I’m excited to be joining DBRL’s Book Bike Team!
Recently a colleague gave me a thorough and informative lesson on how to ride this ebike (pictured below) with its attached trailer. Although I’d never tried an ebike before, I discovered that the ease and speed that it offered were magical. Additionally, this ebike and trailer look simply delightful; festive colorful, tiny lights even frame the tire rims!
In my teens I paid half of the cost of a Raleigh 10-speed, and my parents covered the balance. With newfound freedom, I regularly biked to school and my jobs. As I grew older, Chicago’s public transportation system served as my primary way to get around, while in the meantime, my bike usage lapsed.
A few decades later, my husband and I had packed on some unwanted middle-aged pounds, and various forms of exercise had left us uninspired. Happily, we found that we enjoyed biking together. We began to frequent the trails around town and boldly dreamed of biking in the Netherlands, where people of all ages make 28% of their journeys by bicycle. We did indeed travel to that country, where we biked around Amsterdam and neighboring towns for roughly a week by means of the country’s extraordinary biking infrastructure.
My husband and I continue to bike regularly, and I’m thrilled at the thought of adding additional miles as a member of the Book Bike Team. As my DBRL colleague and I noted, it is awesome that we get to bike as part of our jobs!
In honor of bikes — be they humble and basic or electric and souped-up — here’s a sample of books that would be fitting for anyone seeking to expand their interest and knowledge:
- “In the City of Bikes: The Story of the Amsterdam Cyclist” by Pete Jordan. The author includes some of his own personal experiences, along with an examination of
the history of cycling in this city. As a result, this book is an appropriate choice not just for bikers, but also for anyone who appreciates how a city’s history can be altered by a passion.
- “Building the Cycling City: The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality” by Chris Bruntlett and Melissa Bruntlett. The authors are urban mobility advocates who strive to communicate the benefits of sustainable transport and inspire happier, healthier, more human-scale cities. I enjoy following their bike experiences with insightful commentary on social media.
- “Cycling the Katy Trail: A Tandem Sojourn Along Missouri’s Katy Trail” by Neil M. Hanson. It’s right here in our back yard! This is a complete trail guide for the Katy Trail (240 miles of the former Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad), plus a journey story that elevates the ride into a lovely tale of discovery. While I suspect that I would prove to be a miserable tandem bike partner, I’m eager to immerse myself in this book.
- “100 Bike Rides of a Lifetime: The World’s Ultimate Cycling Experiences” by Roff Smith. This gorgeous, illustrated book highlights amazing bike routes around the world, as well as bits of history and tips. Dreamy.
- “Changing Gears: A Distant Teen, a Desperate Mother, and 4,329 Miles Across the TransAmerica Bicycle Trail” by Leah Day. In this memoir a therapist finds herself drifting apart from her teenaged son. As they pedal across the country, the two discover that if they can push themselves to accomplish physically exhausting and emotionally taxing milestones on a bike, they can do just about anything.
Be sure to keep an eye out for members of the Book Bike Team when we show up at community events. And if you’d like to invite the library to your event — whether with the Book Bike or in another way — you’re welcome to fill out this request form.
