Book picks similar to
Bicycling Street Smarts: Riding Confidently, Legally and Safely by John S. Allen
bicycling
nonfiction
biking
life-hacks
Off the Map: Bicycling Across Siberia
Mark Jenkins - 1992
"An epic tour of one of the world's most forbidding and legendary regions".--San Francisco Chronicle. Illustrations.
Felt: Poems
Alice Fulton - 2001
Felt—a fabric made of tangled fibers—becomes a metaphor for the interweavings of humans, animals, and planet. But Felt is also the past tense of "feel." This is a book of emotions both ordinary and untoward: the shadings of humiliation, obsession, love, and loneliness—as well as states so subtle they have yet to be named. Reticent and passionate, elliptical yet available, Fulton's poems consider flaws and failure, touching and not touching. They are fascinated with proximity: the painter's closeness to the canvas, the human kinship with animals, the fan's nearness to the star. Privacy, the opening and closing of doors, is at the heart of these poems that sing the forms of solitude-the meanings and feelings of virginity, the single-mindedness of fetishism, the tragedy of suicide. Rather than accept the world as given, Fulton encounters invisible assumptions with magnitude and grace. Hers is a poetry of inconvenient knowledge, in which the surprises of enlightenment can be cruel as well as kind. Felt, a deeply imagined work, at once visceral and cerebral, illuminates the possibilities of twenty-first century poetry.
The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways
Earl Swift - 2011
interstate system changed the face of our country. The Big Roads charts the creation of these essential American highways. From the turn-of-the-century car racing entrepreneur who spurred the citizen-led “Good Roads” movement, to the handful of driven engineers who conceived of the interstates and how they would work—years before President Eisenhower knew the plans existed—to the protests that erupted across the nation when highways reached the cities and found people unwilling to be uprooted in the name of progress, Swift follows a winding, fascinating route through twentieth-century American life. How did we get from dirt tracks to expressways, from main streets to off-ramps, from mud to concrete and steel, in less than a century? Through decades of politics, activism, and marvels of engineering, we recognize in our highways the wanderlust, grand scale, and conflicting notions of citizenship and progress that define America.
Life is a Wheel: A Passage Across America by Bicycle
Bruce Weber - 2013
Life Is a Wheel is the witty, inspiring, and reflective diary of his journey, in which the challenges and rewards of self-reliance and strenuous physical effort yield wry and incisive observations about cycling and America, not to mention the pleasures of a three-thousand-calorie breakfast.The story begins on the Oregon coast, with Weber wondering what he's gotten himself into, and ends in triumph on New York City's George Washington Bridge. From Going-to-the-Sun Road in the northern Rockies to the headwaters of the Mississippi and through the cityscapes of Chicago and Pittsburgh, his encounters with people and places provide us with an intimate, two-wheeled perspective of America. And with thousands of miles to travel, Weber considers his past, his family, and the echo that a well-lived life leaves behind.Part travelogue, part memoir, part romance, part paean to the bicycle; and part bemused and panicky account of a middle-aged man's attempt to stave off, well, you know;Life Is a Wheel is a book for cyclists, and for anyone who has ever dreamed of such transcontinental travels. But it also should prove enlightening, soul-stirring, even, to those who don't care a whit about bikes but who care about the way people connect (The Philadelphia Inquirer).
Birnbaum's Walt Disney World 2015 (Birnbaum Guides)
Birnbaum Travel Guides - 2014
We'll guide guests as they choose a Disney cruise ship and potentially pair a sailing with a stay at a Walt Disney World resort: the ultimate Disney land-and-sea adventure! And as always, since ours is the only guidebook that's official, this book includes the most accurate information on prices, changes, and new attractions for 2015: • A Walt Disney World visit requires more advance preparation than ever. Our Getting Ready to Go chapter offers insight into Disney's new MagicBand program and will help guests plan their vacation like a pro.• The 2015 Birnbaum Guide features bigger and bolder charts and maps, and lots of color photos-making the Birnbaum vacation planner a solid souvenir.• Thorough descriptions of all theme park shows and attractions will help vacationers get the most bang for their buck. And money-saving tips will help stretch those precious vacation dollars.• As Disney and The Force join forces, we've got the scoop on new rides, shows, and character greetings from the Star Wars realm.• We deliver the details on the newest shows and attractions throughout Walt Disney World, including the new Seven Dwarfs Mine Train coaster and other newcomers in the Magic Kingdom's Fantasyland.• Our expanded Good Meals, Great Times chapter includes coverage of WDW restaurants, lounges, the Disney Dining Plan, Epcot Food & Wine Festival, special dining opportunities, and more.• The handy new Trip Tracker is the perfect place to jot down Disney Dining confirmation numbers, Fastpass assignments, and other important info.• Downtown Disney is morphing into the massive and immersive Disney Springs. We'll share the scoop as this dining, shopping, and entertainment enclave more than doubles in size.• There are Hidden Mickeys all over Walt Disney World. We will direct guests to some of our theme park favorites.• More hot tips and valuable coupons than ever before!
