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

I read lots of books about bike touring. I dream about bike touring but actually get out for an overnighter almost never. But I read a lot of books!

Weber calls his book a semi-memoir. That label fits. It's a very personal book. He lets us know that he has been in psychotherapy for decades. He's a New Yorker, a Manhattanite! He's practically a character out of a Woody Allen movie. He got started bike touring while vacationing in the Hamptons. I'm not making this up! I have orbited from time to time just close enough to Manhattan to know that this sort of thing is actually real. Or maybe that helps me feel that reality more viscerally than a reader who has e.g. lived their whole life in Colorado Springs.

Not only that, he writes for the show more New York Times, and has for decades! Yeah my sister is a sort of Manhattan professional writer, so I know the type a bit. This book is so well written... it's almost too luscious. I remember a few sentences where Weber is mulling over his use of the word "creditable". The mulling is not out of place; he's got the nuances very precisely mapped. But, wow, it's like vacationing in the Hamptons. For me it is like a glimpse into a whole other world, yeah like watching a Woody Allen movie. Can you believe it, people actually live like that!

I've never gone on a big bike trip like this, so I can't say for sure whether my own reflections would mirror his. Would my reason for riding be very similar to his? I think I would reflect on that puzzle very much like Weber does. I am now planning a month-long ride and part of that is writing out a statement of purpose, of why I ride. Of course this kind of brazen ambition is very different from the result of stewing over it across northeast Montana. All that psychotherapy, all that writing of obituaries... Weber's reflections are very genuine.

It's a fine book, but it's practically more memoir than travelogue. It does put those dimensions together very well. I was thinking of sending it along to my Mom now that I have finished it. But Weber talks about how he could practically have died from heart disease out there far far from the kind of medical care that a person can get in Manhattan and probably also in the Salt Lake area where I live these days. My Mom is worried about crazy me going out on a big bike trip - I'm older than Weber was on his trip. But I don't think this book would reassure her! Maybe the next bike touring book will be better for that! show less

I've long been fascinated by personal recollections of cross-country (or cross-continental) treks by foot or two-wheeler, and Bruce Weber's "Life Is a Wheel" is a worthy addition to my collection of such books.

In 2011, at age 57, Weber decided to make his second transcontinental bicycle ride across the United States, beginning in northern California and ending at his own doorstep in New York City. Weber already had one of these adventures under his belt, a trip he successfully completed when he was only 39. And, although, he would find this trip a little tougher and a little slower than that long ago ride, Weber would manage to travel the 4,122 miles back to his apartment in just under three months. Along the way, he survived car and show more truck traffic oblivious to his existence, had to dash across a busy highway and jump the median fence with his bike on his back, experienced small-town hospitality that often surprised him, and suffered a persistent cough that turned out to be the symptom of something much more serious than the acid reflux problem he attributed it to.

"Life Is a Wheel" is more than a travelogue, however, because Weber delves deeply into his personal life story in order to explain how he became the man he is. The reader learns of his troubled childhood, the resulting years Weber spent in therapy, and his chronic inability to commit to longterm romantic relationships. We are even treated to a detailed recap of the long bicycle ride he made in Viet Nam just before full diplomatic relations were re-established with that war torn country (quite an adventure for a man who seemed to get by on his naive assumption that things would work out and that he would have stories to tell at the local bar for the rest of his life)

Bottom Line: this is a good travel adventure for armchair adventurers and those who might be contemplating a similar trip of their own. show less

Oh I just loved this book. It was so calming, ruminative, interesting, well-written, and besides all that fun to read. I liked the structure, the way he wove stories from his past and about his obituary-writing job into his trip across the country. And the ending, which I won't give away, was so poignant. Happy that it all worked out and that he found Jan!

Maybe 3.5 stars...I feel like this is one of my favorite bike-across-the-country books, but not the favorite. The beginning half of the book was great and I was ready to make it my all-time favorite of this type, but then Weber starts getting into an earlier bike tour in Vietnam (he devotes a whole chapter to it), and discussing what Sept. 11 meant to him (although he wasn't biking at the time and it has no connection to his bike tour), and generally spending more time analyzing his life than letting us know about people and places he meets during his tour. Still - it's better than others I've read. With each new touring book I read, I hope I'm going to get some self-analysis along with vivid descriptions of places and people that are show more different from what I know (and hopefully what the author knows). The first half of this book does a pretty good job, but the back half is more tedious than anything. show less

The author decided to take a ride across the USA by bicycle (for the 2nd time) in his late 50s. As someone who is around the same age, and who has always wanted to do this, it was a fascinating read. His contention that New Jersey is the least bicycle friendly state certainly coincides with my own experiences riding across the state. I totally enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone interested in travel cycling.

There's something about non-fiction, especially a travelogue, that keeps me riveted. I love the details and feel like I'm right there, going along for the ride. Especially the journey in Vietnam. Not high literature, but it's recommended and deserves a good, solid 4 stars.

As a recreational mountain-biker, I bring my interest in biking to this book. While it is, indeed, more than a biking book, the mechanics of biking (both the bike and the 57-year-old author) are definitely part of the story. This is the second cross-country bike trip made by the author, the first had been made when he was 39. Mr. Weber has held several positions at The New York Times, most recently as an obituary writer. The trip's chronology was published as it occurred in articles and blog posting for the Times. According to the book's publisher, this expands on these previously published works. To what extent it expands them, I do not know, having not read them when originally printed.
A cross-country trip by bicycle cannot be show more compared to a trip by automobile, the bike is integral to the story. Thus the story sacrifices some of the local experiences for the biking experiences. That being said, I would have enjoyed more local interest. show less