We had a reading list here. I was going to bump it but I can't find it. So let's start a new one.

Please post books you've read recently, or are planning to read this winter. Anything slightly relevant to carfree living is fine: Cycling books, environment, urban design, fiction with a carfree tie-in, whatever.

Kim Stanley Robinson's (http://www.sfsite.com/lists/ksr.htm) Science in the Capital trilogy is one of the finest sci-fi series I've read in years. The three books are titled, in order, Forty Signs of Rain, Fifty Degrees Below, and Sixty Days and Counting.

It's about many things, including global warming, abrupt climate change, spies, science, paleolithic living, treehouses, Tibetan Buddhism, Washington politics, and many other interesting topics. Here's a short review of the second title from the NY Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/18/books/review/18jonas.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1#):


There's no magic in Kim Stanley Robinson's FIFTY DEGREES BELOW (Bantam Spectra, $25), unless you count the way he invests the details of scientific and bureaucratic decision making with high drama.
The second volume of his trilogy on abrupt climatic change, "Fifty Degrees Below" stays close to Frank Vanderwal, who is in his second year as a consultant with the National Science Foundation in Washington. During his first year, a flood inundated the nation's capital, bringing home the problem of global warming to even the most blinkered politicians. (This is described in the trilogy's first volume, "Forty Signs of Rain.") Now the waters have receded, but a "shutdown" of the Gulf Stream threatens to lock the entire region into an Arctic-strength deep freeze.
While working with his colleagues to steer the government toward ameliorative action, Frank has problems of his own. Bumped from his rented apartment after the flood, he decides to live outdoors in a tree house of his own devising in Rock Creek Park. Here he bonds with his fellow creatures, who range from a band of resourceful homeless men to a roaming squad of Frisbee players to assorted animals, small and large, that have escaped from the National Zoo. As a 43-year old primate hungry for a mate, he becomes infatuated with a government spook whose marital and occupational commitments allow the couple only the briefest encounters. When the temperature drops below freezing and keeps dropping, Frank and all those around him are put to the kind of test few humans have faced since the last ice age.
For a writer who deals with world-class disasters, Robinson is incorrigibly optimistic. The most dire problems, he assures us, can be solved by the prompt application of scientific thinking and physical and moral courage. The catch comes in the word "prompt." Even when the remedies are clear, it's not easy to marshal sufficient resources in time. Robinson's impressive body of work - which includes the Mars trilogy (about the problematic terraforming of our planetary neighbor) and the California trilogy (about the dos and don'ts of constructing utopias) - offers sound guidance for scientifically informed social action. I'd feel better about our future if more people were familiar with his ingeniously plotted and gracefully written books.

Gotta recommend Bicycling Bliss (http://www.bicyclingbliss.com/)by Portia Masterson. A good wholistic view of bicycling as a way to wellness.

I can also recommend "Cadillac Desert" by Marc Reisner. It's good as either a book or video. It gives a good explanation of how L.A. came to be what it is today.

And how about reading "Curious George Rides a Bike" to some kid.

I can also recommend "Cadillac Desert" by Marc Reisner. It's good as either a book or video. It gives a good explanation of how L.A. came to be what it is today.

I read that book during a month period when I was flying 2x a week from AZ to CA - when I wasn't reading I was peering down at the canal systems, irrigated desert, desiccated lands and always took note when we crossed the Colorado River.

Al

Rolf Potts' book Vagabonding is a good one. Deals with issues of living a life that doesn't leave you tied down. My favorite bit of it is the concept of justifying your work, rather than rewarding it.

Lost Horizon by James Hilton
This 1933 novel isn't about cycling or car-free living but it discusses issues such as moderation and a sense of place.

The Great Explosion by Eric Frank Russell
This is a science fiction novel from 1962. One of the characters is a cyclist. Russell talks about issues such as conformity and bureaucracy in this novel and other works.

