Off the Map: Bicycling Across Siberia

Rating:
Summary: An inspiring adventure story
Review: Jenkins does an excellent job of conveying the feelings he experienced during this trip. Sometimes spirits were low and sometimes they were high. His writing captures the reality of the trip and reveals the spirit of the Russian people with great emotion. I disagree with the review above that states Jenkins hated Siberia. He clearly had a great appreciation for the people he met there and valued his experience. It was obvious that he had a problem with Communism, and hence did not understand the Soviets. This is a book about people. Who cares whether they were the first group to ride across the country? The objective of the book was to describe a journey, and that has been done very well.

Rating:
Summary: An inspiring adventure story
Review: Jenkins does an excellent job of conveying the feelings he experienced during this trip. Sometimes spirits were low and sometimes they were high. His writing captures the reality of the trip and reveals the spirit of the Russian people with great emotion. I disagree with the review above that states Jenkins hated Siberia. He clearly had a great appreciation for the people he met there and valued his experience. It was obvious that he had a problem with Communism, and hence did not understand the Soviets. This is a book about people. Who cares whether they were the first group to ride across the country? The objective of the book was to describe a journey, and that has been done very well.

Rating:
Summary: A record not made in a country not liked
Review: Mark Jenkins clearly did not like Russia and the system. I agree on his view of the old system, but my thoughts were again and again: What does he do there. He don't like it at all. In spite of all the trouble of Mark Jenkins, the fact is that a Russian biker crossed Russia one sea to another in 1967, 22 years before Jenkins. The first do cross all of Russia was a Dane, me, who did it in 1997 from Magadan to Kaleningrad (more to the East and more to the West than Jenkins route). The brother of Fjordor Koinikov (who followed Jenkins), Nikolai, tried to do it before me. He failed because of cold. I succeed because I loved Siberia. Jenkins hated it.

Rating:
Summary: I Did not find this book entertaining at all.
Review: Seems like the author is trying to pretend to be this geat hero riding his iron stallion across the frozen reaches of Siberia.

I found him to be a true bore. Out running and out smarting Soviet KGB agents on a bicycle? Oh please!

If you want to read a true adventure, read Miles From Nowhere by the late Barbara Savage.

Rating:
Summary: I've borrowed this one from the library a dozen times.
Review: This is an excellent book. It offers a brief peek into the vast Russian hinterland that plodded along under the Soviet shroud. Russia is not Moscow. It's written sometime in the late 80's, not long before the USSR collapsed, and shows us people who's main priority is survival, not Communism. Jenkins writes in a rambling style that paints a vivid picture. Having gone to Russia since reading it for the first time, I can say the picture is very accurate.