Title: Keep Calm And Pedal On
Author: Ebury Publishing
Publisher: Ebury Publishing
Year: 2014
Pages: 224
Order: Ebury Publishing
What it is: A collection of cycling related quotes
Strengths: Pithy
Weaknesses: Pithy
What do you buy a cyclist for their birthday, Father's Day, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day or Christmas? Let's assume that your budget doesn't extend to a top end ride or most of the other over-priced pieces of kit that keep the bicycle industry in profit. Well, then you buy them a book.
Keep Calm And Pedal On is the ideal gift for cyclists who love the sort of pithy cycling quotes that would fit on T-shirts, coffee mugs, coasters or screen-savers.
Grouped around different topics - examples include Early Attitudes, Women On Two Wheels and Cycling's Everlasting Appeal - each quote is presented on a single page à la those ubiquitous British Ministry of Information propaganda posters (with a bicycle replacing the Tudor crown).
Nicely produced and modestly priced, it is the perfect stocking filler. An example of some of the quotes that appear in the book follows.
THE NOTHING
OF THE DAY IS A
MACHINE CALLED THE
VELOCIPEDE. IT IS A
WHEEL CARRIAGE TO
RIDE COCK-HORSE
UPON, SITTING ASTRIDE
AND PUSHING IT ALONG
WITH THE TOES
JOHN KEATS
1819
TWO REASONS TO
REFUSE TO TASTE
VELOCIPEDIC
DELIGHTS: POVERTY
AND PILES
BAUDRY DE SAUNIER
1891
I DON'T
KNOW WHY
I LIKE IT
LEO TOLSTOY
WHEN I WAS A KID
I USED TO PRAY EVERY
NIGHT FOR A NEW
BICYCLE. THEN I
REALISED THAT THE
LORD DOESN'T WORK
THAT WAY SO I STOLE
ONE AND ASKED HIM
TO FORGIVE ME
EMO PHILIPS
BUY A CYCLE, USE
IT WITH DISCRETION
AND SECURE
HEALTH, HAPPINESS
AND LONG LIFE!
WN ROBERTSON
1894
RIDING A BICYCLE
MAKES YOU IMPOTENT.
THAT'S WHY I CARRY
A BICYCLE SEAT
IN MY POCKET.
IT'S BETTER THAN
WEARING A CONDOM
JAROD KINTZ
I HAD AN EARLY
ACCIDENT WITH MY
NEW BICYCLE WHEN,
IN TAKING MY ARM
FROM THE HANDLEBAR
IN ORDER TO RAISE MY
HAT TO A LADY, I RODE
INTO A LAMP POST.
COMPTON MCKENZIE
NO HOUR
OF LIFE IS LOST
THAT IS SPENT IN
THE SADDLE
WINSTON CHURCHILL