graphic novels – Jason Toney

January 15, 2018 / 1 Comment

You & a Bike & a Road

“I’m a stranger in a land that’s anything but strange.”—Andrew Bird, Saints Preservus

I took my bike to the shop the other day. I haven’t ridden in over a year. It has a flat. It’s been locked up outside through rain and ash, and whatever other weather has come our way during that time.

I’m inspired to get back on and start pedaling away again. Eleanor Davis’s You & a Bike & a Road (2017, Kayoma Press) is the spark. It’s the story of her bike tour from Arizona to Georgia told by the illustrations she made along the way. It’s about perseverance and depression and kindness.

It’s a story about the people in our border states and the complicated realities of those crossing into the US without documents and those paid to stop them.

It’s one woman’s incredible journey, weeks long, by herself with just her bicycle, the open road, and the people—friends, family, and strangers alike—in her corner along the way.

The idea of a long bike tour doesn’t interest me. Especially one through unfamiliar parts of these United States. I don’t have faith those same strangers would treat me with the openness and compassion that she found throughout. I may be wrong about that but I’m not willing to chance it.

I do love getting up to speed on my bike, though, feeling the wind going with me, and just slicing through neighborhoods regardless of my destination. It’s been too long since I’ve done that.

It’s been too long since I’ve joined a cicLAvia.

It’s been too long since I’ve just awoken on a weekend morning and decided to ride. Just me, my bike, and the road.

It’ll be ready at the shop on Thursday.

Just in time.

December 30, 2014 / 0 Comments

29 in 52: What I read in 2014

“People with so much to say but I’m only hearing the words that you left me with on that day.” – Mary J. Blige, Nobody but You

I thought I had read a lot more this year than last because I’ve spent the entire year commuting by LA public transit but because of Serial and my new interest in podcasts, I’ve spent the last month listening rather than reading so I’m only five books up on last year. Boo. There’s too much media to consume.

I read a lot of good stuff this year, particularly in the first three months. I wrote about Americanah and Urban Tumbleweeds in January both of which are still among the most memorable. I finally read Kindred which somebody should make into a film. That time travel story was after I read 11/22/63 which is Stephen King’s excellent novel around the same concept. I love a good time travel tale.

I read a grip of graphic novels this year. The Manhattan Projects and Saga and Hawkeye continue to be great fun. I also read Winter Soldier and Days of Future Past after seeing the movies. On friend recommendation, I checked out Ms. Marvel and Lazarus and was not disappointed. On Amazon recommendation, I read The Wicked + Divine, Black Science, FBP, Velvet, and Sex Criminals and all of those were entertaining and often gorgeous to look at. Image is really hitting it out the park right now.

I think my favorite book of the year, though, was Hatching Twitter by Nick Bilton. The service dominates my every day. It’s birth (and the tools and people that spawned it) coincide with my own growth and participation in our digital culture. I was at those South Bys. In some ways, its history feels a bit like my own history. #relatable

It’s also just a damn good read. I devoured it and wanted to talk about it to anyone who had also read or cared.

I also recommend (in no particular order)

Also, books I acquired this year but have yet to read/finish reading

December 24, 2013 / 0 Comments

The Story-Reading Animal

“All you ever did was break me.” – Miley Cyrus, Wrecking Ball

I read 24 books over the past 52 weeks. And, as usual, it’s hard to select a favorite one. I only read for pleasure so if I don’t like a book, I don’t finish it. If I do finish one, I found the experience quite enjoyable.

The Storytelling Animal by Jonathan Gottschall–which I added to my queue on an endorsement from Brain Pickings–was my most highlighted book of the year and this was my favorite line:

Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories.

So, if I were to recommend a book I read this year, it would be that one.

These are the other reads from this year that I’d suggest to others

I read others but these are the ones that left a mark.