Book Review: Pilgrim Spokes, by Neil Hanson

Pilgrim Spokes is the second book in a two-volume series about Neil Hanson’s cross-country bicycle trip.  Being anal about reading things in order, I requested, and was given, Volume 1, Pilgrim Wheels.  So I’m actually about to rip two books into shreds, not just one.  This review is a two-fer.

I found the author, Neil Hanson, to be self-important and judgmental. His cheap attempts at philosophy were concepts that are old and stale.  He always presumed to know what other people, including God, were thinking, based on where they lived, how they dressed, what they did for a living, or, in God’s case, which way the wind was blowing.  Often, when he arrived somewhere new, he assumed that a man showing up in spandex and a bike helmut was like “an anthropologist on Mars,” to borrow a phrase from Oliver Sacks, something that was completely foreign.  I dragged myself through Pilgrim Wheels so that I could honestly start reading Pilgrim Spokes.  I found Volume 2 to be just as offensive and preachy as Volume 1.

What I found valuable were the practical discussions of what to wear and what to carry for such an expansive trip, and I see that the author has written a separate book to discuss just this arena, The Pilgrim Way: A Cyclist’s Guide to Ultralight Touring. If you’re brave, maybe you’ll try it and let me know what you think.