Customer Reviews

Seeing Myself, Seeing the World: A Woman's Journey Around the World on a Bicycle

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Imagine the amount of courage it takes for a 30 year old banker to give up all security and start a whole new life and career. Imagine that you are a woman, and decide to embark on a trip around the world... on a bicycle! Imagine writing a book about your experiences, and exposing yourself to public criticism and ridicule.
Sally Vantress confronted each of these fears and many more. Sometimes she paid a heavy price. Sometimes she learned important lessons. Sometimes she had huge personal breakthroughs. But the difficulties and the traumas never stopped her from continuing her journey.
She discovered that visualization and imagination are indeed powerful forces. She learned that our thoughts really do affect other people and our relationships with them. Negative thoughts attract fear and failure; positive thoughts help her sell her book to people who will benefit from reading it.
If you enjoy reading a story about self-discovery, courage, initiative and ingenuity, then you will enjoy meeting Sally in the pages of this book. She inspired me to do more with my life than I had been doing. She inspired me to not be afraid to reveal my fears and my weaknesses and my vulnerabilities, for when we truly see ourselves - the weaknesses as well as the strengths - and when we are not afraid to reveal them to others - then we can truly see ourselves and the real world around us.

I liked this book as a travelogue. She wasn't trying to sell us on any one place, or any one mode of travel; she just took us through the journey as she lived it- the good and bad adventures, facilities, interactions and scenery.

Because she was traveling alone, talking to herself and her bike and dwelling on her place in the universe became a large part of the experience. Unfortunately that aspect doesn't make for great reading, but it would have been an incomplete story without the inner dialogue. I felt the physical exertion was under-played. All those miles were a major accomplishment.

I liked it mostly because I could easily imagine myself getting shoved around in ticket lines, hanging out too long in a comfortable campground in Portugal, and the bittersweet sensations of giving up new friends as the road beckons.

I keep on -- desperately -- trying to support the "you can't judge a book by its cover" and last night I have decided with a bit over half a century of reading -- YES you can judge a book by its cover. Every readable author who takes pride in her/his work will take the time and spend the money to find an artist for the cover. This book has cemented that horrid covers = a pathetic book.

With this cover I was not expecting the talent of Josie Dew but at least Anne Mustoe. This book reads as if Tammy Baker wrote it. A world 'cycle' journey of 70,400 miles with only 20,000 actually on a cycle is not a cycle journey but a travel book that has a few scenic miles spent on a cycle. This book is a rich woman 'roughing' a journey because her padded bank account had to spend the night with a 4 star motel. You've been warned.

'Seeing Myself' was not in itself a bad read. I appreciated the courage it took to cycle around the world and the effort that went into writing a book about it. What I had trouble with was the author's approach to her journey. On more then 1 occasion she places herself in compromising situations(not including the last one) and appears confused with the results. Her references to protecting herself with "circles of light" were silly. Her inner dialogue screamed "I need a hobby". Overall I was disappointed.