Panniers & Peanut Butter a book review

Book Review by Bill Poindexter

Panniers & Peanut Butter by Laura Crawford and Russ Roca

“We have a love-hate relationship with Peanut Butter.”
The first sentence of this fantastic book sets the fun mood for the reader.

Panniers & Peanut Butter is a great how to bicycle touring guide by two people who live the lifestyle. Whether you are an arm chair adventurer, a S24O tourist(get the book to find out what this means), a multi day bicycle tourist, or an adventure cyclist, you will, I promise, love this book.  The book is broken up into relevant sections: touring styles, bikes, bedrooms, kitchen, porch, office, and wardrobe. Laura and Russ take turns with the writing which gives this book the rich uniqueness of feeling like you are sitting across a picnic table from them.

They keep it simple, only sharing information about the equipment they are using, how it works for them, and what they like best.

They added some information I have never seen in other books about bicycle touring. A section on their Porch, fun. A surprisingly fascinating section on tying knots with a link to videos on how to tie knots, off beat and extremely helpful. The Office, answers the question what equipment is needed to document the tour while on it.

Quotes, in between chapters, from a relevant past articles on their blog add flavor, my favorite, was the first, “The Great Fear.”

I have to share this from the Great Fear, “My Greater Fear is that I will rot beneath a matrix of fluorescent lights staring at the carpeted walls of a cubicle, or that I will wake knowing exactly what I will be doing every minute of every day for the rest of my waking life, or that I will wait until I am old and enfeebled to give myself permission to live.” Wow!

The photography is incredible and brings you into their adventure.

There are many other links to relevant information. I, with all e-books, make sure I read the text first all the way through, off-line, and then go exploring the links later.

“This e-book is our attempt to get you geared up and excited - and we hope itʼll help you find your way out your front door to explore what lays just beyond your usual path.” From Panniers and Peanut Butter.

The book can be purchased from their site at, http://www.pathlesspedaled.com/.

Enjoy!