READ AND RIDE WITH "BONESHAKER: A BICYCLING ALMANAC" @ MonkeyWrench Books

There's an interesting event coming up tomorrow evening at MonkeyWrench books that combines literary fun with some of the old fashioned bike riding goodness. The folks behind "Boneshaker: A Bicycling Almanac" sound like a bunch of people just like us: more concerned with the fun they're having than the weight of their derailer in grams.

READ AND RIDE WITH "BONESHAKER: A BICYCLING ALMANAC"

Thursday, October 15, 7pm, at MonkeyWrench Books (110 E. North Loop)

followed by bike ride and libations

The editors of "Boneshaker: A Bicycling Almanac" believe that the bicycle, when conceived of and used appropriately, can become a tool for social change and community building. And though bicycling has become, for better or worse, an activity tied to radical undertones and bohemian implications, we are less interested in those types of categorizations and more so with simply riding bicycles to get where we are going. This almanac is, therefore, a collective ode to the ride itself, that fundamentally lonesome experience one has in the saddle, and the results of repeating that ride over and over in different directions on different days with different destinations in each instance. With interviews of respected members of the bicycling community, as well as profiles of bike-related grassroots organizations and individuals, not to mention essays, graphs, lists, letters, charts, maps, poems, schedules, manifestos, drawings, art, and stories, Boneshaker attempts to shine light on utilitarian bicycling.

Modeled loosely after the War Department’s 1941 Soldier’s Basic Field Manual, Boneshaker fashions itself to be the practical bicyclist’s literary periodical-style handbook. Join us for a reading by editor Evan P Schneider from the third issue of Boneshaker (BA 42-300), which will be followed by a leisurely ride and libation stop!

Sponsored by MonkeyWrench Books and Yellow Bike Project.

If you want to learn more about the publication, as well as meet AND ride with one of their editors, cruise over to MonkeyWrench on North Loop around 7pm tomorrow and check this event out. I've seen the first issue of the Almanac and was rather entertained by it. Though not as directly informative as a repair book or trade magazine, a lot of the character of the contributors really shows through in their writing and art and it was a very enjoyable read. Well worth picking up, as long as you're not looking for a stuffy magazine full of the latest and greatest ad-copy.