Cycling into Your Soul

Rating:
Summary: This is the kind of bike travel book I was looking for
Review: I have read several bike-travel books. Some seemed distanced and with a false sense of profesionalism to them. Marg's book is an honest and truly revealing look at her journey.

Everything I felt lacking in the writing of Anne Mustoe I found in Marg Archibald. She was honest, candid and very personal in the introspection, adventures, people and places along the way. I felt like I learned something as well as saw a snippet of her life and my own in the course of the book.

Let alone the fact that she wonderfully describes the trip itself, which a bunch of writers of this genre neglect. Everythign from the little struggles and physical triumphs to the wicked vistas and feeling what it's liek to be there.

As I'm sure you've read from the product explaination she was at a turning point in her life, and grabbed life by the horns and went off on a life changing journey out in the world and very much into herself.

She is wonderfully candid about her failings in relationships and her need to change things in her life, which I'm sure a lot of us can relate to.

It is really refeshing to see that she has made these changes since her trip in 97. She has gone on to publish three other books that I know of about cycle-travel in Ontario and Southern Alberta.

This is a wonderful book for the seasoned cyclist, I could relate to the rhythm and new identity that comes from a huge cycling trip; a person interested in introspection; or just a damn good story.

The book is easy to read and is organized in digestable journal entries. A campy and informal way of looking at the journey, no illusions of gandeur here.

Although it is hard to find at times, I would certainly recommend this book as a great trip on it's own or as a hand in planning one.
[She has offered to help ambitious people thinking about making a trek of their own]
So shell out and dig in.

Rating:
Summary: An Inspiration!
Review: "Cycling Into Your Soul" is a very special book that not only inspires the reader to dream about a journey of his or her own, but which also stirs the reader to action. The book traces the experiences of Marg Archibald as she sets out on her bike with the desire to circumnavigate the world in celebration of her fiftieth birthday. She knows that she will begin in St. Petersburg, Russia, but the details of where she will cycle are unplanned, and instead unfold according to inner need. The liberation from the constraints of time and imposed structure are relected in both the text and in the style of writing itself. The book is written as a series of vignettes and insights that vary in length from just a few lines to several pages. This allows the writer the freedom to share a wide variety of sometimes unrelated, but interesting and meaningful experiences and thoughts with the reader. It also serves to make the vastness of the journey across land and into self less daunting and more easily imaginable. The reader is left thinking, "I could do this too!" and is continually reassured that "obstacles" can be overcome if they are not viewed as such. As we follow Marg Archibald on her journey, she shows us that factors such as age, athleticism, work, money, language, culture, health, and dealing with the negativity of others need not inhibit us from pursuing our dreams. This is the perfect book to pack away in your panniers as you "cycle into your soul!"

Rating:
Summary: A literary equivalent to standing on a mountaintop!
Review: Cycling Into Your Soul is a book not just for cyclists, but for all people. For long-distance runners, back-country hikers, canoeists, parents, anyone who has ever let themselves be small and be touched by the wonder of life and become stronger for it.

The love that Marg Archibald speaks of in Cycling Into Your Soul seems to have infused it's pages. Each time I read it I am filled with a sense of joy. Her story is told in moments, feelings. Like her trip itself each experience can be enjoyed and left, or lingered over as your mood takes you. Each small story is entertaining to read, but each also offers something more. Many times Marg's words cause some not-quite-glimpsed insight to 'plunk' into place and I thrill at the thought 'Yes! I've known that too!'

Amid the rush and importance of everyday life Marg's story reminds me to hang on to my sense of wonder, to embrace, to accept, to try. It helps me believe that anything is possible. It leads me to look inward and consider how I might be a better person. Or, when I want it to be, it is a simple distraction to settle my mind before sleep.

I would (and often do) recommend Cycling Into Your Soul to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: A Pilgrimage
Review: I couldn't put this book down until I finished it. Marg's gift for touching hearts everywhere she travels keeps spreading by way of her book. Truly inspiring, a modern day pilgrimage.

Rating:
Summary: When faith leads your steps.
Review: I don't know if this book came to me or if I went to it. I was intrigued by the title and probably in need of learning about someone who dares to take risks, ready to move out, against the current. I had just finished to read "The Alchemist" and wanted, I suppose, someone to prove me that Paulo Coelho's book was more than words of promising. "Cycling into your soul" brought that to me.

The woman who leaves Canada, at the age of 49, to cycle around the world, takes with her all the experiences of her past life and her believings as a north-american woman.She is there, out of her world, to confront them with the unknown, the unfamiliar. As a witness, she describes what she sees with such words that we really have the impression to be by her side. But more than that, she tells about her feelings with emotions. She tells about her fears, her strenght and weakness, alone on the road. This loneliness takes her closer to the nature, and she becomes an integral part of it, like in the russian forest. She reveals us her fragility but, in the same time, her pride after a long and difficult ride. She talks shameless as we do with close friends. The heroine is human and that let us think that, who knows? maybe we can be one too.

