Serotta Forum Book Library (SFBL)

[David Kirk]

The weather is cold and it gets dark early so it's reading season.... at least until the snow flies. So here's an idea. I have some cycling related books that I've read and enjoyed and they have been sitting on the bookshelf for a few years now and I know I'll never read them again. I could donate them to the local public library but I doubt they would get much use.

So I want to make the first deposit into the SFBL. Here's how I picture it working. Someone says they want a book and I (you) send it to them absolutely free of charge and with only one stipulation - that after the book it read that it's posted as available and sent free of charge to the next person and wants to read the book.

Anyone can add books to the list and anyone can borrow them. The lender will send them out never expecting to get them back but just expecting that the borrower will send it off to the next person and so and and so forth. If you get a book and for whatever reason don't pass it on but keep it for yourself you'll be generating bad ju-ju and you will be openly and publicly mocked.

Cool?

I have 6 books that I'll put on the list. Five of them are a series so I'll send the whole pile off to the first person and as they read them they can send them out until they are all gone. The first five are "Cycling Murder Mysteries" by Greg Moody. I've read them and enjoyed them. Not high literature but fun nonetheless. They are - in order

Two Wheels
Perfect Circles
Derailleur
Dead Roll
Dead Air

The 6th book is It's not about the bike by Lance Armstrong.


So contact me if you want to borrow and pass on any of this and please look at your own bookshelves and see what you want to add the list.

Reading is FUNdamental.

Dave

[maunahaole]

Bump.

Good idea DK. I'll have a title to add to the list when it arrives at my door. Description to follow.

[Pete Serotta]

Thanks DAVE....

[Lifelover]

Might need to make this a Sticky.

I barely ever read so I DO NOT want all 5 mystery books sent to me at once.
However, I'll take the first one from whoever gets the set.

PM me when you are done with it.

[David Kirk]

The Mysteries are gone. Who wants the Lance book?

dave

[sbornia]

Excellent idea DK. I have four great cycling-related travel essay books, which I'll share after I give them another read. For now, I have copies of what was listed above:

Derailleur
Perfect Circles
LA - It's Not About the Bike
LA - Every Second Counts

I may also have "Two Wheels" somewhere around here, stay tuned if I find it.

[rounder]

I think it's a great idea. I have some good bike books that others would like. Maybe down the road, other book/music/media types.

[Dekonick]

Great idea! I have a TON of paperbacks. Rather than list them, how about some peeps put in requests and if I have one, Ill send it.

Let me think of what all I have...

Some of the unusual books that might be enjoyed by this crowd...

The Wye Oak (book about a tree - the Wye Oak - the oldest oak in MD - but it is now gone as it fell over a few years back in a storm)
now, don't expect high drama here, this is literally the history of a tree...now gone. This is somewhere in my shed, but I will find it if there is any interest.

The Beautiful Swimmer - fantastic book about the Chesapeake bay, and the life of watermen (fishermen on the bay are called watermen here...) and the blue crab. It is a bit out of date, but makes an excellent read if I do say so myself...

Ill have to dig around and see what else I have...

[William]

You know, I had a similar thought about a week ago. My only other thought on this is that I felt it would also be cool to have the folks who read and pass it on sign their name or forum name inside the cover. A running forum history.

I'll add to the list when I get home later...I have some cycling related books to donate as well.





William

[Elefantino]

I have these:

The Death of Marco Pantani
The Rider
French Revolutionists
Every Second Counts

[gomez308]

I've got Ten Points by Bill Strickland.

Great idea Dave

[MarleyMon]

Be sure to ship using the USPS' library rate or media rate - its really cheap.
Good for all books, cd/dvd media.

[Keith A]

Great idea! A sticky indeed :)

[fierte_poser]

Great idea! I have a TON of paperbacks. Rather than list them, how about some peeps put in requests and if I have one, Ill send it.

Let me think of what all I have...

Some of the unusual books that might be enjoyed by this crowd...

The Wye Oak (book about a tree - the Wye Oak - the oldest oak in MD - but it is now gone as it fell over a few years back in a storm)
now, don't expect high drama here, this is literally the history of a tree...now gone. This is somewhere in my shed, but I will find it if there is any interest.

