Reviews for Rivers of Canada

The average rating for Rivers of Canada based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-11-10 00:00:00 Timothy Stone If you don't love motorcycles but you do love books this is the read for you. If you happen to also love motorcycles then this book is doubly satisfying. Author Bishop, a professor of English at the University of Alberta, narrates his tale of a southern road trip from Edmonton to Austin. Bishop is on sabbatical and traveling to the Harry Ransome Center at UT Austin to use that center's magnificent manuscripts collection in furtherance of work on Virginia Woolf. While Woolf gets her due - there's a wonderful description of Bishop reading Woolf's suicide note - so do James Joyce and D.H. Lawrence and cowboy librarians and the Austin music scene and high-end book collectors and motorcycles and books. I've never owned a motorcycle but I came away from this understanding why people ride and also why they read. Recommended.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-07-11 00:00:00 Robert Mendez Edward "Ted" Bishop is an English professor at the University of Alberta, Calgary. He is driven by two impulses: finding primary sources in literary archives and pushing his Ducati Monster to the limits. I found this book to be thoroughly engaging: both his reflections on riding and his stories of research. And, he is a darn good writer. Admittedly this is a niche book; how many people out there want to hear about non-Harley motorcycling AND literary criticism? But he tells the stories soooo well.