Archive for June, 2015

Awards for The Bicycle Diaries

Thursday, June 4th, 2015

When you publish a book, you don’t know how it is going to be received. Will anybody read it? And if they do, will they like it? I’d like to say that I don’t care much about the response — that I’m content to have published a book that I’m proud of — but let’s be honest. It makes a huge difference what readers say.

I’m extremely honored to have 50 positive reviews on Amazon. It was even encouraging that some ‘climate skeptics’ read the book and enjoyed it.

Also, at the recommendation of my editor, I submitted The Bicycle Diaries for a number of awards. The book has been honored with the following:

  • Shelf Unbound Notable Book of 2014
  • Finalist for the 2015 Montaigne Medal
  • Finalist for Foreward Review’s IndieFab Book of the Year
  • Finalist for the 2015 Eric Hoffer Award
  • Runner up in the General Non-Fiction category at the 2015 San Francisco Book Festival
  • Bronze Medal for Travel Essay, 2015 Independent Publisher Book
  • Screen Shot 2015-06-04 at 9.29.25 AM

    The Man Who Made My Bicycle: Bruce Gordon

    Wednesday, June 3rd, 2015

    This past weekend Lindsey and I took a bus to Petaluma and then biked back to San Francisco over the next two days, enjoying a lazy 40-mile-per-day bike tour.

    In Petaluma, before we started our ride, we stopped by Bruce Gordon Cycles. A little over twelve years ago, Bruce welded together del Fuego, a bike that I have since ridden from California to Argentina, Turkey to Myanmar, and across the U.S. twice. All told, I’ve traversed more than 32,000 miles on the frame (every other part of the bike, except the racks, has been replaced).

    Bruce makes very nice bicycles (del Fuego was a graduation gift from my Dad — I wouldn’t have gotten such a nice bike otherwise). At Bruce’s store, he showed me a number of show bikes that he’s made over the years.

    You can also see pictures from Lindsey’s and my weekend tour here.