Ecotopia
I'm rereading Divorce your Car by Katie Alvord, looking for more in the genre (how to do it over why)
Any Ed Abbey: he hates roads and lazy drivers

Bicycle: The History, by David V. Herlihy, 2004

I just started this book. It covers the history of the bicycle from the very beginnings in the 18th century to the latest developlents in utility cycling. It's great that it has insights from Europe, America, Africa and Asia, so it's not too US-centric.

Ecotopia
I picked up a copy from the local thrift shop in spring and quite enjoyed it. The novel was written in 1975 and reflects a lot of hippie idealism of the time. Some of the things he depicts, especially about recycling and an approach to sport and recreation, have already been happening.

I've been reading Lolita by Nabokov. It's pretty bizarre, but I enjoy his writing style. I'd recommend it to open-minded readers.

For the long winter nights, I enjoy reading about bicycle touring. Adventure Cycle-Touring Handbook: A Worldwide Cycling Route & Planning Guide by Stephen Lord http://www.amazon.com/Adventure-Cycle-Touring-Handbook-Worldwide-Planning/dp/1873756895. For me, it's a fantasy. I get to mentally prepare the packing list, pack up my wheels for the flight, imagine myself unfurling the hammock as I stealth camp in Holland or Germany... that kind of thing...

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail Or Succeed By Jared Diamond is a pretty long, thoughtful essay on how climate change (among other things) is likely affecting even your neighbourhood. I read some of it last summer on the recommendation of someone in this subforum and I hope to finish it later this Fall.

BTW, this is the thread that started this thread: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=321755&highlight=jared+diamond+collapse

We had a reading list here. I was going to bump it but I can't find it. So let's start a new one.

Please post books you've read recently, or are planning to read this winter. Anything slightly relevant to carfree living is fine: Cycling books, environment, urban design, fiction with a carfree tie-in, whatever.

Over The Hills, David Lamb

Cycling's Greatest Misadventures - edited by Erich Schweikher.

We heard the editor and a couple of the authors reading selections a Powell's recently - and snapped up a copy. A great range of stories.

Great - I already don't get out on the bike enough and now I've got a longer list of books.....

A book that would be useful to new bicyclists would be "Cycling" by the Boy Scouts of America. it has good beginner-intermediate info on bike selection, fitting, maintenance, traffic skills, route selection, first aid, and much more.

And you can even get your merit badge. ;)

Ecotopia

I read it almost 30 years ago, but I remember it so I guess it made an impression.
Another good futuristic vision of the west coast--three independant visions, actually--is the California Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson (http://www.sfsite.com/lists/ksr.htm)(the author I mentioned in the post # 2). Three views of San Diego/Orange County in the future:

1. The Wild Shore. Only human-powered technology is allowed.
2. The Gold Coast. The car and highway lifestyle has totally taken over (a dystopia).
3. Pacific Edge. Environmental and socially responsible principles have totally taken over (a Utopia).

will check those out, roody. Thanks much.

anyone have a good cycling/car free as lifestyle recommendation?
I go through a LOT of books. (and the library is in my baby-steps riding zone)

All this talk about Dostoevsky and other literature on the T.V. free living (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=368126) thread has gotten me curious...has anyone gotten around to reading any of these books herein mentioned, or are we still not quite housebound enough yet?

East Hill

most of my books are art/tattoo related but the few that do have cycling refrences"living the artist life" its sorta a guide to how to make your life easier as an artist. but it does mention cycling and carfree living as a easy way to cut cost living in a big cityalso "the world without us" is a enviromental book that decribes what would theoretically happen if humans stopped existing.I like to go by hastings and check all of the cycling magazines. I don't read much fiction so im limited there

This thread seems like a re-run, but here's a new one I'm reading:
Complete Walker IV, http://books.google.com/books?id=5cpLAAAACAAJ&dq=complete+walker

