It’s summertime, the best time of year to take to the roads and trails on your bike, or to while away the hours with a good book. That’s why the Brunswick Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee collaborated with the wonderful staff of Curtis Memorial Library to bring readers a Bike Book List. There’s something for everyone here, from children’s literature, to memoir, to informational nonfiction and history. Consider visiting your local library to find just the right bike-lit for you!
“The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality”
Authors Melissa and Chris Bruntlett are Vancouver-based bike fanatics who wanted to better understand the world’s foremost cycling nation. The answer: infrastructure. The Bruntletts assert that the Dutch don’t cycle because their country is flat, or out of a sense of any political or moral obligation, they cycle because their government has “built a 22,000-mile network of fully separated bike infrastructure, equal to a quarter of their 87,000-mile road network.” The health benefits of so much cycling have paid off too; Dutch street designs don’t just protect human life; they add years to it.
“Just Ride: A Radically Practical Guide to Riding your Bike”
Grant Petersen, a west coast bike shop owner and racer, divides his book into short, witty chapters with titles like “Ride Like a Fairy, Not Like an Ox,” and “Warning: Your Blinky Light Can Kill You.” Some of his advice is controversial, a lot of it technical, all gleaned from over 30 years of riding experience.
“Pedal It! How Bicycles are Changing the World”
This nonfiction book for young readers covers the history of the early bicycle up through present-day models. Readers get a primer on bike parts and their functions, and a view of the varied uses of bicycles around the world. An Italian baker sells his breads from the back of his heated tricycle, a pedi-cab driver in Kenya ferries people to and from work, and a preschool teacher in Amsterdam pedals a bike-bus filled with nine students for a field trip. Readers come away with a new appreciation for the power of bicycles to provide education and job opportunities to people around the world.
“Bikes for Sale”
In this picture book, Maurice the chipmunk has retrofitted his bike to become a lemonade stand, and Lotta the hedgehog has kitted out her bike to hold her growing collection of sticks. Unforeseen challenges lead to new opportunities, when the two partner up on a tandem bike.
“Life is a Wheel”
Bruce Weber, obituary writer for The New York Times, rides his bike cross country and writes about it. It’s an antidote to death, a subject of which he is intimately aware, and an exploration of the “exotic,” which he finds most other parts of the country to be. He writes, “Bicycling makes you wonder about places like these in a way you wouldn’t otherwise. When you drive through a place, the windshield is a barrier against its reality, the speed of the car a defense against memory.”
A big thanks to Curtis Memorial librarians for their help with this project, and happy reading and riding this summer.
Caite McNeil is a member of the Brunswick Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BBPAC.) This article is part of a series about biking and walking in Bath, Brunswick and Topsham, written by members of the committee.
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