In celebration of Bicycle Month, National Bike to Work Day — and the launch this summer of New York’s ambitious, highly anticipated bike-share program (10,000 bikes!), here are our top books on cycling. Our friend David Campbell at Cannondale suggests Joe Parkin’s A Dog in a Hat for its gritty, realistic depiction of the life of a professional racer. Paul Steely White, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives was happy to see that we included The Rider by Tim Krabbe, a swiftly paced novel that charts the course of a race over one long day. Just out in paper, Robert Penn’s ode to craftsmanship, It’s All About the Bike, charts his quest to build the ultimate custom cycle. Because it’s as sharp as it is practical and funny, we recommend Just Ride!

1. Just Ride, A Radically Practical Guide to Riding Your Bike • Grant Petersen
SPORT • 2012 • PAPER • 212 PAGES
Bicycle commuter, reformed racer and proprietor of Rivendell Bicycle Works in Walnut Creek California, Grant Petersen means what he says: Just Ride. He covers equipment, health, safety and attitude in 87 short and illustrated, often provocative essays. Number 30: Control Your Quick Release (a major cause of serious incidents). Number 47 Bags, “When I see a bicycle without a bag (or basket) on it, I see a bike that can’t do much beyond moving you down the road, and that’s not enough.” The man has a point.! Our friend Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives here in New York says, “Grant Petersen Strips Away the BS.” (BCY22, $13.95)

2. Cyclopedia, It’s All About the Bike • William Fotheringham
SPORT • 2011 • HARD COVER • 432 PAGES
If it is on the bike, it is in this book — an A to Z compendium of everything you could ever want to know about the bicycle. From the history of the Tour de France to Chris Hoy’s dominance of the Beijing velodrome, from the origins of the quick-release system to the diet that powered Graeme Obree to the world hour record, from Lance Armstrong’s fabled career to the slang words used for performance-enhancing substances, from the literature of cycling to the perils of vicious dogs. (BCY27, $25.00)

3. It’s All About the Bike, The Pursuit of Happiness on Two Wheels • Robert Penn
SPORT • 2012 • PAPER
A paean to craftsmanship and tradition. En route to building his dream bike (oh, what a brilliant quest!), Robert Penn explores the culture, science and history of the bicycle. (BCY25, $14.00)

4. The Essential Touring Cyclist, A Complete Course for the Bicycle Traveler • Richard A. Lovett
REFERENCE • 2000 • PAPER • 160 PAGES
Whether you’re heading out for five hours or five months, this vividly designed, illustrated, and resource-rich guide to touring delivers. This is both a great introduction for the beginner biker and a useful refresher for experienced cyclists. (BCY01, $16.95)

5. The Noblest Invention, An Illustrated History of the Bicycle • Bicycling Magazine • Lance Armstrong
SPORT • 2003 • HARD COVER • 320 PAGES
With chapters on Why We Ride, What Every Kid Wants, Bicycling Culture, History and The Art of the Cycle, this handsomely illustrated celebration of the bike is more than a simple chronicle of evolution of the bike, it also explores the nature of the deep relationship many a child, and lots of adults too, have with their bikes. With 250 color photographs. (BCY15, $27.95) The Noblest Invention, An Illustrated History of the Bicycle

6. The Rider • Tim Krabbe
LITERATURE • 2003 • PAPER • 148 PAGES
The classic bicycle road racing book first published in 1978 chronicles a 150-kilometer European road race and its competitors in vivid, realistic detail. Matt Seaton picked it out as one of his top cycling books:’ The Rider is a great read and a great ride. Krabbe’s half-day race, delivered kilometer by kilometer onto the page, shows the sport for what it is: painful, exhilarating, tactical, relational, fast, slow, dangerous, consuming, prone to mechanical failure, heroic, futile…’ (BCY32, $14.99)

7. French Revolutions, Cycling the Tour De France • Tim Moore
TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 2003 • PAPER • 277 PAGES
In this ill-advised escapade, British humorist, travel writer — and woefully inexperienced cyclist — Moore (Frost on my Moustache) tackles the Tour de France. His lightweight account is great fun and you can’t help but admire his determination. He didn’t actually compete in the race, but he did finish (several weeks ahead of the actual event) the entire course. Apart from making hilarious fun of himself, Moore includes extended riffs on the history of the race and some its more famous personalities, wacky travelogue, and brief character sketches of headstrong proprietresses and shop clerks. (FRN387, $15.99)

8. It’s Not about the Bike, My Journey Back to Life • Sally Jenkins • Lance Armstrong
BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2001 • PAPER • 304 PAGES
Not just an inspirational account of Armstrong’s battle with cancer, this memoir reveals the athlete’s scrappy youth, coming-of-age, marriage, fatherhood — and a great deal about the elite world of championship cycling. (GEN258, $16.00)

9. Three Men on the Bummel • Jerome Jerome • Jeremy Lewis
TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 2000 • PAPER • 361 PAGES • FAVORITE
Written in 1889, “Three Men in a Boat” (to say nothing of the dog!) is a masterpiece of British wit. It’s a laugh-out-loud account of a man-powered voyage along the River Thames, full of detail on life and lore. This Penguin Classics edition includes both Three Men in a Boat and the sequel, where Jerome is reunited with George, Harris and the dog Montmorency on an equally entertaining bicycle tour of Germany. With an introduction by Jeremy Lewis, who provides the biographical and social context for these two tales. (GBR28, $12.00)

10. The Epiplectic Bicycle • Edward Gorey
LITERATURE • 1998 • HARD COVER • 64 PAGES
Edward Gorey brings his usual wit to this epic tale of a madcap voyage around the world by bicyle. (BCY29, $10.00)