"For the first time since 1984, we have a new edition of the classic book that Field & Stream called “the Hiker’s Bible.” For this version, the celebrated writer and hiker Colin Fletcher has taken on a coauthor, Chip Rawlins, himself an avid outdoorsman and a poet from Wyoming. Together, they have made this fourth edition of The Complete Walker the most informative, entertaining, and thorough version yet.The eighteen years since the publication of The Complete Walker III have seen revolutionary changes in hiking and camping equipment: developments in waterproofing technology, smaller and more durable stoves, lighter boots, more manageable tents, and a wider array of food options. The equipment recommendations are therefore not merely revised and tweaked, but completely revamped. During these two decades we have also seen a deepening of environmental consciousness. Not only has backpacking become more popular, but a whole ethic of responsible outdoorsmanship has emerged. In this book the authors confidently lead us through these technological, ethical, and spiritual changes."

All this talk about Dostoevsky and other literature on the T.V. free living (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=368126) thread has gotten me curious...has anyone gotten around to reading any of these books herein mentioned, or are we still not quite housebound enough yet?

East Hill

I've been reading a number of books on bike touring. Unfortunately, they've usually been self-published, and illustrate the point that people with half a mind to write a book usually do so. Wide Hips, Narrow Shoulders by Monte Lowrance is typical - an endless string of "did this, did that" tour recapping told in a non-stop stream of enthusiasm. The book doesn't end so much as stop, and by the end I was worn out from the excessive statements of "Yahoo!" in the text. I'd expect a cyclist to remember pacing is as important when writing as it is when pedaling.

About five months ago, I read Cold Beer and Crocodiles: A Bicycle Journey into Australia by Roff Smith (http://www.amazon.com/Cold-Beer-Crocodiles-Australia-Adventure/dp/0792263650/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197127708&sr=1-1) which I thought was very good. The title pretty much tells you what it is about.

More recently I've read Thoreau's Walden (and Civil Disobedience) (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b/104-1824544-3709546?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=walden+and+civil+disobedience), the first of which has been referred to as the "simple living bible".

Also, Hermits: The Insights of Solitude by Peter France (http://www.amazon.com/Hermits-Insights-Solitude-Peter-France/dp/0312194633/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197126995&sr=1-1) was very interesting. He included many sayings, quotes, and writings of hermits throughout history from the Greek Cynics, Taoists, the Russian Startsy, on up to a modern day hermit living on Patmos today.

I live right next door to a library so all of these books I borrowed, which is great, but I find when I want to look through them again, well, I can't. I may need to get a good list going and then just buy the ones I really got something out of. One of the quotes in one of the books I've read recently said something along the lines of, when going into solitude, take just five books with you and reread them over and over again.

The book doesn't end so much as stop, and by the end I was worn out from the excessive statements of "Yahoo!" in the text. I'd expect a cyclist to remember pacing is as important when writing as it is when pedaling.

I've been guilty of over-enthusiasm, but only because I like to encourage new people to post.

I think that 'Yahoo!' might be a bit annoying after just a few pages, at least in book form.

East Hill

I've been guilty of over-enthusiasm, but only because I like to encourage new people to post.

I think that 'Yahoo!' might be a bit annoying after just a few pages, at least in book form.

East Hill

It's different here on Bike Forums. This is a gray area between the black and white of 'formal' prose and the casualness of conversation. You welcomed me, and I thank you for it.

Yahoo was annoying, as was Lowrance's failure to put enough of himself into his book. By that I mean he told us what he did and sometimes how he felt in body and mind, but he neglected to tell us how he changed as a person. Often Lowrance's prose seemed cliche-bound or skirted importance because he didn't want to deal with the subject of himself. I expected more introspection from a person who named his ride the Bike of Peace.

A better written book is Brian Newhouse's A Crossing. Newhouse used his cross-country trip to focus on his troubled relationship with his father, his Christian faith, and his Christian fundimentalist girlfriend. I guess it took his mind off of the climbs in the Rockies. The author still follows the basic formula for travel writing: go places, see stuff, meet people, write about it. But he realizes that it's not just the landscape that changes on a bike ride, it's the rider changing too.