Could only life be simply like this?

Rating:
Summary: A Very Real and Spiritual Book
Review: I found "CYCLING INTO YOUR SOUL" to be not only interesting to read but also able to provide a real insight into myself and my own journey. Although the book uses writing about cycling around the world as its ostensible purpose, to this reader it is much more than that. It is about life and survival and many other much more real and yet spiritual aspects of all our lives.

Most of us have not been nearly as adventuresome as the author in our lives, but at the same time we have traveled enough in the world to recognize many of the situations she described. As someone has said "An adventure is really only an adventure after it has happened. At the time it is darn scary and just something that you have to get through". The neat thing about this book is that I was able to get both senses as she described her journeys, attempts to find places to stay, etc. In short through the author's words I really was able to live the experiences with her, both the terror and the triumph.

I was also very interested in the relationship with the author's Spiritual Guide. She was obviously a very important part of all Ms. Archibald's experiences, both in real life and in spirit. I sense that there is another story there, and I look forward to reading it.

Marg Archibald is to be commended for writing this book. It has the capacity to both educate and at the same time produce a profound impact on its readers. Certainly it has made me re-think many parts of my own life experiences.

Rating:
Summary: Cycles into my soul, too
Review: I have a close friend who reminds me of Marg Archibald -- her husband left her, she had to spend much time and energy wondering about her own self-worth and identity in a world that saw her single and (in her mind) dismissed her. This journey that started out as one possibility for celebrating a 50th birthday is one of discovered self-reliance and strengthened identity. Most of Marg's epiphanies elicited a "Way to go!" from me ... and I found myself angry at some of the infantile men she had the misfortune to meet along the way. This book develops a world-view both encouraging and challenging; the reader will want to do almost anything but sit at a table and eat cake for her/his next birthday!

Rating:
Summary: Solo cyclists have soul.
Review: I read Marg Archibald's book, 'Cycling Into Your Soul' immediately following a solo trip across Canada of 7900 kms. Her book touches deeply on the feelings that emerge when you face a challenge alone and have many hours to contemplate about the meaning of your own life in relation to the environment and people you encounter on the journey. I am seventy years old and was touched, as a man, by the ease with which Marg could convey her feelings (as I think only women can do easily) as they encounter new experiences that allow them to grow in spiritual maturity.There are far too many cycling books that talk only of "gear ratios" and "good food" and what "you" should take along or leave behind. It was a pleasure to read a book that gives a lot of attention to personal feelings and what cycling can do for the mental side of our lives quite aside from the obvious physical benefits. The vignettes that make each chapter cover a number of different countries and as an ex-New Zealander I felt at home with her description from her experience of that country. What stands out strongly in her book is the sincerity and willingness to share her deepest feelings which touched a chord in my own feelings because my experience showed that 98% of a long cycle trip is spent 'thinking' and the serendipitous events encountered
get more attention and have to be placed into a special context, compared to the daily events of a normal life. Congratulations Marg and I hope you continue writing about your experiences and feelings gained from cycling.

Rating:
Summary: A disappointment
Review: I was disappointed at the outset with the quality of the writing. But I pushed forward hoping that the story itself would be redeeming. I did find her occasional discussions of her philosophical approach to travel to be of interest. But overall, this book did not flow, and did not hold my interest. After about 35 pages, I decided that I did not want to spend my time pushing through this book. I agree with another reviewer who commented that this book needed an editor. That was apparent after reading only a couple of pages. If I could do it over, I wouldn't buy this book. It does have a nice title and cover though. Marg Archibald probably has a great story to tell, but this book was not an effective vehicle in my opinion.

Rating:
Summary: An exhilarating and moving view of the world and the soul.
Review: If Cycling Into Your Soul was simply a travelogue, it would be highly entertaining and of interest to anyone with a sense of adventure. If it was a self-help book, it could easily open one's eyes to the sense of wonder and strength within each of us. However, it is both of these and much more as well.

The book details the journies, both external and internal, of a woman who celebrated her 50th birthday on a bike, travelling around the world, alone. The author, Marg Archibald, weaves a rich tapestry of sights and sounds seen through the eyes of a strong, independant person facing the unknown with only her inner conviction that people are inherently good. The travels are unique and definitely out of the way. The people met are the good, the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, in reality, human beings.

It is Marg's journey into the depths of her soul that set this book far apart from any others. Throughout the journey she learned to trust her "spirit guide", what many of us would call intuition. This inner guide grew in stature as well as strength until it allowed her to face any adversity. This discovery is important to all of us in that it shows that we really know what to do in life, if we only let our basic strengths take over.

Cycling Into Your Soul left me jealous of Marg Archibald's accomplishments and, at the same time, exhilarated by the potential which can be found within. I would recommend this book highly to anyone facing a fork in life's road, or simply as great entertainment and insight.