Captives among the Indians: Firsthand Narratives of Indian Wars, Customs, Tortures, and Habits of Life in Colonial Times
Horace Kephart - 2015
This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Frontier City: Toronto on the Verge of Greatness
Shawn Micallef - 2017
It began as a series of reports from the civic drama of the 2014 elections. But beyond the municipal circus, writer and commentator Shawn Micallef discovered the much bigger story of a city emerging into greatness. He walked and talked with candidates from all over Greater Toronto, and observed how they energized their communities, never shying away from the problems that exist within them -- poverty, violence, racism, and drugs -- but advocating solutions that bring people together. Shawn Micallef introduces us to those fighting for a more inclusive vision of Toronto and reveals the promise and potential for a city that has been suffering through a severe identity crisis but is now on a steep upturn. Toronto, he says, is set fair to be a new urban model for cities all over the world. Micallef reveals Toronto in all its rich variety. It is hard, he says, to grasp the vast size and scope of Toronto until you spend a few hours walking through unfamiliar neighbourhoods. Each reveals another adjacent to it, and then another, and another. The city goes on and on, into unheralded ravines and oblique views of the downtown skyline. Hiding in all that geography is not only great beauty, but a force for change that's been building for decades as people arrived here from every corner of the globe. Frontier City is a revelatory view of the Toronto of today and an inspiring vision of the Toronto of the near future.From the Hardcover edition.
Minnesota Mayhem: A History of Calamitous Events, Horrific Accidents, Dastardly Crime & Dreadful Behavior in the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes
Ben Welter - 2012
These stories and photos, culled from the Star Tribune's microfilm archive by author Ben Welter, range from the catastrophic to the merely curious. From a fire that destroyed the State Capitol in 1881, to a wordless fistfight that broke out on a Minneapolis street in 1898, a flu outbreak that killed more than 10,000 Minnesotans in 1918 and the arrest of Frank Lloyd Wright at a Lake Minnetonka cottage in 1926.
Smart Phone Dumb Phone: Free Yourself from Digital Addiction
Allen Carr - 2019
When their phone is out of sight or the signal wavers, anxiety rises. You hear people saying again and again: 'I can't live without my phone, ' and sadly technology which should be a wonderful boon to us has started to blight lives; the more you are addicted, the less you get out of it. Technology can turn against us if we let it. Allen Carr's Easyway is the most successful stop-smoking method of all time. It works by unravelling the brainwashing that leads us to desire the very thing that is bad for us and it can help beat any addiction. For the first time, it has been applied to the problems of overusing your mobile phone, and it works
PADI Open Water Diver Manual Revised 2010 Version
PADI - 2010
The PADI Open Water Diver course leads to two possible certifications: PADI SCUBA Diver and PADI Open Water Diver. This book covers basic diving certification topics and techniques including:Choosing, using, maintaining, and storing equipment.Basic training, from pool to open waterDiving physiology, including buoyancy, behavior of gases, the bends, and hypothermia.Dive planning, including decompression dives.Safety and first aid.
Gut Instincts: Dispatches from the Wide Open Space Between Sickness and Health
Heather Abel - 2014
They told her that she had the worst case they’d ever seen of a rare Scandinavian disease called celiac. At first, this diagnosis – and its requirement of total adherence to a gluten-free diet – seemed like the simple answer to a lifetime of strange symptoms including anemia, insomnia, pneumonia, mouth ulcers, missed periods, and neck pain so severe that for months preceding the diagnosis she hadn’t been able to turn her head. But even on the diet – and as glutenphobia erupted in this country, with nearly a third of Americans avoiding gluten —Abel still didn’t feel well. When doctors, nutritionists, and websites all offered contradicting information on gluten and diet, she began to panic. How would she know what to eat? In this powerful, wide-ranging and emotional story about the limits of medical knowledge, Abel discovers why she wasn’t diagnosed with celiac as a child. She considers how environmental fears and Internet anecdotes lead people to avoid gluten. And she grapples with the question that confronts us all: how to live calmly, even joyfully, in the face of uncertainty. Heather Abel worked as a reporter and news editor in Colorado and San Francisco and taught creative writing at the New School University and UMass Amherst. She lives with her family in western Massachusetts where she is finishing her first novel.
