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Motorcycle Book Store > Motorcycle books beginning with S
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The Shovel Revival: A Motorcycle Manifesto |
Author: Zephyros Major
Published: 2007-07-24 |
List price: $9.95
Our price: $9.95
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As of: May 17th, 2008 06:09:30 AM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Don't Waste Your Money
After years of reading reviews on Amazon, many helping me to determine if I would buy a particular book or not, I feel compelled to write my first review for a book I'm sure most will never know about or read, but after spending $10 on this I figure I would let other people decide if they should waste their money.
Now I'm no writer as can be seen in this review, so I'll just say that I couldn't have said it any better than Matt Holman did with his review on February 6th. But that being said I just wanted to add a few things.
This book is 43 pages long, 3 of those pages are blank, 14 of those pages have some kind of picture on it that takes up at least half or more of the page. Lets just say they take up half of the page, so we'll say 7 full pages have pictures and no words. So 43 - 3 (Empty Pages) - 7 (Full pages with pictures) leaves us 33 actual pages to read. NOW I know most Manifestos are not very long, but compound on that, that some of the pages we have out of the 33 only have writing on half of the page, you are left with roughly 25 full pages of text to read. 25 pages for $10, your really getting your moneys worth here.
This book was so bad it took me 3 nights of picking it up, reading as much as I could before I had to put it down to read something that had some substance to it. 3 nights to read 25 pages. BUT I had to read it cause I bought it and refused to give up.
Yes, for many the true motorcycle "BIKER" culture is long gone.
I grew up with a Motorcycle riding father in the 60's and 70's and experienced what the motorcycle culture was all about. I knew when I got my license at the age of 17 that I would have a motorcycle soon thereafter. I started riding full time in the mid 80's. The culture as far as I could see was alive and well back then.
I started reading "Iron Horse" magazine around 92-93 which was at the direction of David Snow. David along with Fritz and Genghis and the Piss Peas were the true iteration of what the biker culture was all about to me. True bikers working and building their own bikes along with Mom and Pop run dealerships fighting against the takeover of the factory which was trying and succeeded in turning them all into new SUPER dealerships where you can get all the doodads you need to look and feel like a REAL BIKER.
If you want to find out what being a Biker was all about then do yourself a favor and find some back issues from the years 91-97 when David was part of the mag. Don't waste your money on this book.
I bought this book after reading a positive review in the mag that took over "Iron Horse", but much like the inferior writing (Besides GTP) that's in the new magazine now, I should have known better than believe the review.
This book is by no means fascinating. If by fascinating you mean mindless rantings that leave you wondering what the heck he is talking about...then yes this book is for you. Otherwise don't waste your money like I did.
DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK!
I could barely make it throught the short 43 pages of wannabe, philosiphical, hypocritical BS. Mindless wanderings, judgemental stereotypes, and did I mention hypocritical. If you worked one honest hour in your life to pay for this book, you will be sorely disappointed! What a wasted of time!
shovel review
I really did not care for the book. It is a good thing that it was not more than $10.
 beautiful book, beautiful sentiment, but...
What a fascinating read. The author discusses some differences between what it is to be a "biker," and to be a "consumer." The implication is that if you are making payments to the Motor Company to be "biker," you may have missed the boat. I don't know...however I think the ideas written down deserve a hearing. Part of the reason I ride is that the act of riding itself is meditative for me - I can do nothing else but ride, it requires my full attention and after a long day I am always amazed at how rested I am. Can this be done on a Yamaha? Only on a Harley? Or only with a bike that I built with my own hands? I beg to differ...in order to become a "biker" one has to start somewhere and part of having membership in the "culture," is having the courage to make mistakes (including buying overpriced brand name merchandise), owning those mistakes and learning from them. There doesn't seem to be much allowance in this manifesto for the new rider seeking to find his or her experience. That is the price the author pays for having an opinion. Regardless, the book is well worth the money.
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