Yahoo was annoying, as was Lowrance's failure to put enough of himself into his book. By that I mean he told us what he did and sometimes how he felt in body and mind, but he neglected to tell us how he changed as a person. Often Lowrance's prose seemed cliche-bound or skirted importance because he didn't want to deal with the subject of himself. I expected more introspection from a person who named his ride the Bike of Peace.

A better written book is Brian Newhouse's A Crossing. Newhouse used his cross-country trip to focus on his troubled relationship with his father, his Christian faith, and his Christian fundimentalist girlfriend. I guess it took his mind off of the climbs in the Rockies. The author still follows the basic formula for travel writing: go places, see stuff, meet people, write about it. But he realizes that it's not just the landscape that changes on a bike ride, it's the rider changing too.


Clydes understand the importance of the rider changing far more than many other cyclists. It's not just about the ride, it's how the mind changes. You are an excellent example of the changing awareness of who you are. You challenged yourself to learn to ride, you are following up the challenge by riding across the United States, you have lost weight, gone through pain. You've also made peace with TS, which is something I admire greatly. You are a strong voice, and a strong presence, and I know I appreciate that.

East Hill

Clydes understand the importance of the rider changing far more than many other cyclists. It's not just about the ride, it's how the mind changes. You are an excellent example of the changing awareness of who you are. You challenged yourself to learn to ride, you are following up the challenge by riding across the United States, you have lost weight, gone through pain. You've also made peace with TS, which is something I admire greatly. You are a strong voice, and a strong presence, and I know I appreciate that.

East Hill

I blush. :-)

About five months ago, I read Cold Beer and Crocodiles: A Bicycle Journey into Australia by Roff Smith (http://www.amazon.com/Cold-Beer-Crocodiles-Australia-Adventure/dp/0792263650/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197127708&sr=1-1) which I thought was very good. The title pretty much tells you what it is about.

More recently I've read Thoreau's Walden (and Civil Disobedience) (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b/104-1824544-3709546?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=walden+and+civil+disobedience), the first of which has been referred to as the "simple living bible".

Also, Hermits: The Insights of Solitude by Peter France (http://www.amazon.com/Hermits-Insights-Solitude-Peter-France/dp/0312194633/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197126995&sr=1-1) was very interesting. He included many sayings, quotes, and writings of hermits throughout history from the Greek Cynics, Taoists, the Russian Startsy, on up to a modern day hermit living on Patmos today.

I live right next door to a library so all of these books I borrowed, which is great, but I find when I want to look through them again, well, I can't. I may need to get a good list going and then just buy the ones I really got something out of. One of the quotes in one of the books I've read recently said something along the lines of, when going into solitude, take just five books with you and reread them over and over again.

I've started Smith's book, but I unfortunately put it down, and now I can't find it. What I recall of it seemed well-written.

While I encourage public libraries, I own a lot of books too. Like Sheridan's Peter Surface in The School for Scandal, I can say "Books, you know, are the only things I am a coxcomb in." I could never remain content with five, even if one is a complete Shakespeare and another the Bible.

I just finished "Auto Mania: Cars, Consumers and the Environment" by Tom McCarthy, a history professor at the U.S. Naval Academy.

It's the best history of cars and the environment that I've read. Rather than casting the Big 3 as the only villains, it pins a lot of the blame for automobile pollution on us, the consumers who buy the cars. Interestingly, the main heroes are Ed Cole of GM, Mitt Romney's father, the EPA, and even Henry Ford himself.

Here's (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/books/2004055189_automania09.html) a review in the Seattle Times by a carlight writer.

I could never remain content with five, even if one is a complete Shakespeare and another the Bible.

Over two thousand volumes in my home library. There are not enough on bicycles, although I've been looking, especially for some of the older books mentioned here.

I have a wide variety of interests.

East Hill

Reading journals from crazyguyonabike.com Proof reading a couple of technical manuals for one of our tech reps, and whatever else comes my way.

