Chicago Book Bike -- Drama with Happy Ending

I've covered Chicago's Book Bike before. Apparently there was some recent controversy, which has been resolved. The park where Jason distributed free books was concerned about who would vouch for him and the Chicago Public Library came to the rescue. See the article in the Chicago news. See more on the Book Bike Blog.

Book Bike at Chicago Banned Books Event

Gabe Levinson and his Book Bike has been giving books away in Chicago parks for the past two summers. See earlier post. This year, he was invited to be a part of a Chicago Banned Books Read-Out on September 26, 2009.

The Book Bike

While searching Google for images, I searched "book bike" remembering an image from years ago that had a bike rider with back baskets full of books. An article popped up on Google dated August 27, 2008 with the heading "The Book Bike: One man's quest to put random books in random people's hands, randomly." An accompanying photo showed a cart that appeared to be attached to the front portion of a bicycle. It looked like the cart expanded or opened up with display shelves. Better than an ice cream cart at a park on a sunny day.

Apparently, on Saturdays Gabe Levinson peddles his Book Bike to ramdom locations within the city of Chicago and gives away books. Unlike a public library book mobile, the Book Bike gives away books with no expectation of getting them back. No library card required. The article refers to the Book Bike website. Between July 5 and December 2008, the Book Bike has given away 700+ new books. How fun!