Heft on Wheels: A Field Guide to Doing A 180
Author: Mike Magnuson
Take one very large guy. Add booze, cigarettes, and an extreme amount of junk food. Mix in a wry, self-effacing wit. Throw in a bike. The result? Heft on Wheels, a potently funny look at turning your life around, one insanely unrealistic goal at a time.
Not that long ago, Mike Magnuson was a self-described lummox with a bicycle. In the space of three months, he lost seventy-five pounds, quit smoking, stopped drinking, and morphed from the big guy at the back of the pack into a lean, mean cycling machine. Today, Mike is a 175-pound athlete competing in some of the most difficult one-day racing events in America. This irreverent and inspiring memoir charts every hilarious detail of his transformation, from the horrors of skin-tight XXL biking shorts to the miseries of nicotine withdrawal.
Heft on Wheels is an unforgettable book about getting from one place to another, in more ways than one.
Publishers Weekly
Lance Armstrong has shown the world what tremendous athleticism it takes to be a champion cyclist. Now Magnuson weighs in on the sport, from the point of view of a regular guy. The author of Lummox: The Evolution of a Man is a 255-pound, pack-a-day 40-year-old who's desperate to get his life back into shape. And he chooses the challenge of cycling to achieve that, largely because of its total lack of mercy. "I needed the crap beaten out of me," Magnuson explains. So he launches into his own journey, one where he succeeds in spades, drops pounds and quits smoking to become a true road warrior. It's a compelling premise, made all too real by the cover image of a mostly nude, overweight man on a bike. Magnuson approaches the book with that kind of humor, and a rapid pace that mirrors the sport he's fallen in love with. The downfall is that the colloquial fun often drifts into silly superficiality (on reading Samuel Beckett: "I'm like totally wow, blown away, this stuff rocks!"). And although Magnuson, a university creative writing professor, occasionally tries to inject a bit of intellectual heft, dropping in Kafka and Camus references alongside his racing stories, it just never works as a thrilling narrative. This life makeover is an admirable achievement, but doesn't make for great reading. (On sale June 15) Forecast: Cross-promotions with local bike groups nationwide might stir up interest. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
Throughout his adult life, Magnuson (creative writing, Southwestern Illinois Univ.) has used bicycling as a way to deal with his drinking problems. In his compelling memoir, he recounts how, at 250-some pounds, he joined a biking club and over the course of a year became consumed with cycling, training three times a week and ditching his chips-and-beer diet for a healthier lifestyle. His twin obsessions clearly demonstrate the addictive personality of many substance abusers, which pushes them to do things to the extreme. While recuperating from a cycling accident, Magnuson finally realizes a fuller life is one in which exercise, eating, family, and work are in balance; he concludes what all long-term recovering addicts know: "No one in recovery ever recovers. That's why they call it in recovery, meaning it's ongoing, it's not over yet, there is no end game to recover." Highly recommended for both recovery and fitness collections in public and consumer health libraries. Howard Fuller, Stanford Health Lib., Palo Alto, CA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Book about: Short and Sweet or Cooks Companion
The Zen Path Through Depression
Author: Philip Martin
Drawing on his own struggle, Philip Martin reveals another path people can travel to get through depression – one that not only eases the pain, but mends the spirit. Extremely accessible to people with little or no Zen experience as well as to longtime students of Buddhism,The Zen Path Through Depression shows how the insights and exercises of Zen offer relief for those suffering from depression. This groundbreaking guide shows how to cope and heal, and even how to see the experience as an opportunity for spiritual growth and learning. Leading readers step-by-step through a recovery process that uses walking meditation and other meditative ways of enhancing awareness, koans, and other Zen teachings, Martin offers true help and spiritual guidance on the path to healing and contentment.
What People Are Saying
Harold H. Bloomfield
"Philip Martin has written a wise, compassionate, and nurturing guide through the self-oppression of depression."
No comments:
Post a Comment