Riding with Rilke: Reflections on Motorcycles and Books
by Ted Bishop
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ted BishopEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-11-05
ISBN: 0393330745
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Book Reviews of Riding with Rilke: Reflections on Motorcycles and Books
Book Review: Riding to Archives
Summary: 5 Stars
Disclaimer: I have been a librarian for 35 years, and a motorcycle rider for 46 years, so I can hardly claim to be a typical or neutral reviewer of this book. If Amazon permitted 6 stars, I would award them. It is a rare event indeed to find a work that so lovingly deals with both motorcycle riding and books.
Ted Bishop captures vividly the essence of long distance motorcycle riding, including writing in one's head while riding, and the distraction to a writer to riding in one's head while attempting to write (a considerably less dangerous activity). His words took me back to an 11,000-mile ride that I made two years ago, along many of the same roads.
Equally vivid are his characterizations of librarians and archivists who work in special collections, and of the process by which a scholar mines the books and papers in such collections for insights and publications.
Bishop has a keen eye for irony, and I found myself laughing so hard while reading Riding with Rilke on a plane flight that I fear I was creating a disturbance for my fellow passengers.
Riders who aren't especially interested in books may find too little motorcycle content in this book. Scholars and librarians with little interest in motorcycles may find too little about books and literature (and very little, indeed, about Rilke). For those few who are passionate about both motorcycles and books, Riding with Rilke is a rare treat.
Summary of Riding with Rilke: Reflections on Motorcycles and Books
"Part travelogue, part ode to his bike and part literary criticism...a memoir infused with joie de vivre."-Publishers WeeklyIn this "joyful book" (Booklist), archive diver and Ducati enthusiast Ted Bishop takes readers on an epic trip from Edmonton to Austin, through the classic landscapes of the American West, and to some of America's and Europe's most famous cities as he considers what it means to be a road dog and a researcher. Whether describing how he came to own a Ducati, debating the merits of D. H. Lawrence's novels, relishing the outlaw thrill of cruising small American towns on his bike, or holding Virginia Woolf's suicide note in the British Library, Bishop "easily blends his love of books and archives with his love of motorcycles and riding...an unusual combination...but one that ultimately works" (Library Journal). A Playboy Best Book of 2006.
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