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Book Reviews of It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life

It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life
It's Not About the Bike My Journey Back to Life
Author: Lance Armstrong, Sally Jenkins
ISBN-13: 9780425179611
ISBN-10: 0425179613
Publication Date: 6/2002
Pages: 304
Rating:
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 182

3.9 stars, based on 182 ratings
Publisher: Berkley Trade
Book Type: Paperback
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

41 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 7 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 6
While Lance Armstrong is on the arrogant side, his life story is compelling and worth knowing. He is a champion in the true sense of the word. I was even inspired.
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 18 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
more about his life than him as a cyclist, very inspirational
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 76 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
fascinating for anyone, not just athletes or cyclists
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 14 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
Excellent book for anyone to read. You do not have to be a fan of professional cycling to get something out of this book. Inspiring!
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 101 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
Such a strong man and a strong book. I felt inspired after reading and felt that accomplishment is in all of us. A great read.
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 4 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Very insperantoinal. It made you look at your life and see how he can go though times and that you to can go though tough times.
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 4 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
An absorbing account of Lance Armstrong's battle against cancer and his struggle to regain his title after the disease and treatment ravaged his body and mind.
JeepingNana avatar reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 19 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Great book about Lance Armstrong and the difficulties he faced. Its not about just the bike, but about the soul........
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 113 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Autobiography of Lance Armstrong. Follows Lance through his struggle with brain cancer. Inspiring.
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 17 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Great. I loved it. I read it on a 9 hour bus ride to Colorado and it was good company.
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 2 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
I enjoyed the book. Its a nice background to Lance's journey in his own words.
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 16 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Great book. Makes me want to go out and ride.
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 38 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
I really enjoyed the book. I did find it inspiring and it's always interesting to hear first-hand someone's true account of how their struggles, challenges and successes really played out. Recommended!
Kim1264 avatar reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on
Helpful Score: 1
Really enjoyed this book. It was very inspirational and I have shared it with others who have found it inspirational as well. Won't give up my copy.
scrapbooklady avatar reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 472 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Very inspirational, quick and easy to read.
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 19 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Very inspirational journey, a quick and easy read.
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 5 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Inspirational!
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 15 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
inspirational. terrific book
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 31 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Excellent book, I did not want to stop reading it. I found him to be reactive but brutally honest and inspiring as others have said. I will read all I can find by him.I loved his decription of his cancer and bike riding. I was right there with him.
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 3 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Incredible insight into his life
DTMathison avatar reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on
Helpful Score: 1
I threw this book out. It's no longer in my non-fiction or fiction sections. He's a fake and I absolutely do not recommend anyone reading a word from this fraud.
CharleneY avatar reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 80 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Maybe because I don't like sports?? It was very uninteresting. I would say the writing style didn't help matters. It would be nice if he (or his ghostwriter?) had more of a sense of humor.
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 15 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Very inspirtational.
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 5 more book reviews
I requested and received this book when my 25 year old nephew was very ill with testicular cancer. I learned a lot from it and it was certainly inspiring. However, Mr. Armstrong comes across as a bit of a jerk - especially in the way he treated his girlfriend and later his wife. Very easy reading and great overview of the Tour de France.
My nephew died last week so his ending did not turn out as well as Mr. Armstrong's.
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on
It was alright, turns out Lance is a bit of a douchebag. But a hardworking one.
surlyrider avatar reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 11 more book reviews
I've always been amazed by Lance's focus and determination. A few weeks ago, I was out for a bicycle ride, and two other riders passed me. I overheard part of their conversation. One said to the other "I know a journalist, and he had interviewed both Floyd Landis and Lance Armstrong. He said that Lance was a jerk, and Floyd was real nice. This is why I think Lance doped". I thought of the many charismatic criminals we have been faced with, and shook my head. As though a journalist's personal thoughts on whether someone doped or not has any merit.

I'm not a sports "hero" worshiper, and never will be. But I found this story a really good read, finished in a couple of days. It is an inspiring story, and I found a deeper respect for Lance, his character, and the many challenges he overcame in order to pursue his career. I found the end of the book to be a humble attempt to explain how he believes he survived cancer. Overall, this was a good read.
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 5 more book reviews
A wonderful inspiration for people going through cancer treatment (I've been through it), or for people looking to be inspired to not give up on any kind of life journey. I enjoyed the parts about the bike racing also since I'm an amateur biker.
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 50 more book reviews
An unbelievable story!
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 14 more book reviews
Personal and entertaining story of Lance's journey.
lipslady avatar reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 101 more book reviews
Inspiring!
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 68 more book reviews
Oddly, I find that I have less respect for Lance Armstrong now than I did before reading this book. He admits that he was arrogant prior to his cancer diagnosis, and I'm not sure that "arrogant" even covers it. I found his attitude towards his mother, his family, his friends, and his medical staff to be very disrespectful. I didn't find this to be a "feel good" story at all.
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 117 more book reviews
Very enjoyable.
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 14 more book reviews
AS a cancer survivor myself, I found this really inspiring. He overcame a lot through sheer strength of will and I know, first-hand, that stubborn refusal to give in to the disease is the first step toward beating it. I rode right with him on his "journey back to life."
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on
Life after cancer. It so sad but he my hero.
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 8 more book reviews
Very inspirational. If you think Lance is a bit arrogant & self-centered, this story of his battle with cancer and struggles through life should change your mind a bit about his character & why he's who he is today.
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 26 more book reviews
great book for any cancer patient or survivor!
bookaddict avatar reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on
I read this and enjoyed it greatly before the truth came out about Lance. It's interesting to consider the narrative in the fresh light. I still think that the part of the story about battling cancer and recovering from that is interesting -- even though it turns out there's a lot he left out, and a lot that was purely untrue.
thefamily avatar reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 9 more book reviews
I'm a woman. I'm not a cyclist. I've never had cancer. I read mostly fiction. But this book absolutely blew me away. So much more than an athlete bio, this is a wonderfully told, brilliantly written story of a real American hero. The play-by-play cycling coverage is fascinating even to a non-cyclist and the detailed discussion of Lance's illness, treatment, and recovery is beyond inspiring. The look inside Lance's childhood, his love life, his amazing journey into fatherhood, and his role as a cancer activist is what brings the whole story home. So much more than a story of athletic achievement and cancer recovery, this is a story about triumph of the human spirit. I can't wait to root for Lance in this year's Tour de France and in the Olympics. Hopefully we'll be cheering him to victory for years to come. I have been talking about this book to anyone who will listen to me. Listen to me. Buy the book. You will not want to put it down. It is a story you will never forget.
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 13 more book reviews
From the back of the book: It is a book for sports fans and sports haters, for cycling enthusiasts and those who haven't ridden a bike since childhood, for cancer patients and the healthiest of the healthy, for anyone who has ever overcome odds....it's not about the bike, or about the sport. It's about the soul.
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 33 more book reviews
"Lots of Drama... an inspirational story." -People
reviewed It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life on + 58 more book reviews
Winner of Tour de France