Bruce Weber

Life Is a Wheel: Memoirs of a Bike-Riding Obituarist Bruce Weber

Marc Notes: Based on his popular series in the New York Times chronicling his cross-country bicycle trip, bestselling author Bruce Weber shares his adventures from his solo ride across the USA. Riding a bicycle across the US is one of those bucket-list goals that many dream about but few achieve. Bestselling author and New York Times reporter Bruce Weber made the trip, solo, over the summer and fall of 2011--at the age of fifty-seven. Expanding upon his popular series published in The New York Times, Life Is a Wheel is the witty and inspiring account of his journey, where he extols the pleasures of cycling and reflects on what happened on his adventure, in the world, in the country, and in his life. The story begins on the Oregon coast with a middle-aged man wondering what he's gotten himself into and ends in triumph on the George Washington Bridge, wondering how soon he might try it again. Part travelogue, part memoir, part paean to the bicycle as a simple and elegant mode of both mobility and self-expression--and part wry and panicky account of a fifty-seven-year-old man's attempt to stave off mortality--Life Is a Wheel is an elegant and entertaining escape for any armchair traveler--; Provided by publisher. Review Quotes: "Cover to cover this book is a great ride. Bruce Weber is an entertaining and absorbing travel companion and in "Life is a Wheel" he pulls off a master storyteller's trick. He gives us a very personal journey that resonates on every page as part of the universal journey we're all on. It's great writing and reading."--Michael ConnellyReview Quotes: "Kerouac claimed that the romance of the American road died with the completion of the interstate system, but Bruce Weber proves him wrong, and on only two wheels. "Life is a Wheel" is an engaging blend of adventure and autobiography, a courageous journey over the breadth of the country and the distant terrains of the past."--Billy CollinsReview Quotes: "It's about the bike - to a point. Taking us along on a challenging and deeply personal journey, Weber shares memories, hopes, and emotions as rich and complex as the American landscape he conquers."--David V. Herlihy, author of Bicycle: The History and Lost CyclistTable of Contents: Part 1. The West -- 1. Everything Up to the Beginning -- 2. The Geyser Effect -- 3. Billy Salad Joseph -- 4. The Horse Doesn't Think It's a Real Cow -- 5. Pie -- 6. Downhill From Here -- 7. If I Were Your Father ... -- 8. Lost in the West -- 9. Nowhere Is Nowhere -- Part 2. American Gulliver -- 10. My War: Bike Pirates and an Armadillo -- 11. The President of the United States -- Part 3. The East, Eventually -- 12. My Country -- 13. Head Games -- 14. What if...? -- 15. The Wet Guy -- 16. Life Is an Etch A Sketch -- 17. Time and Distance -- Epilogue: An Actual Thing -- Acknowledgments. Publisher Marketing: "Life Is a Wheel "chronicles the cross-country bicycle trip Bruce Weber made at the age of fifty-seven, an "entertaining travel story filled with insightful thoughts about life, family, and aging" (The Associated Press). During the summer and fall of 2011, Bruce Weber, an obituary writer for "The" "New York Times," bicycled across the country, alone, and wrote about it as it unfolded. "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"). Contributor Bio:  Weber, Bruce Bruce Weber, a reporter for "The" "New York Times", began his career in publishing as a fiction editor at "Esquire". He has written for numerous publications and is the author of the "New York Times" bestseller "As They See 'Em: A Fan's Travels in the Land of Umpires, " coauthor (with the dancer Savion Glover) of "Savion! My Life in Tap, " and the editor of "Look Who's Talking: An Anthology of Voices in the Modern American Short Story".