Cyclings Strangest Tales

Download or read book Cycling's Strangest Tales written by Iain Spragg and published by Portico. This book was released on 2017-06-12 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Extraordinary but true stories from 200 years of cycling history. Part of the bestselling Strangest series, Cycling’s Strangest Tales is a quirky and fascinating collection of stories from cycling’s history. Included are stories of Thomas Stevens, the doughty Englishman who circumnavigated the world on a penny farthing, the 1904 Tour de France winner who was disqualified for catching the train, the 1937 Japanese invasion of China spearheaded by 50,000 bicycle-mounted troops, and the man who soared over nine circus elephants on an ordinary yellow bike. The stories come from every corner of the cycling world, whether it’s the open road, the velodrome or the BMX track. Brought bang up to date for 2017 with a selection of new stories, Cycling’s Strangest Tales is the perfect gift for anyone who’s in love with life on two wheels. Word count: 45,000

Download or read book Tennis's Strangest Matches written by Peter Seddon and published by Portico. This book was released on 2016-06-09 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this hugely entertaining collection of stories taken from over a hundred years of world tennis history, award-winning sports historian Peter Seddon has gathered together the most extraordinary events ever to occur on a tennis court. They include the Wimbledon final between the tea-drinking vicar and a convicted murderer, and the ‘Match of the Century’ between the ‘Women’s Libber’ and the ‘Male Chauvinist Pig’. There are matches played on board ship and on the wings of an airborne plane, a game played in full regimental dress, and meet the player who rated himself so highly he played an entire match while carrying someone ‘piggy-back’. The stories in this book are bizarre, fascinating, hilarious, and, most importantly, true. Revised, redesigned and updated for a new generation of tennis fanatics, this book is a unique look at the curiosities of an endlessly popular sport, revealing the ‘strawberries and cream’ game as you’ve never seen it before. Word count: 45,000

Download or read book Motor Racing's Strangest Races written by Geoff Tibballs and published by Portico. This book was released on 2016-06-09 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 1894, when motor racing’s colourful history began with a bang (and a banger!), drivers, racers and lunatics alike have done many stupid and bizarre things all in the name of motor sport. Author Geoff Tibballs has gathered together this absorbing collection of stories from over a century of motor racing around the world, including the Frenchman who drove 25 miles in reverse, the Grand Prix in which the leading drivers were so far ahead that they stopped for a meal in the pits, the Le Mans 24-hour race won by a car patched up with chewing gum, and the driver who drank six bottles of champagne – virtually one per pit-stop – on the way to winning the Indianapolis 500. The stories in this book are bizarre, fascinating, hilarious, and, most importantly, true. Revised, redesigned and updated for a new generation of petrolheads, this book contains enough extraordinary-but-true tales to drive anyone around the bend. Word count: 45,000

Download or read book Words to Ride By written by and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2017-05-09 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Notable luminaries throughout history have been inspired and humbled by the simple joy of riding a bicycle. For centuries, this powerful connection between people and bikes has driven humans forward as inventors, travelers, and thinkers. From Susan B. Anthony and Mark Twain to Eddy Merckx and Greg LeMond, collected here are entertaining, inspiring, and philosophical thoughts about cycling from writers (and riders) reflecting on the pleasures, power, and freedom of the bicycle. With beautiful black-and-white photos and illustrations on every spread, this elegant collection of quotations is sure to motivate anyone to get on their bike and enjoy the ride.

Download or read book Weird Tales of Creepy Crawlies - A Fine Selection of Fantastical Short Stories of Mysterious Insects and Spiders (Cryptofiction Classics - Weird Tales of Strange Creatures) written by Various and published by Read Books Ltd. This book was released on 2015-02-17 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These early works by various authors were originally published in the late 19th century and early 20th century and we are now republishing them with a brand new introduction as part of our Cryptofiction Classics series. 'Weird Tales of Creepy Crawlies' contains a collection of short stories about mysterious insects and arachnids, and includes 'The Strong Spider' by Edgar Allan Poe (1846), 'The Messenger' by Robert W. Chambers (1897), 'The Empire of the Ants' by by H. G. Wells (1905), and many more. The stories in this collection were mostly written around the turn of the century. And most of them reflect what has been a pretty consistent human reaction to insects, as evidenced throughout the literary tradition – fascination and disgust, in equal measure. Despite the Romantics' best efforts, the perception of insects as repulsive, threatening and unclean – the carriers of pestilence and plague in the bible; the exemplifiers of foulness in Shakespeare – has never quite gone away. The Cryptofiction Classics series contains a collection of wonderful stories from some of the greatest authors in the genre, including Ambrose Bierce, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Jack London. From its roots in cryptozoology, this genre features bizarre, fantastical, and often terrifying tales of mythical and legendary creatures. Whether it be giant spiders, werewolves, lake monsters, or dinosaurs, the Cryptofiction Classics series offers a fantastic introduction to the world of weird creatures in fiction.

Download or read book 100 Wild Little Weird Tales written by Stefan R. Dziemianowicz and published by Barnes & Noble. This book was released on 1994 with total page 612 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Weird Tales, the acknowledged leader of pulp magazine fantasy from 1923 to 1954, provided many of the genre's wildest and wooliest stories. Here are 100 of the magazine's greatest, written by the best and brightest writers of macabre tales of horror. Every story is guaranteed to bewilder, disturb, and excite. Witness H.P. Lovecraft's tales of extradimensional terror; discover the worlds of Clark Ashton Smith, which in Lovecraft's words are "a universe of remote and paralyzing fright"; then explore Henry S. Whitehead's quest into the spectral mysteries of the West Indies. The distinguished contributors to this collection challenged traditional notions of fiction by writing tales in ways previously unexplored. Seabury Quinn's blend of the detective story and terror in his accounts of occult investigator Jules de Grandin, E. Hoffman Price's retelling of Eastern myths and legends, and Manly Wade Wellman's tales of Souther folklore are all groundbreaking examples of invention through experimentation. Although Weird Tales is renowned primarily for its short stories and novellas, the magazine also introduced its readers to "sudden," or shorter-than-short, fiction. For example, consider the contrast between Florence Crow's vampire in traditional guise in "The Nightmare Road" and that of Richard F. Searight's in "The Sealed Casket." Also discover how Clark Ashton Smith in "The Last Incantation" and H.P. Lovecraft in "The Doom That Came to Sarnath" intensified the psychological setting of their stories by cultivating a stylized prose form appropriate for their arcane horrors. 100 Wild Little Weird Tales is a superb selection of Weird Tales' best and most bizarre. It proves that good things -- or in the case of weird fiction, bad things -- come in small packages.

Download or read book Cycling written by and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: