Summer Cycling Reading List: Roll Around Heaven All Day Part 1

Sometimes as you take a break on a longer ride, you read. Or at least, I do. And one of the things I've been curious about since I started becoming my own brand of bike person is - how do other people do it? where do they ride? what happens in the advanced stages of psychosis? So one day at the Teton County Library, I took a stroll through the non-fiction section to find me a book or two on biking.

There were quite a few, even if you don't count the "Cycling for Dummies" variety, which I tend not to. I mean, come on, if you're trying to learn biking from a book you don't need to advertise it - I'm going to just assume you're a dummy. As for the rest of them, it seems that once you start riding, the impulse to ride across something and then tell people about it is pretty strong. I'm sure the only reason there isn't a "Cycling Across the Atlantic" book is because humanity can not yet bike on water.

The first book I chose is one of the many based on the "I biked across something" concept. As the title reveals, in Roll Around Heaven All Day: A Piecemeal Journey Across America By Bicycle, the author bikes across the United States.

The summary on amazon.com reads as follows:

The experiences of a middle-aged, overweight man, mounted on an old bicycle, who is traveling across America along the TransAmerica Bicycle Trail. This inspirational coast-to-coast odyssey is a truly satisfying ride, not only for cyclists, but for anyone who travels for the joy of the journey--or simply dreams of doing so.

As a teaser, this begs so many questions. Why is this man Stan Purdum bicycling across America, aside from the fact that someone apparently will pay him to write a book about it? Does he have any attributes aside from his age, weight and apparent suicide wish? Why is this trip of his so inspirational? What is our standard for inspiration here? Are we using the word "odyssey" because it sounds good in a back cover summary or because the story actually evokes something on the scale of the ancient Greek epic poem? Why don't I work for a publishing company when I could totally pull something like that out of my ass? Does whoever wrote this make more money than I do? And so on.

I chose the book because I liked the idea of starting out with a book that explored areas I was at least familiar with - as opposed to the one I saw on the shelf above it where the author bikes across Siberia. I also liked the idea of hearing from someone who would at worst be obnoxious in a new way, and at best would stick to telling us about his trip and avoid trying to convince us all of his biking bonafides. Plus, knowing Purdum's biography says he lives in Ohio, I was dying to hear about his experiences with some of the West Coast mountains.

So I checked it out of the library and read it over the next few days, finishing it up on the bike ride you'll hear about later this week. I'll tell you all what I thought of it Wednesday, so tune in if you care about that sort of thing.