One Man Book Club

I've got a number of projects on the go at the moment - one is ripping my vinyl LPs to digital format, and another is to finally read the stockpile of books that I've acquired over the last few years. As you can see from the picture it's quite a collection (and that's not even all of them).

It's quite timely - not buying more books when I already have so many to choose from will definitely save money. Some were gifts from friends but most are ones that I bought myself, and I think that the selection is quite eclectic, taking in nature, philosophy, science, art, architecture, sport and so on (but interestingly not much in the way of fiction). I don't know whether this should be interpreted as the mark of a lively and open mind, or simply as an indication of a short attention span. Maybe I'm some kind of "anti-Renaissance Man"?

The likeliest reason why most of them remained unread until now however is that not that I thought they'd be bad, but that either I'd got more interested at the time in some other topic, or I thought that they would take longer to read than my interest would sustain. But I've been pleasantly surprised and encouraged by how much I've enjoyed what I've read so far.

I think I'm making reasonable progress - so far I've averaged about a book a week over the last six weeks - so we'll see how the project goes. It's certainly good to doing something that's both educational and economically prudent.

On Yer Bike

If you're a fairweather cyclist like me then you'll know that every year there comes a time when the days lengthen and the sun is shining and you look out of the window and start to think, "Hmm. Maybe I should get my bike out again." Well, for me in 2009, today was that day.

The first part of the process is always to get the bike into the yard, clean it up (fortunately I'd actually cleaned it properly at the end of last year), pump up the tyres, check the gears and brakes, and lubricate the moving parts. Being a strictly part-time cyclist, I'm ashamed to say that I always look to do the bare minimum - this time the gears seemed okay but the brakes were a feeling bit (ahem) "soft", so I adjusted the brake blocks to add some more "immediacy" to the braking.

My bike is getting pretty old now, so there are always a few minor niggles, and things that squeak gently as I pedal along (still a few more adjustments needed). I suppose bikes age a bit like people do. When I took it to get serviced about a year ago, the guy in the shop told me it should be "condemned", but it can't have been that bad - after all, it got me the 90+ miles from Warrington to Chesterfield one weekend a few months later.

Anyway, it was a great evening for cycling - sunny, with a slight breeze and a hint of coolness (a little reminder that winter hasn't gone completely yet). I picked probably the worst time of day to cycle through Warrington, but once I got onto the back roads it was much quieter. I love the sense of freedom that I get from cycling, and how aware I am of my surroundings. On a sunny spring evening is there any better feeling? (Well, probably - but it's still pretty damn good.)

I like to cycle with an end in mind, so I decided I'd go out to Moore Nature Reserve. Moore is a village just outside Warrington, and I'd cycled through it for several summers going to and from work but had never been to the nature reserve. Somewhat ironically the road leading to the reserve is also used quite heavily as an access road for a haulage depot, but it's actually very nice once you get into the woods, with several ponds and various paths through the trees. Unfortunately it turned out not to be particularly well-suited for cyclists, since most of the paths are for walkers only. I still got some nice photos (my favourites are probably the sun over the lake and an interesting "frog crossing" sign) but I think I need to come back another time with my walking boots. (In the meantime you can see the pictures in my "Around Warrington 2008-9" Flickr set.)

After that I meandered back to Warrington with a few detours on the way - firstly to see Appleton reservoir (which looks like a great place to swim, even though it's not allowed), and then along part of the Mersey to try and get a look at the Warrington Transporter Bridge. The bridge is another relic from the town's industrial past (read about it on Wikipedia), but I wasn't really able to get very close to it this evening.

Finally, after all that it was time to head home for dinner. I'm not sure how my legs will feel tomorrow morning - but now that my bike is back on the road, I'm looking forward to more cycling in the days to come.