And Bike Durham is hosting great events all month! See the full line-up (and register for free community rides) at bikedurham.org/bike-month-2023. Visit us at two of them:
Bike Month Kick Off @ Museum of Durham History (May 6th, 2-5:30pm) we'll be there oggling the hiStories Ride (register for free! do it for me, because I'll be jealously busy at the book table!), and also chatting about our Special Topics in Bicycling book club! We'll be asking for community input on our 4th book (or share your idea here!), have sign-ups for the book club (and have the first book for sale), and have all the book club books (+ some of our other favorite bike titles) available to thumb through.
Bike the Nature Preserves Spring Ride (May 20th) - we'll be at the CCB plaza gathering point for this family-friendly ride, with some of our favorite kid-friendly bicycle titles keep your kids pre-ride busy at the CCB plaza gathering point. Stop in to Letters Bookshop (just a couple blocks away) before or after the ride to get 10% off (just let us know you were downtown for the ride!)
Special Topics is a series of book clubs - we restart every four months with a dive into a new literary niche. June-September (with an October bonus), we'll be reading four very different books that each have a loving relationship to bicycling.
“The Verifiers” by Jane Pek - we’re starting fun and fast with this smart, loving, beautifully written mystery - a mystery in which the detective’s job is verifying the details on dating profiles. Full of family stuff, the fuzziness of early adulthood, and pedaling around New York (on the bike that maybe doesn't quite meet with her older brother’s approval). (June 1st at 6:30pm)
“Witchmark” by C.L. Polk - political intrigue, queer romance, and a high-stakes bicycle chase set in a beautifully constructed fantasy take on Edwardian England - where magic is real, and where cities are built around bicycles as the dominant form of transportation.(July 6th at 6:30pm)
“Panpocalypse” by Carley Moore - a surreal, disability-forward, bike-centric retelling of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. This Orpheus searches for Eurydice by bike; while relearning how to ride a bike; while riding her bike into a metaphor of love, loneliness, illness, and revolution. (August 3rd at 6:30pm)
"The Solitary Cyclist" and "The Adventure of the Priory School" by Arthur Conan Doyle - a few stories from the early days of bicycles! Doyle fell hard for the bicycle craze of the 1900s, and wrote his enthusiasm into a few Sherlock stories. Both of these were originally published in magazines, but are collected in "The Return of Sherlock Holmes." (September 7th at 6:30pm)
Sign up here to get reminder emails and discussion questions, and to order any books that you need!
Bonus 5th expository month - our usual book club selections all focus on narrative stories (novels, memoirs, short stories); but with Bike Durham we'll be reading our first (still fun) information-focused read, and we'll have a Bike Durham rep doing a short presentation at the discussion.
"Two Wheels Good: the history and mystery of the bicycle" by Jody Rosen - a history, memoir, and cultural commentary full of conversational prose and characters ranging from astronauts to 19th century feminists to contempoary cycle-rickshaw drivers. (October 5th at 6:30pm)
No pressure to join us for the rest of the book club if you're just into the bonus month (or vice versa!), but you can sign up at this same link to get reminder emails (and order the book if you need it!).
(Or just keep an eye on your inbox if you're signed up for the book club). We have a couple other schemes in the works!
