Book Review--Bike Snob

Bike Snob: Systematically and Mercilessly Realigning the World of Cycling
by BikeSnobNYC, aka Eben Weiss
ISBN 978-0-8118-6998-0

Eben Weiss adores bicycles. (Most bicyclists he's not too crazy about but he loves their bicycles.) He doesn't adore bicycles without reservation, though. He adores them for what they can do for us, for the freedom that they can bring us. He thinks that the bicycle is a Truly Great Invention (one of the few). He defines a cyclist as "a person who rides a bicycle even when he or she doesn't have to" and who "values the act of riding a bicycle over the tools one needs in order to do it." A shorter version of this is "a person who has incorporated bicycles and cycling into his or her everyday life." So, basically, a bike is a wonderful tool that we should all love and use--just don't get all obsessive about it.

The book starts out with an interesting history of the bicycle and the passion it engendered--once the kinks were worked out. There used to be social rides and serious races all over the country on many weekends and even during the week. It was a highly popular form of transportation and recreation. Until the automobile came on the scene. The author re-creates, for himself, one of the popular rides from the turn of the 19th century, from Manhattan to Far Rockaway (now a virtually indistinguishable suburb subsumed in the mass of Greater New York City, then a bucolic country seaside village far from the bustle of the urban center).

There are three main reasons to be a cyclist. They: lead secret double lives; have supernatural powers; and are free from the rules of humanity. Once you've been convinced by these serious advantages, you'll want to become a cyclist and have to decide what kind of cyclist you'll become. Weiss groups the species of cyclist into eleven main categories. Although the categories seem distinct and mutually exclusive, I found that I probably fit into two, maybe three of the categories. This chapter is interesting and fun, even though the stereotypes drawn all end up being somewhat negative.

The next section of the book talks more of the practicalities of urban cycling, starting out with one of the most frequent cyclist-asked questions: "why is everybody trying to kill me?" This is the most important chapter of the book for anyone new to cycling and most of the people who have been doing it for a while. It explains why it seems that motorists are trying to kill you (mostly they just don't care about you and/or think you're in their way). It also gives short, sweet pointers to common problems and helps quell the fear that all non-cyclists and a great many cyclists have about cycling in traffic. It's nice that it's short because it keeps things simple. But, it would be nice, too, if it were longer because it could give more detailed examples of the types of behavior that work to keep cyclists safe. Even a pointer to other resources, such as John Forester's Effective Cycling would be helpful.

The third section of the book talks about bikes themselves, not why to ride them or how to ride them in traffic but how to take care of them and basic information about how to ride them in or out of traffic. The best new idea that I got from this section is "your bike is already stolen." In other words, no one should put so much time, energy or money into their bike that, when it's stolen (which is inevitable) it will be devastating.

This is a great book for anyone who rides a bike or is thinking about it. It's full of good practical information. It's well written by an obvious expert in the field. It's not full of itself but it clearly says to those who are full of themselves, "Get over it. And go for a ride."

More Bike Snobbishness can be found at the author's blog. Highly recommended for any cyclist or cyclist-wannabe (that's a good thing).

Book Review--Absence of Mind

Absence of Mind
by Marilynne Robinson
ISBN: 978-0-300-14518-2

The inside cover of this book promises a good read: "In this ambitious book, acclaimed writer [ML] applies her astute intellect to some of the most vexing topics in the history of human thought--science, religion, and consciousness." As someone who is very interested in all of these topics I was eager to read the book. Until I opened it up. Try as I might I could not get past the first twenty-six pages--the Introduction and halfway into the first chapter.

I only wish ML has applied her astute intellect to making the book readable. It reads as if it were written for upper-level philosophy students. And written in reply to someone else's book(s)--but without the courtesy of quoting or even paraphrasing the book(s) so that you could understand what she was responding to.

There is one good thing about the book. It uses lots of commas. So, even though the sentences are tortuous and of boggy consistency, at least you can use the commas to help parse out some small part of the meaning.

Maybe I'll pick up this book again. But only after I figure out what book(s) it's in response to.