Hidden Cities: My Journey into the Secret World of Urban Exploration
Moses Gates - 2013
He thrives on the thrill of seeing what others do not see, let alone even know exists. It all began quite innocuously. After moving to New York City to pursue graduate studies in Urban Planning, he began unearthing hidden facets of the city—abandoned structures, disused subway stops, incredible rooftop views that belonged to cordoned-off buildings. At first it was about satiating a niggling curiosity; yet the more he experienced and saw, the more his thirst for adventure grew, eventually leading him across five continents. In this memoir of his experiences, Gates details his trespasses through underground canals, sewers, subways, crypts, through cities spanning four continents. In this finely-written book, Gates describes his immersion in the worldwide subculture of Urban Exploring; how he joined a world of people who create secret art galleries in subway tunnels, break into national monuments for fun, and travel the globe sleeping in centuries-old catacombs and abandoned Soviet relics rather than hotels or bed-and-breakfasts. They push each other further and further—visiting the hidden side of a dozen countries, discovering ancient underground Roman ruins, scaling the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg bridges, partying with mole people, sneaking into Stonehenge, and even finding themselves under arrest on top of Notre Dame Cathedral. Ultimately, Gates contemplates why he and other urban explorers are so instinctively drawn to these unknown and sometimes forbidden places—even (and for some, especially) when the stakes are high. Hidden Cities will inspire readers to contemplate the potential for urban exploration available for anyone, anywhere—if they have only the curiosity (and nerve!) to dig below the surface to discover the hidden corners of this world.
Cycling's Greatest Misadventures
Erich Schweikher - 2007
In these pages both everyday riders and pros tell their stories of freak accidents, animal attacks, sabotage, idiotic decisions, eerie or unexplained incidents, and other jaw dropping, adrenalin-pumping calamities. These stories bring to life the strange things possibilities that await, once we step on the pedals of our road, mountain, or commuter bikes. A sampling of misadventures in this collection includes the stories of: the mountain biker who follows a bull and then gets gored by it; the twenty African Americans who pioneered cycle touring by completing a Transamerica ride in 1897, but wait - this story gets strange...; the large rat that leapt on top of a woman's bike and slapped her repeatedly with its tail; an inside-the-head narration by a professional racer as he rides a brutal race, and then gets humiliated in changing room afterwards; the recreational cyclist who accidentally rides deep into a prison yard; the computer programmer who crashes a stationary bike during his first spin class; the bike messenger who can't call it quits even after getting hit by eight cars; and, the man who carefully spreads out tacks on the route of an all female race in an attempt to get a date. These stories will make you wonder, drop you to the floor laughing and leave you shaking your head with disbelief.
Base Building for Cyclists: A New Foundation for Endurance and Performance
Thomas Chapple - 2006
Ultrafit coach Thomas Chapple shows how with this practical guide. Based on the idea that success depends on the extent to which cyclists build their foundation of aerobic fitness, or their "base," for the road ahead, the book explains step-by-step how to build a bigger aerobic engine, work up to higher volumes, and make significant improvements in strength, endurance, and speed.
BART: The Dramatic History of the Bay Area Rapid Transit System
Michael C. Healy - 2016
BART" himself When BART opened in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1972, it became a catalyst for a renaissance in modern rail transit, both nationally and internationally. The concept as sold to Bay Area voters was gargantuan: by adopting aerospace technologies such as microchips for ground transportation, the new computer-operated rail system would bridge counties and curb urban sprawl amid a booming automobile culture. But it all came within a gnat's eyelash of not happening. The question raised by pundits and taxpayers alike was: would this space-age plan actually work, or be the biggest boondoggle in the country's history? In the first-ever history book about BART, longtime agency spokesman Michael C. Healy gives an insider's account of the rapid transit system's inception, hard-won approval, construction, and operations, "warts and all." Written with a master storyteller's homey wit and sharp attention to detail, Healy recreates the politically fraught venture to bring a new kind of public transit to the West Coast. What emerges is a sense of the individuals who made (and make) BART happen. From tales of staying up until 3:00 a.m. with Bill Stokes and Jack Everson to hear the election results for the rapid transit vote or weathering scandals, strikes, and growing pains, this look behind the scenes of an iconic, seemingly monolithic structure reveals people at their most human-and determined to change the status quo.