- Hardcover: 272 pages
- Publisher: Viking Canada (AHC) (Sep 9 2005)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0670063851
- ISBN-13: 978-0670063857
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.5 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 363 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #447,798 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
English professor Bishop trades "tweed for leather" and hurtles away from the University of Alberta (Canada) on his Ducati, which he rides south through the Western U.S. all the way to the University of Texas at Austin. His professional objective was research on Virginia Woolf's novel Jacob's Room at the UT archives of British modernist writers, but his pledge along the way was "To seek out the smallest roads possible, to avoid the direct route, to eat in mom-and-pop diners." For Bishop, riding "is an inward experience. Like reading," a parallel that loosely links the elements of this discursive but engaging account—part travelogue, part ode to his bike and part literary criticism. He temporarily abandons his Woolf scholarship for a project on Joyce's Ulysses, a venture that sidetracks him to New York City and Europe before he heads back to Austin to pick up his Ducati. The ride home ends in disaster when he wipes out at 105 mph, breaks his back in two places, but survives to walk again—and write this easygoing, romantic memoir infused with joie de vivre. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
Written while the author was recovering from a spectacular motorcycle crash, this unusual memoir chronicles Bishop's road trip from Edmonton, Alberta, to Austin, Texas. While this trek offered a chance for Bishop to get his prized Ducati motorcycle out on the open road--to really see what she could do--it was also a business trip: when not astride the Ducati, Bishop is a university professor and Virginia Woolf scholar, and he was going to Austin to view a collection of Woolf manuscripts. This is a story of a man seduced by twin passions, travel and scholarship, and it tracks twin adventures, into the literary past and the uncharted present. It's a joyful book, a celebration of intellectual pursuit and carefree exploration. If you can name another book about motorcycling that tells you about the tortured life of Virginia Woolf, or another book about the Bloomsbury Group that describes the rush you get from pulling a slow U-turn on a small-town Main Street in full biker regalia, then you probably don't need this one. For the rest of us, Riding with Rilke is a one-of-a-kind treat. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Riding 'Around' With Rilke,
This review is from: Riding With Rilke (Paperback)
The book's sections on riding and his journey to Texas (and return) are great (albiet with a long pause in the journey to fly home for other work...he really lost me on that)...his stories of interacting wtih small town folks in the lower 48 is really bang on and had me laughing. He timelines messed me up more than once. If you are not interested in the literary world, you may find the ramblings about James Joyce and other authors a bit tedious...but hold your breath, he does accellerate out of analytical stuff eventually and gets back on the road...where the book definitely shines brightest. I would liken it to a version of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" for English Professors who like to ride motorcycles...but for us non-academics...the biking stuff holds it own.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Moments of wonder,
By
This review is from: Riding With Rilke (Hardcover)
Ted Bishop captures the moments that make riding so enjoyable and perfectly describes what every rider feels about the road. After reading this book you'll want to buy a motorcycle and collect rare books. Though the content is much deeper than that of "Motorcycle Therapy: A Canadian Adventure in Central America," "Riding with Rilke" will make you laugh just as hard in spots. It's a fine piece of motorcycle literature.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
riding with rilke rocks,
By lefty "leftyhook" (oakville) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Riding with Rilke: Journeys Through Silence (Paperback)
well written and an easy read. lots of interesting m/c anecodotes,and vignettes. Easy enough to skip some of the heavier literature passages, if so inclined.
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