Aaron:)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0375831002.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

not cf related but the best book ive read in a few years

Bump no longer ;) I've made this a sticky thread.

http://books.google.com/books?id=oiVdAAAACAAJ&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=1&sig=nA9qCrxG3wakbSBBp5RHlOoA0No

By Jane Jacobs
Published 2005
Vintage Books
Social evolution
241 pages
ISBN 1400076706

I've just started reading this book and find it a little easier going than The Death and Life of Great American Cities. In this one, Jacobs establishes 5 pillars of society that, if hacked away, will lead to a Dark Age such as medieval China and ancient Rome suffered.

One of the pillars is Family and Community and she squarely blames its current demise on the growth of the automobile, particularly the car's ability to shield occupants from human contact. She also delves into how General Motors cleverly destroyed the electric street cars business in North America.

She argues that once a great resource like a city streetcar is lost, we retain a memory -- perhaps evening a yearning for it. However, at a certain point, even the memory is lost and no one in the society understands the importance of a streetcar (not only for its transportation, but also for its ability to connect human beings...) This is exactly how a great ship-building society like medieval China lost its entire ship-building industry and became instead a myopic, land-locked and backward society.

I have a couple favorites among the books that I have read.

Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States". Zinn's general take on things is that most history books are concerned with the lives of the wealthiest 5% or 1% of society, like whether or not the wealthy captain of a large ship arriving in North America from Europe in 1533 was able to afford good wine with his christmas dinner, and how much land he was able to get plowed in his first summer. Zinn instead goes into the lives of the native americans who were forcibly removed from their homelands when said ship-captain claimed them, the stories of the people with median income in 1833 (meaning the ones who probably didn't ride around in a carriage or have servants cooking their meals) etc.

Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel" is another highly memorable nonfiction book. Diamond analyzes reasons that descendants of people from one continent (europe) were able to dominate so much of the world in terms of countries' economies and governments. Diamond concludes that there is no need to assume that europeans genes make them smarter, for several reasons: Europe was politically disunified, limiting the power of individual monarchs to supress new technologies. Europe had economic connections across thousands of miles exposed early on to germs from multiple continents, giving europeans a head-start on developing disease immunities which people elsewhere did not develop. Europe had access to a large number of animals and crops which could be domesticated, mainly due to similarities of climate and temperature between the large land-masses which were about equal distance from the equator. (a crop may grow in india and in greece, in contrast to the americas, where a crop that grows in Maine's probably won't work in Colombia's climate)

If you find nonfiction boring, you might really dislike these books, especially the Zinn. I found them both readable, and to me Guns Germs and Steel was something of a fascinating page-turner. Not so much with "people's history", which had its page turner moments but also was boring at times.

I just got finished reading "How The Other Half Lives" by Jacob A. Riis. It has nothing to do with bicycles or living car free, but it would be a great book to read for those who may be concerned about which $50,000 car they're going to buy next year or which 60" TV they want for Christmas.

Don't forget "Three Men on the Bummel" by Jerome K. Jerome! "Three Men on a Boat" is good too, maybe even better, but not bicycle oriented...

Also, Carl Sagan has always been one of my favorite authors. (dead eleven years as of yesterday...)

Being that it's been raining here for like 2 weeks. I've managed to get some reading in. Here are some books that I recommend.

Hit by a Farm: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Barn (http://books.google.com/books?id=eAHe6JI-lBAC):Describes how an urban bookworm and children's book author, along with her partner, set out to fulfill a lifelong dream of owning a working farm in Minnesota, offering a heartwarming, frequently humorous take on their crash course in living off and living with the land. Original.

