David Byrne’s Bicycle Diaries.
I’m not an easy person to buy gifts for. Ask my wife. I’m famously indifferent to gifts — in fact, I’m often annoyed by gifts. I’m not proud of it and I probably need some therapy to talk through why I feel this way. Needless to say, I don’t deserve gifts anymore since I’m so grumpy about it.
Nonetheless, my sweet wife keeps trying. A few years ago, she bought me David Byrne’s Bicycle Diaries. It’s a perfect gift, really. I’m big on bicycling and I like Talking Heads and David Byrne. And it’s a nice little book. You’d think I’d be happy. But no. I think I said that I probably wouldn’t read it and put it on a shelf for a few years. I’m not proud of this. I’m going to try to be better.
In the last few months, we’ve been clearing out junk from our house, which means getting rid of a LOT of books. Books we’ve read, books we haven’t read but never will. Kids books the kids have outgrown. A lot of books. Mostly we donate them to the cute little “give-one, take-one” libraries neighbors have build around the neighborhood. I”m always surprised by how quick books get taken from them.
But, before ditching Bicycle Diaries, I decided I really should read it. Partly because it was a gift from my sweet wife. Partly because, objectively I should like it. So I read it.
And I didn’t really like it. It was fine. But it was kind of boring and didn’t really live up to any of the hopes I had for it.
First, I didn’t really learn much about David Byrne. He’s a strange, ironic, aloof fellow and this book isn’t much insight behind that. He does come across as a reasonable, normal, friendly person. But, one learns almost nothing about his life, relationships, philosophies from this book. Except that he holds pretty conventional Brooklyn cyclist views of urban aesthetics and transport policy. Bikes are good. Bike lanes are important. Cities should be better. I believe all these things fervently and didn’t need him to tell me. And he doesn’t add a lot of knowledge or insight.
In fairness, he released the book in 2009 when some of these ideas might have been newer and more innovative. But by 2023, this book is behind the times, although not wrong.
He writes about bringing a fold-up Brompton when he travels and then cycles around wherever he goes. Which is great and endearing. He records some experiences in different cities. Some people he met and shows he went to and observations about things. But, honestly, nothing that would surprise you, or, to be frank, really interest you. Maybe if you had been there with him.
The book is memories and some reflections on cities he’s visited around the world with his bike. Some of the stories and travel are from decades ago. He’s not really a great story teller. He drops some names, but doesn’t give a lot of insight or build characters or scenes. It reads more like notes he took himself. Not a lot of emotion or spiritual revelation. Oh well. But he’s sweet and earnest about his love of biking:
I’m in my midfifties, so I can testify that biking as a way of getting around is not something only for the young and energetic. You don’t really need the spandex, and unless you want it to be, biking is not necessarily all that strenuous. It’s the liberating feeling — the physical and psychological sensation — that is more persuasive than any practical argument….Observing and engaging in a city’s life — even for a reticent and often shy person like me — is one of life’s great joys. Being a social creature — it is part of what it means to be human.
At the very end of the book, most recently, he relates getting a bit political in his bicycle advocacy, hosting some events in NYC and getting involved with Transportation Alternatives and meeting up with some urban planners and politicians. Cool and nice to see him move from somewhat ethereal and intellectual interest to something more practical and political. The book was written and released before Citi Bike was even launched in NYC — which has been huge and transformational in re-imagining the city. Bike infrastructure and pedestrianization has been progressing significantly in recent years. So — Byrne gives some tidbits of early progress, but much more happened after this book.
To his credit, he clearly was pushing and engaged — so it might be fair to say that progress in NYC can be credited in some small way to him. If so — great. And maybe this book will be helpful to future historians.
But, for now, you can skip it.
ENDS///
