"Ghost Rider"--Neil Peart

[rangepig]

I just finished reading Neil Peart's book "Ghost Rider" about his travels on his GS after some huge life changing tragedies. What a great book, and very inspirational. Really reminded me of Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". I read "Zen..." every couple years or so. I'll probably be adding "Ghost Rider" to that list.

I know this book came out a while ago, but I just discovered it. I was looking to find a good "motorcycle read" for my return to the sport after 20 years and I found so much more in "Ghost Rider".

Anyway, I highly recommend it.

[BouncinBob]

I just finished reading Neil Peart's book "Ghost Rider" about his travels on his GS after some huge life changing tragedies.

It holds several interest in our household. My Lady read it, with me urging her to hurry up so I could start. Of course I haven't started now 3 weeks after she finished.

My son has interest as a drummer he is a Neil Peart fan. He really flipped out when he saw Neil on the cover of ON last year.

[MCMXCIVRS]

I picked it up at a used book sale a bit ago and am about half way through it. The first parts of his journey was over many roads that I too have ridden so it was really neat to be able to almost be along with him for the ride. Would never want to have to do a ride for those reasons though.

[Troutluck]

I'm glad you enjoyed it. I was less enthusiastic (and disagree with the comparisons to Pirsig completely):

http://www.jackpate.com/wordpress/?p=869

But, hey, YMMV applies to literature, too.

[rangepig]

Obviously the two books are very different, but they are both about two men on journeys (on motorcycles) in search of themselves. I even see a little (note: a little) similarity in Pirsig's insanity and his alter ego "Phaedrus" and Peart's "Ghost Rider" and other splintered bits of his personality.

You lament the lack of character development in the book, and your review reads like you're reviewing a novel. I don't really see it that way. I see it as Peart's personal therapy that we've been allowed to have a glimpse of, with a little travelogue thrown in. I've never read any travel writing that has a huge amount of character development other than that of the traveller anyway.

I was never a big Rush fan (not really ever being a fan of mainstream music of any kind) but I do remember my drummer friends idolizing Neal Peart when we were in high school. I didn't know much at all about the band other than that they were Canadian (and played incessantly on the radio here in Oregon in the 80s).

I do find one thing amusing: Peart laments the lack of self-serve gas in Oregon, which I find pretty ridiculous myself as a lifelong resident. Funny thing is almost every gas station I've been to on the bike in Oregon the attendant hands me the nozzle and lets me fill it up myself.

[2beers]

Hello All, The book is truly inspirational. The time of Neil's troubles is the same time my wife lost her father to cancer. It helped my wife put a lot of things into perspective. The book is also a big reason I am on the verge of buying a beemer. Hope no one has to go through what Neil went through.

Neil has also written other books like "Masked Rider" and is soon to come out with another book latter this summer. They are difficult to find but you may be able to find them online.

[Emoto]

Hello All, The book is truly inspirational. The time of Neil's troubles is the same time my wife lost her father to cancer. It helped my wife put a lot of things into perspective. The book is also a big reason I am on the verge of buying a beemer. Hope no one has to go through what Neil went through.

Neil has also written other books like "Masked Rider" and is soon to come out with another book latter this summer. They are difficult to find but you may be able to find them online.

Welcome, 2beers! :clap :thumb

You looking At a GS like Peart rides, or something else?

[2beers]

I would love a GS but my wife and I are both tall I have decided on a K1200LT. But many of the other BMW owners I know own more than one bike so maybe I pay this one off and then look at a GS as a second bike.

"Traveling Music" is another of Neil Peart's books.

I saw Rush at the Marcus Amphitheater in Milwaukee and saw the new GS he has. It is odd to see a huge road barn with a little trailer on back with bikes in it.

[Emoto]

Well, the LT is a heck of a machine, that's for sure. I went from an R1100RS to an R1200GS because I am tall and the GS bikes seem good for tall people. I never tried an LT. :dunno

[BradfordBenn]

I was let down by the ending :( Seemed to be just a wrap it up quick ending.

[rinty]

There's been a couple of other good biking books published within the last few years: "Mi Moto Fidel" and "Riding With Rilke" being the others.

It is odd to see a huge road barn with a little trailer behind it with bikes in it. 2Beers

Peart likes to ride from venue to venue. At one point he had two GS's while on tour, one being a spare, and one of the road managers has a Harley and rides with him.

Rinty

[jwhite518]

There's been a couple of other good biking books published within the last few years: "Mi Moto Fidel" and "Riding With Rilke" being the others.



I was very disappointed with "Mi Moto Fidel." It struck me as this guy's story about riding around Cuba getting laid as much as he could. Not really much of a motorcycle travel story if you ask me.

[rinty]

jerry:

But it's not really about motorcycles. The prurient parts, which are intriguing, perhaps distracted you from the gradual build up of his thesis that the revolution, (and Castro) were a failure. He starts out as an admirer of the Cuban communist experiment and gradually gets worn away by events that occur during his trip (including a grilling by the secret police) until at the end, on a historic beach, he realizes the whole thing was a bust.
I thought it was well done, and the sexual parts, which he could easily have left out, reflect candour on his part.

But that's literature for you. Yesterday we visited the National Steinbeck Centre in Salinas, California, and I was stunned to learn that he had been savaged by almost all the American critics after having been selected to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Everybody has their own view of it, and it's a personal view.

Rinty