Extreme Simplicity Homesteading in the City:Homesteading in LA (http://books.google.com/books?id=7ZUPAAAACAAJ&dq=extreme+simplicity)?: Off-the-Grid in Tinseltown? Take Scott and Helen Nearing, translate them from the rockbound coast of Maine into Southern California, and you start to have a picture of Christopher and Dolores Nyerges.Here is an upbeat, unabashedly outrageous book about applying the principles of self-reliance, more often associated with rural back-to-the-landers and wilderness campers, to life in suburban Los Angeles. By telling their own homesteading story, the Nyergeses have created a blueprint that will help city-dwellers anywhere live more independently.The book is organized more like a how-to or self-help book than a personal memoir. The authors present self-sufficient and ecological approaches to commonly defined areas of a household: The House, The Yard, Homegrown Foods (and wild edibles), Domestic Animals, The Garden, Water, Energy, and Recycling. A concluding chapter takes on larger lifestyle questions of livelihood and healthy relationships with money and security.Although the Nyergeses are "extremists" in many ways, their warmth and humor is accessible to all. They have been widely published (they are frequent contributors to Mother Earth News) and operate a popular School for Self-Reliance that offers courses in wild food foraging, wild food cookery, orienteering, self-reliance, and survival.Frankly, few city dwellers will choose to live the "extreme simplicity" of the Nyergeses, but many will be inspired by their example. Young people just starting out who are drawn to cities for social and cultural reasons but who don't have the financial means to live comfortably stand to learn much from this book. This book will also find a ready audience among people wholive in group houses, or political activists who embrace the anti-globalization movement. But even casual readers will be smitten with the idea of growing a dramatic proportion of their own food in a highly productive and lawn-less "yard"; harvesting "weeds" for home consumption (or to sell in urban farmers' markets); using solar energy to heat water, bake bread and vegetables, and generate electricity; composting kitchen scraps (and pet manures) with a combined rabbit hutch and worm-farm; and collecting rainwater for home use.
References from web pages

Just finished "Into a Desert Place a walk around the coast of Baja (http://books.google.com/books?id=_1DUzjEDm9UC).

It's about a guy who walks all around Baja. It starts of kinda slow then get much better halfway through. He spends the first half of the book being scared of everything and talking about he could have almost died every time he scrapes an elbow. In the end he is regularly eating rattle snakes for dinner.

As the rain hasn't stopped I'm still reading at a fierce rate. Tonight I finished, I Have Heard You Calling in the Night (http://books.google.com/books?id=9RgWAAAACAAJ) It's a nice fast read. It's about a guy who is a terrible alcoholic and gets his life together by caring for his dog. It reminds me a lot of A Million Little Pieces (http://books.google.com/books?id=WHP0AAAACAAJ&dq=a+million+little+pieces)

"Best Bike Rides- Texas" by Andy White. Looks like they may have a state-by-state series going. Recreational road riding.

Two good ones in the past couple weeks:

1. Field Notes from a Catastrophe by Elizabeth Kolbert. Excellent reporting on global warming that covers field observations, the science, and public policy efforts. This is a great book to get you started on the topic, but you should also read it if you're already quite knowledgeable about climate change. (Review (http://www.grist.org/advice/books/2006/03/09/hayes/) in grist.org. First chapter (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/12/books/chapters/0312-1st-kolb.html?ex=157680000&en=db52d61bea785906&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink) from nytimes.com.)

2. How Fat Works by Philip A. Wood. A technical discussion of the cellular metabolism of fats, and good practical information on fats and human health. It's pretty detailed, but you can get through it if you have a little background in cellular biology. (Review (http://www.jci.org/cgi/content/full/116/7/1743) from the Journal of Clinical Investigation.)

As the rain hasn't stopped I'm still reading at a fierce rate. Tonight I finished, I Have Heard You Calling in the Night (http://books.google.com/books?id=9RgWAAAACAAJ) It's a nice fast read. It's about a guy who is a terrible alcoholic and gets his life together by caring for his dog. It reminds me a lot of A Million Little Pieces (http://books.google.com/books?id=WHP0AAAACAAJ&dq=a+million+little+pieces)

So it's full of falsehood and invention?

No it deals with the gritty hell that is alcoholism.

I never cared when it came out the the story was fabricated. I just thought it was damn good fiction. I was entertained.

I'm going to recommend End of the Road: From World Car Crisis to Sustainable Transportation by
Wolfgang Zuckermann.

