I finished “Riding with Rilke, reflections on Motorcycles and Books” by Ted Bishop today. We have recently read “American Rambler” in RFB, which was a book-length essay about a man’s hike from Washington D.C. to New York City, where along the way the author reflected on American history and current politics. So, when I ran across “Riding with Rilke” at Half-Price Books, I was open to another travelogue essay/reflection.
“Riding with Rilke” is structured around the author’s solo motorcycle trip from Edmonton to Austin, then back again. Along the way he talks about motorcycles, mainly Ducati and BMW, learning to ride, the landscape, and writers, mainly Modernist. For me, it started off with too much talk about motorcycles and the difference in small design elements make toward the performance and ride of the bike. But then I have no background in this, so it makes sense that I would not be as interested. Once he starts his reflections on books with a section on Virginia Woolf, I shifted gears and began to enjoy the book better. Bishop is a Modernist scholar, and much of his talk on books revolves around doing archival work at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin.
Bishop wrote the book when he was recovering from an almost deadly motorcycle accident. Overall, I really enjoyed the book.
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