The Beautiful Swimmer - fantastic book about the Chesapeake bay, and the life of watermen (fishermen on the bay are called watermen here...) and the blue crab. It is a bit out of date, but makes an excellent read if I do say so myself...

Ill have to dig around and see what else I have...

Dekonick,

Those sound like great books, but I think the intent is to keep it to cycling related content only...

Kent

[Dekonick]

I figured as much, but there are some folks here who have eclectic taste like mine... so the odd books I figured I would offer up...

[Elefantino]

The Marco Pantani book now has four people waiting for it:

gomez308
srenda
David Kirk
Keith A

It'll be worth the wait. Depressing, but worth the wait. And it's a quick read.

[William]

Available:

The Death of Marco Pantani
Miguel Indurain: Life on Wheels
Metal Cowboy: Tales from the road less pedaled


Currently reading: Heroes, Villians & Velodromes.



William

[fierte_poser]

Methinks we need a better way to track the books and make known what is available besides a super duper long thread.

How about a semi-private wiki page/spreadsheet that any serotta forum member can edit as new books become added to the library with a linked list of sorts to show what book is headed where?

Any web programming types out there?

[rounder]

Dave,

It's a good idea. It doesn't need to be debated. Go ahead and start and those who want will follow.

[paulandmonster]

bruyneels book its a good quick read. i will loan it out you just have to be careful with it

[David Kirk]

Methinks we need a better way to track the books and make known what is available besides a super duper long thread.

How about a semi-private wiki page/spreadsheet that any serotta forum member can edit as new books become added to the library with a linked list of sorts to show what book is headed where?

Any web programming types out there?

Good Idea!

Run with it.

dave

[taz-t]

Here's a list of books I have available:

http://velomoo.blogspot.com/2007/07/book-swap.html

Only a couple are cycling related but if you see something you'd like to read (or have something interesting) let me know.

- taz

[rounder]

Good Idea!

Run with it.

dave

Dave,

I really like the idea of sharing bike books with others. I have some good bike books that others would probably like to read and i would like to share, but would like to get them back at some point. Could that be accomodated somehow. I was thinking that if there were a list maintained of all the books in circulation and where they currently were, then maybe they could be returned to the original owner at some point. I know that is not what you originally intended but you might get more good books in circulation. BTW, not trying to make your excellent idea unnecessarily complicated.

Also, like the idea of all the readers signing off to give a history of who read them.

[fierte_poser]

Guys, I am working on setting up a SFBL wikipage right now. It will track what books are available, who the owner is, who currently holds the book, when it was shipped to that individual, and who is on the waiting list.

I will send out more info once its ready. Could be tonight...tomorrow night is more likely. Should be cool! :beer:

[fierte_poser]

Dave is helping with a trial of the wikipage. Stay tuned.

Kent

[bostondrunk]

It would be a better idea with a slight modification....
Instead of books, lets use Dave Kirk frames.
Dave sends out 5 framesets (I think we can all agree that 54cm is a good size for them). We use them for a few months, then send them to the next person... :beer:

[William]

No interest?



William

[Keith A]

Okay, put me first in line for the 54cm frame with a 55cm top tube :banana:

[David Kirk]

Guys, I am working on setting up a SFBL wikipage right now. It will track what books are available, who the owner is, who currently holds the book, when it was shipped to that individual, and who is on the waiting list.

I will send out more info once its ready. Could be tonight...tomorrow night is more likely. Should be cool! :beer:

I think you should go ahead and run with your idea. I really like it and I have too many sticks in the fire to spend too much time with the idea.

Take the initial idea and run with it and make it whatever you want it to be.

Thanks so much.

Dave

[fierte_poser]

Hi all,

Its ready! We'll work through the technical difficulties as we go. :)

The main wiki page is here:

http://sfbl.wikidot.com/

First, create a wikidot user account. **PLEASE** use your Serotta forum username for your wikidot account. Second, join the sfbl wikisite. I have enabled joining by secret password.

The secret password is: meivici

There is only one page on the wikisite: Cycling Book Library. You can access it from the side menu or from the link off of the make wikipage.

The Cycling Book Library page is where all the excitement happens. :D Here are some of the super fun things you can do on the Cycling Book Library page:

1) Add a new book to the Cycling Book Library: Click 'edit' at the bottom of the page. Add a new row to the table. Its easy! Just follow the format of the wikidot table!

