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    Unavailable
    Into Thick Air: Biking to the Bellybutton of Six Continents
    Unavailable
    Into Thick Air: Biking to the Bellybutton of Six Continents
    Unavailable
    Into Thick Air: Biking to the Bellybutton of Six Continents
    Ebook452 pages7 hours

    Into Thick Air: Biking to the Bellybutton of Six Continents

    By Jim Malusa

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    “Delightful debut travelogue by botanist Malusa, who cycled to the lowest point on each of six continents.” —Kirkus Reviews
     
    With plenty of sunscreen and a cold beer swaddled in his sleeping bag, writer and botanist Jim Malusa bicycled alone to the lowest point on each of six continents, a six-year series of “anti-expeditions” to “anti-summits.” His journeys took him to Lake Eyre in the arid heart of Australia, along Moses’ route to the Dead Sea, and from Moscow to the Caspian Sea. He pedaled across the Andes to Patagonia, around tiny Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, and from Tucson to Death Valley.
     
    With a scientist’s eye, Malusa vividly observes local landscapes and creatures. As a lone man, he is overfed by grandmothers, courted by ladies of the night in Volgograd, invited into a mosque by Africa’s most feared tribe, chased by sandstorms and hurricanes—yet Malusa keeps riding. His reward: the deep silence of the world’s great depressions.
     
    A large-hearted narrative of what happens when a friendly, perceptive American puts himself at the mercy of strange landscapes and their denizens, Into Thick Air presents one of the most talented new voices in contemporary travel writing.
     
    “I’ve followed all of Jim’s amazing and hilarious journeys, and I am happy to claim him as one of my favorite writers.” —Barbara Kingsolver, New York Times bestselling author
     
    “His descriptions of desert landscapes can be extraordinary . . . You can almost feel the dry gusts turning Malusa’s lips into cracked leather.” —The New York Times Book Review
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateJul 1, 2010
    ISBN9781578051847
    Unavailable
    Into Thick Air: Biking to the Bellybutton of Six Continents

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    Reviews for Into Thick Air

    3.5/5

    34 ratings8 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Funny,descriptive. Malusa has an eye for the natural detail that is delightful.
    • 2/5
      Intermittently interesting and stultifying. I would have enjoyed this much more as it was originally published- as a set of six widely separated essays- rather than as a whole book. Malusa has an interesting authorial voice, but he's all over the map- one paragraph talking about the history of the place he's in, then next paragraph ruminating on his family back home, then on to something else.
    • 5/5
      Bicycling and travel ... doesn't get any better. Interesting premise and fun read.
    • 4/5
      Very interesting and entertaining, a little light weight, but not in a bad way. 3¾ stars?

      Often times the problem with books like this is the writer stretching it out too far, or getting in to way more detail than you want to know. I had the opposite problem here; he makes all these interesting trips, and I wanted to know more. It’s understandable though, there is a theme and a goal, and they probably didn’t want to put out a 1500 page book. Many people would have made one of these trips and made a whole book about it, half of them would have been a good amount of detail, but at least it stays interesting. He’s a good writer, funny and thoughtful, and I would probably read the 1500 page version.
    • 5/5
      This book is very well written and is an easy read. There is a great mixture of cultural, geographical and historical information provided throughout the book. Malusa also adds a some wonderful humor into the situations he finds himself in. This book is the story of six amazing journeys, journeys that are unique, exciting and not even thought of by most.
    • 4/5
      Author Jim Malusa takes us on six separate bike journeys, each to the lowest point of a continent. Only Antartica is excluded from this list. The journeys are compelling, particularly jaunts through South Russia and Eritrea, where one's safety cannot be guaranteed, and Malusa can tell a good story, mixing in historical and cultural tidbits along the way. What I found a bit frustrating about this account was the lack of time references. It took me a while to figure out-- and only through hints, inferences and doing some math--that the trips are spaced years apart. Some of them occurred in the 1990s. Few cyclists can undertake such trips, but those of us who have done cross-country journeys would have benefitted by learning a more about the type of bike, panniers and other equipment Malusa carried. One thing I did like, and that is often sadly lacking in travel narratives, is the customized maps. All in all the book is worth reading even if you have not pedalled a bicycle since grade school.
    • 3/5
      Adult nonfiction; travelogue. I only got as far as page 85 (maybe I will come back to it some day) but Jim Malusa writes a good tale--just not compelling enough for me to keep reading (given the tall stack of other books that I intend to read and return by their library due dates).
    • 5/5
      Wonderful premise of bicycling to the world's lowest points, including my favorite (and only one I've been to), Death Valley. Creative, thoughtful descriptions of the plant and animal life, including human, that he meets; very poetic imagery at times. I don't own this book, but now want to buy it so I can browse it again in the future.