The canonical cycling book?

I was browsing the shelves at the local Borders last night after getting a few geek references. As I strolled through the sports section looking for one of the climb Mount Everest and barely survive adventures, I noticed that there are ALOT of the dummies books for various physical activities. There's Running for Dummies, Tai Chi for Dummies and Walking for Dummies. Walking?! That one's probably supposed to be in the infant's section. I used to think that yoga WAS for dummies. That is until Lynda got me started on a program. Now I can't hold a book and read while doing poses except for maybe in downward dog. So with that multitasking prerequisite Yoga for Dummies wasn't an option; I'm worse off than a dummy. I went the video route. The hardest choice there was naked yoga or non-naked yoga, but that's a different story.

Looks like the TDF is pretty complicated as there's a Tour de France for Dummies. Ya think ole Johan handed that out to the new Discovery team members like Gusev, Lowe, and Van Goolen? "Read up guys, ya gotta know it inside and out." I didn't see one for cycling or swimming. Swimming I can understand; not as easy to describe as jump in the water and move your hands and legs.

Anyway, a quick Amazon search at home produced what I suspected...Bicycling for Dummies exists. Apparently, it's pretty good! One of the reviewers stated, "This is the best book I've seen on bicycling" and gave it a 5 star rating. Hmmmm...tempting, very tempting.

Update: There is also the The Complete Idiot's Guide to Cycling. So which one is better? From the reviews I think this one is aimed at the folks that are used to riding a bike with one gear and are looking to step up to gears: "I don't change gears, gears are for people who can put chains back on. That is all behind me now! I know what the different sized Chain Rings (lingo alert!) do, and which ones I want the chain on while I'm gasping up some hill."

Personally, I always go for the book with more pictures.