis Meet Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp) a
young man who lives in Endora, lowa population 1,901. "Describing
it", says Gilbert, "is like dancing to no music." Gilbert
lives with his mother, whose 36 stone frame is slowly destroying the
fragile Grape homestead, his brother, Arnie (Leonardo Di Caprio) who was
never expected to survive childhood.
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Trainspotting
A true
classic not to be missed.
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Quadrophenia.
Franc
Roddam's terrifically energetic movie, set to music from the Who's Quadrophenia,
is--at the very least, the best film ever based on a rock album
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Pulp
Fiction
What
would you do if you had a dead man in the back of your car? A girl
overdosing in your passenger seat? Or a hitman staring you in the eye
whilst reciting the Bible? If you like crisp dialogue, gangster cool and an
intelligent story, Pulp Fiction has your answers. Tarrantino took 90s
cinema in a new direction with Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. It's fast
and furious, but doesn't just hang on violence. It has a lot, lot more.
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The
English Patient
Winner
of nine Academy Awards and almost every critic's heart, The English
Patient (based on Michael Ondaatje's prizewinning novel of love and
loss during World War II) is one of the most acclaimed films of modern
times.
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21
Grams
A
freak accident brings together a terminally ill mathematician, a grieving
mother and a born-again ex-con. A gripping story that takes them to the
heights of passion, the depths of obsession and sees the promise of
revenge...
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The
Sea Inside
Javier
Bardem gives a remarkable, unforgettable performance in Alejandro
Amenabar's gripping drama about dying with dignity, THE SEA INSIDE.
Thirty-five-year-old Bardem plays 55-year-old Ramon Sampedro, a Galician
who broke his neck as a young man and has spent more than a quarter of a
century as a quadriplegic, confined to bed. Reflecting on his past and
considering his future, he chooses to die, petitioning the courts for
permission to be euthanized. (Spanish with English subtitles)
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Y
Tu Mama Tambien
This
beautifully filmed, expertly acted film about two 17-year-old, middle class
Mexican boys on summer break is deceivingly complex (Spanish with English
Subtitles).
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Filmmaker
Bigas Lunas is one of the most successful filmmakers to emerge from his
native Spain.
His films often mix humour and eroticism, are sometimes brutal, yet always
original. This collection includes four of the director's most well-known
films: GOLDEN BALLS, JAMON JAMON, THE TIT AND THE MOON and THE AGES OF LULU
(Spanish with English Subtitles).
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