Read, Ride, Walk

There's a book you've been meaning to read. You might even have a bicycle waiting by the door. What keeps getting in the way?

In Read, Ride, Walk, Lev Topor looks at the small choices that can bring more enjoyment into a distracted day. He writes candidly about getting stuck at a desk, finding his way back to books, and discovering how much a familiar walk can offer when the phone stays in his bag.

The stories wander through London and Cambridge, then farther afield to Buenos Aires, Moscow, New York, Chicago, Miami, Vienna, Berlin, and Tel Aviv. An easy run pauses for squirrels in Hyde Park. In Moscow, reading The Master and Margarita takes on a different feeling; Berlin lends its own atmosphere to a Cold War novel. There are quiet libraries and coffee stops, family outings that don't follow the plan, judo training evenings, and photographs that fail to capture the best part of being there.

Along the way, Lev Topor considers what reading and movement can do for our well-being, without promising perfect habits or an overnight transformation. His central rule is straightforward: leave social media out of the time you've chosen to read, ride, or walk.

Real experiences mingle with invented scenes to protect privacy, as the opening note explains. You can begin with a few pages or a familiar walk, and leave room for the adventures you haven't thought of yet.