Travelling thousands of kilometres by train, and travelling alone, means being able to do a lot of reading. The trip around Europe was made so much easier by digital media – music and books. I have a Kindle, given very generously by colleagues as a leaving gift from a job, which means funding tax dodging when buying a book digitally, so I do so sparingly, and then buy a copy of the book through fully-funded means. I feel some sort of need to explain this.

The reading list on this trip has been excellent and I’ve learned something from every book, summarised in the following overly-simplified sentences:

Triumphs and Turbulence: My Autobiography by Chris Boardman
– Proving that you can like life as a perfectionist but you need very understanding people around you

The Racer: Life on the Road as a Pro Cyclist by David Millar
– Proving that cycling is incredibly tough, cheating is absolutely a choice that athletes make, and that Malcolm Tucker has a rival when it comes to swearing as punctuation, which I enjoy very much

Shut Up Legs! My Wild Ride On and Off the Bike by Jens Voigt
– Proving that nice guys can make it, and that life in East Berlin and adjusting to a free market economy takes decades, deep down

Tricky Twenty Two by Janet Evanovich
– Proving that a series can go on for 22 books and still be diverting

101 Damnations: Dispatches from the 101st Tour de France by Ned Boulting
– Proving that you can’t just dabble in someone else’s profession, you need to get stuck in, and that Gary Imlach is a paragon who we all should revere

Turbo Twenty Three by Janet Evanovich
– Proving that it doesn’t have to be high-brow to be good, and that I have a soft spot for certain characters, 23 times

The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-Ups and Winning at all Costs of by Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle
– Proving the worth of dogged sports journalism to try and uncover the truth (Daniel Coyle), that, again, cheating is a choice (Tyler Hamilton), and that Lance Armstrong is a properly terrifying man

Just Kids by Patti Smith
– Proving that there is a reason why Patti Smith the is the inspiration to many artists, now and those dearly departed, and that humility can get you a long way

The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption and Pee by Sarah Silverman
– Proving that humans can be real dicks to each other, particularly adults to children especially when it’s not their problem to sort out, and that a little kindness is not forgotten

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
– Proving that I knew nish about life in apartheid South Africa and that Trevor Noah really is a polyglot comedy genius

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
– Proving that humans can choose not to be dicks to each other, to the point of sacrifice for a heartfelt belief of an injustice being done, and that we should apply this lesson more often today, as the world is very busy being atrocious to fellow human beings in several new and painful ways, as well as through some well-tested mechanisms

My Father and other Working Class Heroes by Gary Imlach
– Proving that Gary Imlach deserves our love and devotion, and that there is an interesting story behind those boxes in the attic

The Bourne Supremacy by Robert Ludlum
– Proving that movie versions of books can be true to the original but take on new ideas, and that well-written action is a proper page-turner

Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brien
– As above, plus proving that the Royal Navy is a mass of terminology and technology that I would love to know more about, as it is delightfully complex

Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor’s True Story of Auschwitz by Olga Lengyel
– Proving that true terror can find words, and that these words cut deep

Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
– Proving that Bond has been a hero all along and that casual sexism has thankfully started to be phased out of the Bond film franchise

Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming
– Proving that Bond should have several more scars in the films and that casual racism has thankfully started to be phased out of the Bond film franchise

The last week while volunteering at the Youth Hostel in Slaidburn, I finished a book I started before the career break: The Stand by Stephen King. I didn’t take it with me on career break, due to sheer heft (having just extolled the virtues of taking one single e-book travelling). I’m reading the anniversary version, which was re-edited back in to a longer version, at the request of fans and almost as a way of Stephen King proving a bet with his publisher about loooooong books. The version I’ve read is 1,325 pages long. I remember watching a TV adaptation of The Stand years ago, before I went to university, and it has stayed with me ever since. Clearly, there is a huge amount of detail and plot in 1,325 pages that a mini-series will have to miss out. However, both versions are excellent. The adaptation took the key plot lines and the plot hook and turned it in to a good piece of television. The longer version of the book – not that I can compare and contrast to the shorter, originally-published version – contains over-lapping story-lines and characters that eventually come together in a tense piece of drama. I would definitely recommend it, and also running a Youth Hostel to go with it – the evenings staffing reception give you some time to make progress.

Now I’m back in Hull and return to the book case of books yet to read. I have interrupted normal service to take a book out of the library. I love libraries and, like many inarticulate adolescents, spent many lunchtimes in the school library and Saturdays in the town library, delighting at the ability to take home and read so many books of wonder and imagination. The joy of entering 6th form and being given 6 books on loan at any given time – I really don’t recall ever using them for non-fiction books or research, which was what the additional quotient was for. Libraries are a really useful resource for planning travelling, too – our city centre library has an excellent range of Lonely Planet/Rough Guide and other travel books, as well as a great range of UK travel and activity books, including all National Trails and many long-distance walking and cycling routes.

It’s good to be home but it was wonderful being able to read so much in such a condensed amount of time.

After a weekend of sorting my head out (I got a little discombobulated due to hormones and anaemia), I proved to myself on Sunday that I can run long distances, which was part of sorting my head out. 22 miles, it turns out. I was very pleasantly surprised. My knees were not pleasantly surprised.

Here are a couple of snaps en route:

This weekend, it’s a day trip to That London and then playing on steam trains. Just a small matter of being on-call on Friday night. Ho hum.

Hope you’re well,
Cxx