The Masked Rider: Cycling in West Africa
By: Neil Peart
 
     

Grading scale:
    A+  Instant classic! Top 10 of all time.
A  Should be on everyone's bookshelf. Not even finished       reading, but deserves a second read!
Grade: A-  Why did it have to end? Definitely worth a second read!
B+  Easily recommended to 90% of my friends. I may just read this again!
Would I read something else B  Makes me want to learn more about this subject/genre.
by this author: YES B-  Good book.....now what's next?
C+  Makes for a good bathroom read. Worth the price of the book.
C  Give to charity and use as tax write-off.
C-  How much time did I waste reading that? FOXNews would have been a better option Dan-O!
F  Shred as soon as possible to prevent contamination of others!

MWK Review:

 

From the Publisher
    "Cycling is a good way to travel anywhere, but especially in Africa. You are independent and mobile, and yet travel at people speed--fast enough to travel on to another town in the cooler morning hours, but slow enough to meet people: the old farmer at the roadside who raises his hand and says, 'You are welcome,' the tireless women who offer a smile to a passing cyclist, the children whose laughter transcends the humblest home."

So begins the text of Neil Peart's extraordinary journal about riding a bicycle on the roads and off the beaten track in West Africa. The Masked Rider is about the bike trek and the people who travel along with the author, including literary sidekicks Aristotle and Vincent Van Gogh. Sometimes it's a story of a tour of hell--Dante on a bicycle--as he suffered the pains of dysentery and stares down the muzzle of a drunk soldier's machine gun. Other times it's a journey of exalted discovery and African adventure of the highest calibre.

Neil Peart is the drummer and lyricist of the rock band Rush.