Motorcycle Literature

“[In a car] you’re a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame. On a cycle, the frame is gone. You’re completely in contact with it all. You’re in the scene, not just watching it anymore. And the sense of presence is overwhelming.”

Leave it to NPR to turn the thrill of motorcycles into a discussion on literature.

This episode of Morning Edition features some pretty awesome reads, though. From Hunter S. Thompson’s Hell’s Angels and Guevara’s The Motorcycle Diaries to Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, these classics should be part of everyone’s book collection.

There are also insights from modern motorcycle writers, such as Matthew B. Crawford, who runs a motorcycle repair shop and authored Shop Class as Soulcraft.

It’s not every day you hear dirty, tattooed bikers talking to the radio hosts on NPR. This is an episode not to be missed.

Listen to the full story here:

Vroom, Vroom, Hmmmm: Motorcycles as Literary Metaphor