Customer Reviews

It's Not About the Tapas: A Spanish Adventure on Two Wheels

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

At first, I really enjoyed this book and I read it for two hours straight when I should have been sleeping but I think my enjoyment was mainly due to my love of the Spanish country, people and culture.

But after a while, I grew annoyed with the lengthy, boring bits of history that seemed to occur more throughout the book than the author's actual happenings. And when Polly actually did write about her trip and not about the history, I felt that she was constantly slamming someone or something--whether it be the food, the people, the hotels or the town itself. Finally, when I was halfway through the book, I couldn't take it anymore and could bear to read another paragraph and I put the book down.

I do like Polly's writing style and there were humorous bits, but I am more after a memoir than a history book and I was really looking forward to a book where I could delight in hearing about Spain while away from the wonderful country itself, but instead I found a pessimistic, constantly-chastizing waste of my thirteen dollars.

I have traveled to Spain and will return for a second go round shortly. When I saw this book in the new paperbacks section, I couldn't resist myself. I loved this book. It's smart, funny, and Polly Evans seamlessly ties in history lessons so you don't even know you're getting them.
Having a good Brittish friend, I understand her humor a little better than some other readers, but I laughed out loud at least once every ten pages and I am sure most others will as well.
Having been to Spain, also makes her descriptions and stories more interesting and real to me, but it would make a great read even if you just have an interest in Spain.
I love the little history lessons that she has sprinkled through out the book. Spain has an extremely fascinating history that she just skims the surface of. None the less, it greatens your appriciation of the places that she has traveled(and now I finally know why Spainiard love ham so much).

"It's Not About the Tapas: A Spanish Adventure on Two Wheels" by Polly Evans centered around the author's cycling adventure in different parts of Spain. Having left her editorial position in Hong Kong, Polly, yearned for a holiday and decided to journey across Spain by bicycle. In her journey, she met fascinating people, sample interesting cuisines and mostly trying to endure biking through the mountains.

This was a below average travelogue for me. I was struggling to finish the book as I found the author's description of her journey uninspiring. The author spent more than half of the book writing about the histories of famous people or buildings, which was not unusual in travelogues, but I felt that the author presented those facts just for the sake of it. For instance, she would arrive in a particular village, and she would go on about the history of the place and then she would move on to her next destination. There were not enough of personal observations of the various places she visited or even appreciation of another culture. I also felt that most of the time, she was not happy with her lodging or the people she met and I began to wonder what was the purpose of her trip. Lastly, the author hardly shared any personal information about herself and this was also why the book was not particularly engaging.

I bought this book after my own journey through Spain. At first I enjoyed it, thinking that she had some bad luck running into a few grumpy people, but it became an increasingly annoying theme that according to her everyone in Spain is rude, stupid, and/or fat and every place is dull and boring. I quote from the end of the book: "another drab dive in another dull town." Other tourists are also stupid and fat, and sometimes pimply. Sites that have left others breathless bore her to tears, and she thinks people meet in the plazas because they have nothing to do. I started to question her language skills as well as her eyesight.

I find it astounding that she could travel 1600 miles on bicycle and eat every meal in a public place and not strike up a single friendship or even a single interesting conversation, but her snarky attitude and condescending assumptions are revealing. Unless you're looking for an excuse to get out of a trip to Spain, I'd skip this.

Like Polly Evans embarking upon a (mostly) uphill bicycle ride through the Spanish countryside, I embarked upon the uphill struggle to enjoy this book. I wanted to like it. I thought it was a find when I saw it at a reduced price at a local bookstore and saved it until a moment when it seemed like a just-right escapist good read. Instead, I found myself plodding through the turgid prose with the pedal power of a skilled and persistent reader who can cycle through the stickiest thicket when motivated. What motivated me was the goal of discovering some wonderful gem of a travel experience in a country I love.

What greeted me after making it to the crest of hill after hill, was just another dreary view of the same landscape. "I rode my bike today. My bottom hurt. I drank a lot of beer. I met a moronic inn keeper. I ate a sandwich. I watched tv. The next day I'll do it again." Well, ok, maybe it wasn't quite that bad, but close.

I think that Evan's editor must have asked her to spice up each chapter with some history of the place just to make it seem as if something were happening in the book. Evans does so with less than a deft hand and the result is a dreary dull, fully non-entertaining look at her smarmy view of snippets of Spanish history.

Do yourself a favor and close the book sooner rather than later. I can tell you from experience that it really doesn't get better.

Polly Evans' attempt at travel writing in this book is flippant, shallow and trivial. The book reads like a crappy newspaper article with terribly over-simplified historical facts, and general disdain for the Spaniards she encounters. Better luck next time Polly!

A good travel memoir is a wonderful compliment to a vacation and I looked forward to reading It's Not About the Tapas during our recent ten day visit to Spain. Fortunately our experience was 180 degrees different from my Polly Evans account of her bike ride through rural and urban areas of Spain. She is so cynical and sarcastic in describing her travels that I doubted the credibility of the historical facts presented as well. Fortunately, I enjoyed my visit to Spain much more than I enjoyed reading Its Not About the Tapas.

I liked this book and don't understand why others were not engaged with this story. It's funny, well-written and full of historical trivia. Maybe TOO much history, as according to other reviewers she gets too engrossed in that part of her travel. I find travelogues with no historical references quite boring.

It's apparent that Polly did her research and made us want to read more. She had lived in Spain for a year in central-western Spain studying the language and culture, so she knew her subject matter. Good travel books talk about the history of the villages so that the readers have reasons to want to read the book. I think she succeeds. She doesn't overdo herself but lets the readers know she's not the best cyclist nor the best travel planner. She can enjoy a trip on her own by taking time to cycle around Spain. She covered the major towns and travelled throughout the country. She could have done the boring and predictable thing and taken a car instead. But then those rainy nights on village roads wouldn't have been so inspirational.

I will read her other books soon. I like her self-deprecating style.

Thank goodness I didn't pay money for this book. A darn shame our library did. Ms Evans must have some deep connections in the lodging industry because I learned far more about her hotel rooms than her bike tour. She doesn't seem to like Spain much as most of her unhumorous chatter focuses on demeaning the rural culture and complaining about the tourist sights. The one star I gave it is for the historic detail which is far more interesting than the arrogant, I'm-so-bored diatribes that fill the spaces in between. She researched well so I'll give credit for that. But I wanted to know about her biking experience not her research capabilities. The author's personal affect is one of a spoiled brat. She pouts when her hotel room is brown and delights in the luxury of expensive food and rooms both of which she planned to write off as an expense to create this work of mostly derogatory anecdotes. I labored on in reading it because I assumed at some point she'd have an epiphany, slap her pretentious self up a bit and come down to earth. Never happened. She ends as shallowly as she begins showing zero personal development or growth and a snobbish disdain for the culture. But hey, she lost weight and looks cuter and, apparently, that's important for a reader to know. Forget Spain, forget tapas, it's not about either one.

I got what I needed from this book but I was disappointed at Polly Evans' observations about the people along the way. In some cases her comments about people are rude and did not add value to the book. I needed an idea of a reasonable bike route through Spain and she accomplished this plus added enough history to make interesting points about the areas she visited.