"There are half a billion cars on the planet, and this is one of the earliest books to take a long, hard look at the contrast between the image and the reality of this fact. Zuckermann offers 33 'ways out' of our car dependence, including pedestrianisation, traffic calming, alternative transport modes, restructuring public transport and rearranging our lives."

As much as I liked Carfree Cities by J.H. Crawford and wished they could become reality, many of Zuckermann's ideas seem more realistic and achievable.

Roody, thanks for the the recommendation of Kim Stanley Robinson, I'm halfway through the first trilogy. Just one more quick question for you Roody. In the old book thread, you recommended a book that told the story of an adolescent girl living in a gated community in a ruined civilization. I believe the author's first name is Olivia, but I can't remember her last name nor the title of the book. Any help would be appreciated...

I'm going to recommend End of the Road: From World Car Crisis to Sustainable Transportation by
Wolfgang Zuckermann.

"There are half a billion cars on the planet, and this is one of the earliest books to take a long, hard look at the contrast between the image and the reality of this fact. Zuckermann offers 33 'ways out' of our car dependence, including pedestrianisation, traffic calming, alternative transport modes, restructuring public transport and rearranging our lives."

As much as I liked Carfree Cities by J.H. Crawford and wished they could become reality, many of Zuckermann's ideas seem more realistic and achievable.

Roody, thanks for the the recommendation of Kim Stanley Robinson, I'm halfway through the first trilogy. Just one more quick question for you Roody. In the old book thread, you recommended a book that told the story of an adolescent girl living in a gated community in a ruined civilization. I believe the author's first name is Olivia, but I can't remember her last name nor the title of the book. Any help would be appreciated...
Are you sure it was me? That book doesn't ring a bell, though it sounds like something I'd enjoy. Sorry. I think the old book thread was eaten in one of BF's server crashes. But we're doing a good job of replacing it here.

The Zuckerman book sounds good too. Does he mention bicycles?

I just read "Confessions Of An Economic Hit man" . Pretty far off topic. It's about the problems with corporate greed. If any one has read it, tell me if you think it is fact or fiction. It sounds too terrible to be true. I am beginning to find that I don't know much about how people can hurt each other.

Are you sure it was me? That book doesn't ring a bell, though it sounds like something I'd enjoy. Sorry. I think the old book thread was eaten in one of BF's server crashes. But we're doing a good job of replacing it here.

The Zuckerman book sounds good too. Does he mention bicycles?

Hello Roody,

I'm quite certain it was you who had recommended the book. The good news is that I was able to find out the name and author. It's Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. If you happen to read it and enjoy it, I'd also recommend a book along similar lines, The Road by Carmac McCarthy. It doesn't involve bikes, but is the story of a father and son's journey to the coast through post-apocalypse America. One of the darkest, creepiest books I've read in a long time but a real page turner.

Zuckermann does mention bikes briefly, although he also talks about trams, buses, subways, and personal rapid transit if I recall.

Hello Roody,

I'm quite certain it was you who had recommended the book. The good news is that I was able to find out the name and author. It's Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. If you happen to read it and enjoy it, I'd also recommend a book along similar lines, The Road by Carmac McCarthy. It doesn't involve bikes, but is the story of a father and son's journey to the coast through post-apocalypse America. One of the darkest, creepiest books I've read in a long time but a real page turner.

Zuckermann does mention bikes briefly, although he also talks about trams, buses, subways, and personal rapid transit if I recall.

I still don't recall the book, but I have read books by Octavia Butler, many years ago, and I've read reviews of a couple more recently. I'll check out Parable of the Sower while I'm here at the library.

Thanks for the suggestions. :)

I'm reading Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey. Not sure how I ever skipped over that one before...

Around Africa on my Bicycle. (http://www.kalahari.net/bk/product.asp?sku=30508210&toolbar=none)
Riaan Manser.

http://lh3.google.com/johann.snyman/R4e0LKyfBFI/AAAAAAAAADU/qc7aByWLxFM/9781868422470.jpg

Re-read Brave New World recently. It is rather eerie how many of the details of that modern society are just slightly exaggerated versions of the present day.