In 2014 Dorian Anderson left a research career to see as many North American bird species as possible in one year, traveling only by bicycle. His memoir tracks the ride and his recovery.

Readical Key Points

• A memoir of the first North American Big Year done entirely by bicycle: 17,830 miles and 618 species in 2014
• Content note: also addresses the author's addiction to alcohol and drugs and his recovery; a personal account, not a treatment guide
• Paperback, 272 pages, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2023

A Big Year is a birder's year-long race to record the most species, and Anderson rides his, from Snowy Owls near Boston to Yellow-footed Gulls at California's Salton Sea. The hazards are real: bad weather, road traffic, mechanical trouble and injury. Along the way he looks back at a long stretch in which academic success and substance use ran side by side, beginning in high school.

It suits birders and cyclists, readers of adventure and recovery memoirs, and anyone curious about what a Big Year asks of a person. Each bird on the list doubles as a mile marker on a longer road.

About the Author

Dorian Anderson holds a doctorate in developmental genetics and molecular cell biology from New York University and trained at Stanford, Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital. He has since worked as a birding guide, writer and public speaker.

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