A Book on Cycling from a Bike-Themed Book Store

On a recent visit to Charleston's favorite new-and-used book store, Blue Bicycle Books*, I picked up a copy of the eminent author and blogger Bike Snob NYC's book, "The Enlightened Cyclist: Commuter Angst, Dangerous Drivers, and Other Obstacles on the Path to Two-Wheeled Transcendence."

The book had been suggested to me a while back by a commenter my post on books I recommended for bike commuters, so when I saw it prominently displayed at the front of the store, I knew I had to grab a copy. I'm in the middle of another book currently (Pynchon's "Against the Day," if you're curious) so I haven't read much of "The Enlightened Cyclist" yet, but so far it's exceeding my expectations. Weiss writes with the delightful mix of personal insight, humor, biting sarcasm, and ultimately hope, that his blog posts and Bicycling magazine articles are known for.

So far, I've read a mere two chapters and have already found myself laughing out loud at his account of the insanity that is New York traffic, only to feel a pang of emotion the next chapter at his account of biking into Manhattan to find his wife on September 11th. Needless to say, I can tell I'm going to enjoy reading this. I'll share my thoughts with you once I've finished.

My favorite quote so far, on a bus driver expressing concern that he would be delayed by Weiss and his bicycle: "Evidently he is under the impression that I will somehow slow him down, and he wants me to get out of his way by running the light. Of course, my vehicle is to his lumbering autobus as a jet ski is to the QEII, and short of actually refusing to move at all there is absolutely no way I could possibly delay him" (p. 12).

Any other great bike commuting books I should check out? Let me know in the comments!


*They do in fact have an iconic blue Raleigh at the bike rack in front of their store. It was actually stolen recently, but was happily recovered last week in a rare happy-ending to a bicycle theft.