It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life

Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: Lance Armstrong rocks. He has a lot of courage.

This is a most inspiring book.

Rating:
Summary: Inspiring!
Review: This is a fantastic book, much more than just a biography of the world's best (and most famous) cyclist. Lance Armstrong provides a heartfelt look at his amazing life, including his cycling feats (of course), growing up without a father, his illness, treatment, and recovery from cancer, his struggles to have a child (wife's vitro fertilization), and more. He outlines his triumphs and challenges, setbacks and victories in a compelling and interesting manner. I'm a martial artist not a cyclist and frankly have very little interest in the sport. Regardless, I could not help but be inspired by this fascinating book.

Rating:
Summary: Inspiring
Review: This is by far one of the best books i have ever read. Lance Armstrong is the best role model any kid could have after seeing all that he has gone through. As shown through his autobiography it is definately clear that it's not about the bike. An amazing and inspiration story!!!

Rating:
Summary: wow...
Review: To be honest, I didn't know much about Lance before reading this. I knew he was a cyclist and I knew those trendy livestrong bracelets that all the celebrities suddenly had, had something to do with him, but that's about it. The topic of Lance Armstrong came up after my history class a few months ago. My teacher and I were talking about positive quotes, and he read me one from "It's not about the Bike." I was instantly moved. My teacher asked me if I would like to borrow the book for the weekend, and I automatically said yes. I couldn't put it down, I read the entire thing in under 48 hours. It moved me in ways I never thought possible, brought up emotions I never knew I had. A family member of mine passed away from cancer a few years back, and it took me back to that summer, I saw things from a different perspective. I have urged many of my friends to read this, and convinced a few of my friend's parents too. All of them have enjoyed it. Me, being a 16 year old female, who was never ever intrested in cycling, was skeptical at first to read it, but it is now one of my all time favourite books. Read it, you won't be let down.

Rating:
Summary: 3.5 stars for compelling, inspirational, tepidly written
Review: you can't fight lance's compelling story: fatherless small town texas kid becomes champion bicycle racer, then is diagnosed with cancer -- a death sentence he eludes to win the tour de france over and over again. the story is certainly inspirational and benefits from lance's simple, frankly expressed emotions. however i'm only giving it 3 stars: 1. the writing is really flavorless and only picks up momentum at a few moments, lance could have really used a writer who cared; 2. with the benefit of hindsight, and with sheryl crowe now "decorating" his arm, a lot of the lovey-dovey about his wife seems like a lot of yap; 3. lance defending himself on performance-enhancing drug charges still sounds like bill clinton talking about marijuana and sex. at the end of the day this is a nice enjoyable read, good for an airport or vacation, but for REAL inspiration try lansing's Endurance, or papillon, or we die alone, or..

Rating:
Summary: An excellent read for ESL students!
Review: My ESL students at New York City College of Technology just finished reading this challenging biography. They found it exciting, informative and very touching and learned more English reading it than I ever could have taught them! They learned medical vocabulary, biking vocabulary, idiomatic expressions and more importantly, they learned about an American icon, someone they probably would not have known much about if they hadn't read the book! In conjunction with our reading, they not only answered comprehension questions about every chapter, but they even went on a short bike trip, to really "experience" the biking adventure! At the end of the course, they presented dialogues from their favorite scenes in the book. For teachers, I highly recommend this for a high level ESL class!