I may have ten very positive reviews on Amazon.co.uk, but my Amazon.com readers have so far been silent. Until now. My first .com review has come courtesy of Yvette Lian who lives in Brisbane, Australia. She’s given the book a 4* rating and starts off as follows;

Last night, I finished reading the Kindle edition of “Good Vibrations: Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie”. It’s written by a fellow who… decided he’d ride his bike from his hometown in England to the bottom of Italy. I really enjoyed his writing style. It’s laid-back and relaxed, much as I imagine the author to be. The author, Andrew P. Sykes, seems to be a bit of a free-wheeler (heh, bike humour there). For all his planning, route research and map-checking, in the end, he just kind of followed his nose and made his way to his destination. It was this sort of obligation-free travel style that I found inspiring. I don’t plan to ride from England to Italy anytime soon, but it made me want to load my bike up and go for a long ride.

Brilliant. Thanks Yvette! There’s more? OK…

I enjoyed reading Andrew’s story, but I felt the text could’ve used a spell check and the discerning eye of an editor.

Ouch!

Andrew is a languages teacher, so confusing the word “barren” for “baron” repeatedly is something that should never have made it past the second draft. There were other similar spelling errors and some grammatical errors that detracted from the pleasure of reading his story.

Yep, I hold my hands up on this one. Unfortunetly, Yvette must have been reading the first version of the book. It has been updated at least twice since with corrections, mainly as a result of Marcello’s feedback that I talked about on here a few weeks ago. Any other comments Yvette?

Andrew’s descriptions of some of the landscapes, views, sights etc could’ve been augmented by photos. Every time he described some beautiful vista, I found myself hoping the next page would contain a photograph.

OK. That’s an interesting one and something that I could do I suppose. Here is a nice vista to start off with (it’s the sunset at the Laghi Di Monticchio). In fact, I think I now have the first project of the half-term! Like any good reviewer however, Yvette sums up her overall feelings in her final few words;

That said, it was a pleasure to read. The story-telling was great and the material was inspiring. I’d recommend this book to anyone interesting in cycle touring.