World Book Day - a book review!

Happy World Book Day everyone! To mark this happy occasion, my update today won't actually be about training but about a book! Exciting. And apt!To mark World Book Day, school students around the UK are writing book reviews and sharing them on our new book review site so, here is my very own review:

Of this book!



Now, I love my cycling and I also love Talking Heads quite a lot. So it was a no brainer for my chum Euan when he saw this book written by Talking Heads lead singer/head honcho David Byrne. It may as well have been called 'BUY THIS FOR LESLEY NOW' David Byrne is a silver haired, eccentric genius who was not only in one of my favourite bands but also made one of my favourite films - True Stories. He is one of these people who has an idea and then just goes ahead and does something about it, no matter how bonkers the idea may seem to normal human beings. Like turning a building into a musical instrument, writing a disco album which is based on the life of Imelda Marcos or designing a bike rack shaped like a shoe.







As well as being generally brilliant, David Byrne is also massively into cycling (perhaps the two are related!?). He cycles everywhere he goes and has a folding mountain bike that travels with him around the world. Much to the chagrin of some of the posh hotels he stays in! This book is organised around some of the cities that he has cycled around including London, New York, Manila, San Francisco and Berlin but it is certainly not really just about cycling. It is basically a series of short essays about the world, how it works, how it doesn't work and the nature of human beings - all sparked off by his experiences cycling around cities, the people he meets and the things he sees while doing so. It is all at once a travel diary, a piece of cycling propoganda, a philosophical musing, a history lesson and a thoroughly entertaining read. A cycle to the Stasi museum in Berlin for example morphs into a discussion about identity, self-delusion and belonging - taking in censorship, Zimbabwe and religion along the way. Cycling in San Francisco, he visits an exhibition which features artists who are mentally or psychologically challenged which then sets him off thinking about what makes people 'outsiders' and how we value art.

At the heart of the book though are his views on cycling and cities, and how we should live together in urban spaces. He is fascinated by urban design and his views on how cycling brings people together, forces human interaction and creates a better quality of life for city dwellers is pretty persuasive. But then he is preaching to the converted with me!

On a more whimsical note, here are some of his designs for bike racks in New York...






Reading and cycling. Brilliant. But not at the same time, obviously.

Anyway, next post will be back to the training!

Lesley xx

p.s not too late to sponsor us by the way - www.justgiving.com/pedallingpinders