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Title: Bicycle Diaries
ISBN: 0670021148
Author:
David Byrne
Publicate Date: 2009-09-17
Publish: 2009-09-17
List Price: $25.95
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $14.98
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $12.96
Amazon Merchant Price: $17.13
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| Customer Review: |
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1: It's not really about the bike!
As a keen cyclist I just had to have any book with the provocative title of Bicycle Diaries!
I didn't mind at all when I realised that this was about far more than simply cycling itself. The author's obvious interest in everything that goes on around him made it a fascinating read. Philosophy, architecture, art, music and history made it hard to put down and I would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone with similar wide interests and concerns about the world.
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2: Not what it is hyped to be
Not only is the title of this book misleading, so is the marketing and hype about it. Supposedly, this book was to convey Byrne's observations and interpretations from the saddle of his bike as he pedaled through cities ans suburbs of some of the world's most interesting venues (e.g., Berlin, New York]. Would that it were such. Being an urban bike rider who observes the life and rigors of urban living from my bike saddle, I thought this would be a great read. Well I was wrong. In fact, if this book had not been a gift to me (because it was on my 2009 Christmas list), I would say I was ripped off.
Some sections of the book do describe what is seen, heard, and thought while riding a bike. The description of riding from a section of Buffalo (actually, he was in a suburb at the start of the ride, and he eschews suburbs to a fare the well) to Niagara Falls is one such description as is his account of riding from downtown Detroit to, and past, 8-Mile Road, but even these are brief, sketchy in observation, and woefully lacking in understanding and interpretation. Yeah, Byrne has numerous comments about rust belt cities, but nothing he thinks or says is a reflection of what he has actually seen from his bike--his comments are just stereotypic notions about Buffalo and Detroit (at least his text about Buffalo did not mention snow) that could have been embroidered into a discussion without ever leaving a pent-house condo in ever-growing cities such as Atlanta, Houston, or Los Angeles. His thoughts have little to do with what he actually saw on his trips, because he missed many important sites and many of those sites he did note, he failed to interpret wisely.
I have made the Buffalo to Niagara Falls ride at least a dozen times (though I have sense enough not to ride the dangerous-to-bicylists Maple Road past Hooters (now closed), Fuddruckers, Commerce Drive and Sweethome Road as he did on his ride) and have walked from downtown Detroit to 8-Mile Road at least three times, and I could write a great deal more than a few paragraphs from what I have seen from just those experience and and still avoid the cliches of Detroit not being there anymore and dissing franchise chain restaurants. What he says about cities is actually sophomoric--not wrong, just not astute and woefully lacking in insight and resolution.
But the real kicker about this book is not that he fails to see much from his bike rides, it is that most of the book has nothing to do with bike rides. He goes on to a great extent about Baltimore, Berlin and other cities without even mentioning bicycling. A better title for this book would have been The Musings of a Man Sitting Late at Night in His Hotel Room When Visiting Some of the Great Cities of the World in Which I Rode a Bike Once in a While.
If you are a David Byrne fan and want to know more about what he thinks about this and that of urban and suburban life and his comments on certain cities, then this book might interest you; but if you think you are picking up a book by a bicylist who describes his observations and thoughts while biking some of the great cities of the world, this is not the book for you.
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3: Bicycle Diaries
Very good book, although not really what I was expecting. It's more like David Byrnes ideas and social commentary, while I thought it would be more about the places he's been. It's still very good though, makes you think.
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4: Bicycle Diaries
This reader had high expectations for this collection of bike-riding tales from singer/artist David Byrne. However, in Byrne's //Bicycle Diaries//, these expectations were not met. This compilation might well have been entitled //Random Notes About Places I've Been//. Byrne's been all over the world, and the premise is that he's going to tell us what it's like to ride through cities such as San Francisco, Portland, Berlin, and Rio. But the premise only holds for a few dozen pages, as he tells us about the pros and cons of traveling on two wheels through U.S. cities. This is the interesting and charming part of the book, but it is short-lived.
It's when Byrne visits other countries and continents that all semblance of story structure suddenly departs, which is frustrating. In some places, he elects to describe the local museums; in others, the public housing projects (a topic Byrne seems too interested in), planning processes, architecture, etc. It is all so unpredictable and hard to follow that it becomes quite tiring. Oh... and Byrne also has an ultra-liberal and environmentalist political agenda, so conservatives beware. If you don't agree with his political viewpoints, in the end, this grouping of stories is more like grim life during wartime than entertaining disco.
Reviewed by Joseph Arellano
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5: Excellent reading
So far I have really enjoyed reading this book. I have still to finish but so far so good.
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