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Gear: Books Is Good!

Metal Cowboy: Tales from the Road Less Pedaled
by Joe Kurmaskie
Review by Dain Zaffke
VITALS

Metal Cowboy: Tales from the Road Less Pedaled

Cost: $13
Phone: 800-548-4348
Web site: www.metalcowboy.com

It's a well-known fact that the more time you spend riding, the more outrageous tales you'll have to tell. After pedaling countless tours in places as remote as the Australian Outback, Joe Kurmaskie has a surplus of stories varying from hilarious to genuine, heart-touching emotion. Jobless, homeless and penniless, Kurmaskie rolls from town to town on his two-wheeled ticket to local culture along "the road less pedaled" -- making friends and enemies, fence-sitting between tree-huggers and tree-cutters, and sleeping in cemeteries. Many of his tales are just shy of unbelievable.

It doesn't take longer than a few pages to realize that Kurmaskie is a champion storyteller, the kind of guy you'd first call up for a trip to the bar, campsite or any place in need of a good story. Metal Cowboy is a collection of 40 short stories that are fast, concise and entertaining enough to hold the attention of even the most mind-dulled of the MTV generation. Even with my busy schedule, I found myself putting off my daily tasks, chores and basic hygiene, opting instead to flip through the pages and live vicariously through Kurmaskie's adventures.

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