It's All About the Bike: The Pursuit of Happiness On Two Wheels: Amazon.fr: Robert Penn: Livres anglais et �trangers

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Description de l'ouvrage

Date de publication: 5 mai 2011 | S�rie: PARTICULAR PB

Robert Penn's It's All About the Bike: The Pursuit of Happiness on Two Wheels is a paean to the humble bike; it's the story of why we ride, and why this simple machine holds the power to transport us all. Robert Penn has ridden a bike most days of his life. He rides to get to work, to bathe in air and sunshine, to stay sane and to feel free. This is the story of his love affair with cycling and the journey to build his dream bike; a freewheeling pilgrimage taking him from Californian mountain bike inventors to British artisan frame builders, and from perfect components to the path of true happiness. 'A gem of a book ... a joy'
  Economist 'Infectious, exhilarating, highly engaging'
  Independent 'Be swept along by Penn's enthusiasm, humour and refreshing candour'
  Sunday Telegraph 'Enriches your enjoyment of a ride'
  Sunday Times 'As a depiction of a world you might vote for, Penn's does not sound bad at all'
  Observer Robert Penn writes for the Financial Times, Observer and Condé Nast Traveller, as well as a host of cycling publications. He is the author of The Wrong Kind of Snow. Robert lives in the Black Mountains, South Wales with his wife and three children and commutes to work across a heather moor on a mountain bike.

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#outer_postBodyPS { display: none; } #psGradient { display: none; } #psPlaceHolder { display: none; } #psExpand { display: none; } Robert Penn's It's All About the Bike: The Pursuit of Happiness on Two Wheels is a paean to the humble bike; it's the story of why we ride, and why this simple machine holds the power to transport us all. Robert Penn has ridden a bike most days of his life. He rides to get to work, to bathe in air and sunshine, to stay sane and to feel free. This is the story of his love affair with cycling and the journey to build his dream bike; a freewheeling pilgrimage taking him from Californian mountain bike inventors to British artisan frame builders, and from perfect components to the path of true happiness. 'A gem of a book ... a joy'
  Economist 'Infectious, exhilarating, highly engaging'
  Independent 'Be swept along by Penn's enthusiasm, humour and refreshing candour'
  Sunday Telegraph 'Enriches your enjoyment of a ride'
  Sunday Times 'As a depiction of a world you might vote for, Penn's does not sound bad at all'
  Observer Robert Penn writes for the Financial Times, Observer and Condé Nast Traveller, as well as a host of cycling publications. He is the author of The Wrong Kind of Snow. Robert lives in the Black Mountains, South Wales with his wife and three children and commutes to work across a heather moor on a mountain bike.

Descriptions du produit

Revue de presse

Gem of a book (Economist )

Penn writes with a Bill-Brysonesque facility for concentrating a lot of information and research into an easy-to-read ... Best of all ... his account enriches your enjoyment of a ride (Tim Dawson, Cycle Guy Sunday Times )

Fantastic ... Well worth a read if, like me, you love cycling! (Paul Smith )

Artfully, Penn turns his quest for hardware ... into a worldwide spin around cycling and its culture (William Fotheringham Guardian )

The pages overflow with pioneers, mavericks and geniuses - certainly, it is hard to imagine anyone who reads this book being able to buy a bike "off the peg" again (Tim Lewis Observer )

I've just spent a week pedalling slowly from Windermere to Aviemore with a copy of Penn's zealous eulogy in my pannier. His infectious admiration for the exhilarating sociability of cycling, coupled with reverence for quality craftsmanship, made highly engaging company ... appreciate the wit and enthusiasm of this unusual odyssey (James Urquhart Independent )

Penn tells us that the bicycle, as we know it, was invented in 1885 and is the most efficient form of transport ever devised... A joyful book (William Leith The Scotsman )

Bike-lit is booming, and while 'cross-country hardtail' might not have the same ring to it as 'penny-farthing', there's evidently little to do with cycling about which Robert Penn can't wax lyrical. Whether his subject is spokes or saddle sores, he is relentlessly enthusiastic... Penn's amiability is puncture-proof (Stephanie Cross Daily Mail )

[H]is adrenalin-charged enthusiasm... delivers a good ride... The social history is snappy and his almost religious quest for ultimate craftsmanship full of wit. (James Urquhart Financial Times )

Biographie de l'auteur

Robert Penn rides a bicycle to get to work, sometimes for work, to keep fit, to bathe in air and sunshine, to travel, to go shopping, to stay sane, to savour the physical and emotional fellowship of riding with friends, for fun, occasionally to impress someone, to scare himself and to hear his boy laugh. He's ridden a bicycle most days of his adult life, in over forty countries on five continents. In his late-twenties, he pedalled around the world. A journalist, Robert writes for the Financial Times, Observer and Condé Nast Traveller, as well as a host of cycling publications. His last book The Wrong Kind of Snow, was praised as 'jam packed with grand themes ... intelligently done' (Daily Mail) and 'endlessly fascinating ... written with flair' (Financial Times). Robert lives in the Black Mountains, South Wales with his wife and three children and commutes to work across a heather moor on a mountain bike.