2) Add your name to the waiting list for a particular book: Click 'edit' at the bottom of the page. Find the book you want to be on the waiting list for. Add you name by adding an underscore followed by a carriage return followed by your [user]name to the 'Waiting List' field. Just follow the example in 'The Death of Marco Pantani' row of the table.

Try it out! I think it should work out great. The only thing is that you should 'edit' the page and then 'save' the page to complete your changes. Two people cannot 'edit' the library page at the same time, so we may have some 'edit' clashes in these early stages as the library gets populated with books. Please be patient.

Finally, please let me know if you have any questions!

Regards,
Kent

[fierte_poser]

1) If you have listed a book in this thread, _please_ go over and add it to the wikipage now! If it has already been sent out, please indicate who the current holder is and when it was shipped to them.

2) Please use the Serotta Forum private message system to request users actual names and addresses for shipping!

Thanks!
Kent

[gomez308]

Kent,

Thanks for making the page. I added a book and it took a couple of minutes to figure it out. Hope I did it right.

[William]

I posted a few on there as well. Seems to have come out alright. I see someone listing for one of my books but no pm yet with address.


Thyanks for setting that up. :cool:


William

[fierte_poser]

Looks great guys!

If you could do me a favor...if you are the owner of the book and it hasn't been lent out yet, please list yourself as the 'Holder'. Thanks!

Kent

[rounder]

Good job on the library page.

[rounder]

Hi. Just visited the library and wanted to add a few books. I know how to add a new row, but was not sure how to enter the data into the fields. Do i just type it in and let the spacing take care of itself, or is it necessary to enter characters to separate the fields. need help!!

[fierte_poser]

rounder,

The simple answer is just copy the entire line of text for an existing entry and then paste it to the end of the table. Then edit the cell contents as appropriate.

For example, click on 'edit' at the bottom of the page, then copy this line:

|| French Revolutions || Tim Moore || 2001 || Elefantino || Elefantino || ??? || ||

Then paste it at the end, then edit the fields. The double vertical bar (||) is the column separator.

The only place it gets tricky is when you want to add your name to a waiting list, where you need to do something fancy like this:

|| The Death of Marco Pantani || Matt Rendell || 2006|| Elefantino || gomez308 || 11/7 || srenda _
David Kirk _
Keith A ||

Note the _<carriage return> fanciness between the folks on the waiting list!

If you want to know all about wikidot tables, look here:

http://www.wikidot.com/doc:wiki-syntax#toc27

Peace,
Kent

[rounder]

Kent,

I'm in. Thanks. What happens if someone screws up and accidently messes up and deletes/ruins everything. Can it be restored?? Just wondering.

[fierte_poser]

Yes, wikidot has full 'revision control' which means I can go in (as the admin of the page) and revert to an earlier saved copy of the table.

[gomez308]

I've finished the Greg Moody books from Mr. Kirk. Anyone else interested??

[William]

Jeez, I forgot all about this. There really needs to be some sort of sticky.



William

[David Kirk]

Hey,

I have the Pantani book ready to pass on to whoever is next and I can't get the wiki page to work.

Let me know who's next and I'll put it in the mail ASAP.

Dave

[Keith A]

Dave -- I don't know if I was next or not, but I'd like to read this one. I'll see I can get the wiki to work for me.

Update again: I figured out which book you had and it looks like I'm the next one in line for this book :banana:

[fierte_poser]

I fixed up the page a bit. Here's a summary:

1) Elefantino's copy of The Death of Marco Pantani is leaving David Kirk's hands and is headed to Keith A.

2) gomez308 is ready to ship out the Greg Moody mystery books to the next person...it could be you! First come, first serve.

3) I'm not sure where William's copy of the The Death of Marco Pantani is at right now...William, did you ship it to clweed?

4) There are still lots of great books that no one has checked out of the library!

Thanks,
Kent
http://sfbl.wikidot.com

[rwsaunders]

FWIW.....I posted a new book on the Wiki....."Push Yourself Just a Little Bit More". The author is a gent by the name of Johnny Green, a former road manager of The Clash.

Johnny gets hooked on pro cycling late in life and follows Le Tour in 2003, via a press pass that he copped from a friend. The language is not for kids, but he intersperses his impression of Le Tour and France with a bit of cycling history and his analogies to life on the road with a rock band. Not bad reading.