Product Description

Alastair Humphreys' round the world journey of 46,000 miles was an old fashioned adventure: long, lonely, low budget and spontaneous. Cycling across five continents and sailing over the oceans, his ride took him four years to complete, on a tiny budget of hoarded student loans. Moods of Future Joys is the story of the first remarkable stage of the expedition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1236723 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 200 pages

Customer Reviews

Inspired to tour Africa by bike
This book is quite an enjoyable read and should be inspirational to anyone who has been contemplating embarking on an adventure of their own but is hesitating out of fear of not being a hardcore adventurer or athlete or, more importantly, having the bank account to support a long adventure.

Alastair Humphreys paints colorful pictures of the places he rides through and of the many people he meets and whose hospitality support his journey from place to place. If anything, this reader was left wanting to learn more about the people and places encountered by Humphreys. The book would have perhaps benefited by having more fleshed out "characters" and a bit more historical/geographical/ethno-cultural information about the regions he rode through, rather than so many references to other travel writers. Humphreys' self-awareness as an outsider looking in is thought provoking. He exposes the assumptions people make about each other based purely on their appearance or nationality.

Humphreys' prose is a bit uneven, alternating between insightful, well crafted sections and somewhat rough sections. Punctuation errors are distracting at times. As Humphreys admits, this self-published book is a bit rough and in need of some professional editing and photographs. I'd like to see the next edition of this book include lots of photographs and detailed maps, so the reader can follow the journey without having to constantly reach for the atlas.

This book's weaknesses may be, paradoxically, its greatest strength. Humphrey's determination to get his book into print in spite of lacking the trappings of a professional writer, such as a publisher, agent, and CV of previous publications, reflect his determination to cross continents on his broken bicycle in spite of lacking the trappings of a "professional adventurer," such as corporate sponsorship, a publicity machine, piles of free promotional gear, and most significantly, a large bank account. That said, I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone interested in cycling and/or travel. I am eagerly awaiting the second volume.

Engaging writer makes good against the odds
Because the author couldn't get a publisher, he decided to brazen ahead and self-publish. The book lacks the professional polish of a publishing house, but makes up for it in preserving a vivid sense of the writer's personality, so the book is more like an evening in a bar listening to tall tales that happen to be true. Humphreys honestly reveals the trepidations he began with, while allowing us to experience with him how his fears yielded to respect and pleasure in the people and cultures he got to know. And always the undercurrent of incredible freedom in the midst of the pains and pleasures of his journey. I've never been to the places he pedals through, nor lived as ruggedly close to the land, but Humphreys' enthusiastic writing let me feel as if I had.

Great book
A really amazing adventure and a really great read. Al has honestly changed the way I think about many countries in Africa and about travelling in general. I have recomended this book to many of my wanderlusting friends, and to anyone who appreciates the absurd.