Average Rating: 
Rating:  - That's MY book, too.
After recently recovering from Cancer, my wife suggested that my "story" would make for a great book. I told her that there aren't too many people who would want to read about a nobody from New Jersey who went through a miserable experience with Cancer. I'd have to be a "somebody." Well, Lance Armstrong and Sally Jenkins wrote my book.When I most recently saw media coverage of Lance's story and book, I was angry. I didn't want the public to believe that Cancer had a hollywood ending if you work hard and don't give up. There's nothing hollywood about Cancer and I resented the attention Lance was receiving. Then, I read the book. IT'S REAL. Through the wonderfully constructed words of Sally Jenkins, and the raw, honest sentiments of Lance Armstrong, this book tells it like it is. Lance Armstrong is just like anyone else who happens to be diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. He is not a hero. He is not superhuman. He is human. And, in this book, he doesn't pretend to be anything but that. This book takes you through all of the emotions of being a cancer patient; fear, sadness, anger, resentment, pity, hope, and so on. Though every patient is different, Lance's feelings echo those of myself and countless others who are in the survivor's club. As a marathoner, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Lance's cycling career. However, you don't have to be an athlete to appreciate his incredible drive, determination and accomplishments on a bike. His story both on and off the bike is truly inspirational. This book is for cancer patients and survivors. It is for their families and friends, who just can't fully understand what it is like to endure the physical and emotional challenges of the disease. It is for athletes of all skill levels, shapes and sizes. And, it is for ANYONE who needs a little perspective on just how precious life really is and what's important. Thanks for reading.
Rating: - A life cycle.
Lance Armstrong's "It's Not About the Bike" resonates with the boundless, Tour de France-winning energy of its author. Armstrong tells his story with honesty and simplicity in a way that made me want to hear and know more, and not shrink back from the details of what it's like to have testicular cancer. As he talked about the person he was before and after fighting cancer, I could feel the post-cancer Lance emerge in the book - a person who woke up to what a difference people make in our lives, and what a difference we make to other people and to ourselves. I really like the following quote from the book: "The one thing the illness has convinced me of beyond all doubt --more than any experience I've had as an athlete--is that we are much better than we know."I owe a great thanks to a reviewer of this book from Jersey City. The review spurred me on to read this book as well as another book she recommended "Working on Yourself Doesn't Work" by Ariel and Shya Kane. I've read many books that have pointed the way to a great life, but this one went right tothe heart of the matter - that trying to fix yourself keeps you stuck in the places you'd like get out of, but getting into the moment will set you free. Don't miss either of these books.
Rating: - It Is SO About The Bike by fermed
This fantastic person, Lance Armstrong, faced cancer, nearly died, survived, and as I write this (July 22, 2000) is about to win his second Tour de France since his brush with death. He is a superb athlete and an extraordinary human being. The adversity of his disease and its brutal treatments changed him for the better both as a sportsman and as a person; and it is his bike that runs through this book as the unifying force and the symbolic icon for what Lance does. Yes, many of the important aspects of this book have to do with things of the spirit and not with pedaling; but it is on wheels that he first encountered fame, the lack of those wheels that brought him to near despondency, and the triumphal return to his wheels that signaled his being whole once more. There is no self pity or sentimentality in these pages. This is not a book of the "inspirational" genre; but few will be able to read it without being changed for the better. Here is a man who at every stage of his life could have yielded to excuses or victimhood, but who systematically said "no" to everything except excellence and self discipline. A true winner. An exciting, fast-paced book. A great reading exoperience; about the bike and about many other things, too.
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