D�tails sur le produit

Broch�: 208 pages
Editeur�: Penguin (5 mai 2011)
Collection : PARTICULAR PB
Langue : Anglais
ISBN-10: 0141043792
ISBN-13: 978-0141043791
Dimensions du produit: 12,9 x 1,2 x 19,8 cm
Classement des meilleures ventes d'Amazon: 143.232 en Livres anglais et �trangers (Voir les 100 premiers en Livres anglais et �trangers)

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Commentaires client les plus utiles sur Amazon.com ^(beta)

Amazon.com: 4.4 �toiles sur 5 55 commentaires

28 internautes sur 29 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile

5.0 �toiles sur 5 Excellent quick read 15 novembre 2010

Par J. Chaney - Publi� sur Amazon.com

Format:Reli�|Achat authentifi� par Amazon

I bought this book based on a review in The Economist that made it look interesting. I'm not a bike nut, though I have one and ride it a couple times a week. This book, though, is not written for the bicycle fanatic, but for a layperson for whom bikes are, and have always been, part of the background of life. There's detail on the origins and development of the bike, along with enough -- just enough -- insights from the author's experience to make it not a sterile read. It's also interesting to meet the people involved in various aspects of the bicycle business, from mountain-bikers in Marin County to handlebar manufacturers (who knew there was so much technology in a handlebar?) in Italy. There's also enough here, in terms of content and accuracy, to make it of interest to people who ARE already knowledgeable about road bikes: two of my friends who are competitive road biciclists have read it with enthusiasm. So, all in all, a pleasure to read, and over way too soon.

14 internautes sur 15 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile

3.0 �toiles sur 5 an obsessive account of the design of a bicycle 25 octobre 2011

Par Neurasthenic - Publi� sur Amazon.com

Format:Reli�

This is an odd book. Robert Penn owns a lot of bikes, but decided he wanted one more and that this one would be perfect -- it would have a custom frame, and exactly the components he wanted, and it would be assembled by the best mechanics in the world. The task took about a year, and while Penn never tells us what the bike cost, one can estimate that with the cost of his flights around the world to view the components being built, it was almost certainly over $10,000.

This is the first oddness of the book. It is simultaneously anti-consumer ("I am not going to buy a Toyota Corolla and replace it every five years; I'm going to buy a bicycle that will last me for the rest of my life.") and intensively consumerist ("This is the list of expensive things I am going to buy for a bicycle that I clearly don't need because I already have a shed full of bicycles at home. This bicycle is going to define me as a person.")

Penn describes some of his previous bicycle adventures, and he discusses the history of bicycles generally and bicycle components in particular. This material will have nothing new to those who have read Herlihy's Bicycle: The History, which is clearly Penn's major source, but it's fun to read.

The second major oddness of the book is that, though it tells the tale of the design and assembly of a bicycle, and contains many photographs and diagrams explaining the origins of different bike parts, it does not end with a photo of the completed bike. Penn takes delivery of his completed bike and rides off into the rain. The end. No photo. Odd.

I ride a custom Peter Mooney, so can I understand some of what drives Penn in his quest, but even I found myself wincing at his conviction that this bicycle would make him finally happy. Happiness can't come from a purchase, and for a collector, as Penn seems to be, the collection will never be complete. Personally, I can't help but imagine that Penn continues to stew over the little things that aren't quite perfect about his new machine, and to plot how he will fix it. But even if he does, I don't think he'll be happy.

11 internautes sur 12 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile

5.0 �toiles sur 5 good primer on bikes and bike history 25 septembre 2010

Par jbs - Publi� sur Amazon.com

Format:Reli�|Achat authentifi� par Amazon

well written, well told, well explained, complete with diagrams and pictures of bike mechanisms, history and design. funny and interesting, a travel journal cum bike celebration.

› Allez sur Amazon.com pour voir l'ensemble des 55 commentaires 4.4 �toiles sur 5

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