Rants and Raves

Reading Challenges & Some Links (bonus vid of Scoot Scofflaw)

As you may know, I use Goodreads.com to keep track of books I want to read. They have a handy feature where you can set how many books you’d like to read in a year. I’ve been able to use that to stay motivated and keep up with some good (and bad) titles. Do any of you do something similar – whether in Goodreads or just on a list somewhere? What are your goals?

One of the last books I read in 2017 was about the Basque country. There was a good section about Basque eating clubs. Actually, the whole book was good, but I keep dwelling on the clubs. There’s a good article about the same in last month’s Saveur magazine (link here – warning the site is slow as shit). I really want to set up a similar club, but I’m not sure how I’d be able to pull it off.

Maybe I should set up a monthly dinner group instead and rotate restaurants and brainstorm ideas? My girlfriend has a monthly girls’ dinner that she does with some friends so whenever she plans it I get reminded of this.

Do any of you have a regular standing dinner with groups of friends (or a networking group)?

Scoot – the company I like, but with the occasional rider I hate and make fun of- announced plans to add a network of e-bikes to their scooter fleet. That could be very big with a lot of potential. E-bikes are weird, but show a lot of potential to getting people in to bike commuting. I’m always pushing for more bikes.

Speaking of Scoot:

 

Draft Animals: Living the Pro Cycling Dream (Once in a While) – ****

Draft Animals: Living the Pro Cycling Dream (Once in a While)Draft Animals: Living the Pro Cycling Dream by Phil Gaimon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Phil still has the brochacho dick jokes but he spins a good yarn. It was more entertaining than I thought it’d be. It was a bit weird to read this so close to finishing Jens Voigt’s book. It’s like the flip side to that story and because of that feels more real in a way.

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The Box – *****

The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy BiggerThe Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger by Marc Levinson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this but I’m not sure my friends will – but hey, I could be wrong.

I originally wanted to learn about containers themselves and their history because I’m fascinated with how architects and builders use discarded ones.

But this book was all-encompassing and deals with not only the container’s history, but the history of shipping, trucking, trains, economics, unions, city governments, and everyone’s favorite topic: automation and increasing efficiencies in the workplace.

Even the Jones Act comes up and that’s been in the news a lot thanks to the Chief Orangutan and Puerto Rico.

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