Here’s a nice notebook to record all your musings and rants.
It’s $14.50, 144 pages and measures 8.25″ x 6″.
And available for online purchase at Portland’s beloved Powells Books.

powells.com

I really love this book. It’s like a mash-up of Richard Scarry books with some mod sensibility. It’s very witty with something to puzzle over on every page. And yes, a scooter plays a prominent role.

Here’s the description from Amazon:
“In a distinctive oversize package and illustrated with Joëlle Jolivet’s signature retro, eye-catching style, Oops! follows a family through the streets of Paris as they try to get to the airport for their vacation. Back at their apartment, their house-sitting aunt slips on some soap, setting off a chain reaction of events that create some extreme roadblocks for the family’s trip. A movie shoot, a parade, policemen, rampaging bears, aliens, and much more collide in this remarkable new picture book adventure. The book includes a gatefold page at the end that explains in detail the train of chaos on the previous pages.”

amazon.com

He’s a very generous sheep on a scooter though! In this picture only kids book our sheep shaves off his own wool, dyes it and then has it made into a sweater for a friend. Drawn by illustrator Sylvia Van Ommen. An extreme cuteness factor of 10.

Thanks to Cassie M. for this find!

“The Surprise” at Amazon.com

Of course not all sheep are so willing to give up their wool. For your viewing pleasure I give you the story of Shrek the Sheep:

Shrek on the BBC

Elaine Biss is a designer focused on French culture/couture. Her scooter art can be purchased through the zazzle.com site. The sterling silver charm is $59.90, the binder is $41.90 and the bag is $19.90.

Thanks to Julie G. for this find.

zazzle.com

This journal is designed by collage artist Clare Goddard and features an old Lambretta (on a Paulig coffee trading card) as well as vintage train tickets, road maps, postmarks from faraway lands, and other travel ephemera. Inside is lined pages for writing, plus a stash of graph paper for drawing up top-secret plans. Its size is 5.25 x 7.25″. And it’s on sale now for $14.00 and it looks like it’s just $2 on all orders in the States. For more Paulig coffee trading card goodness, visit this recent post .

journalsandbooks.com

Not sure how we missed this, but Peter Moore came out with a second book in 2009 after his “Vroom With A View” book in 2005. This time he’s travels through Southern Italy on a slightly newer Vespa — an orange Rally 200. It’s available as a paperback and on the Kindle reader.

Here’s an excerpt:

“For one thing the map in my guidebook hadn’t indicated that most of the streets in Palermo were one way. In the case of my chosen route, heading in the wrong direction. Nor did it indicate that on Saturdays all the lanes around the hotel were closed and filled with stalls of the weekly Balerò market. When I finally got within a block of the Cortese my way was blocked by hundreds of stalls, tightly packed together under a sea of tatty canvas umbrellas, selling plastic colanders, big pants and the occasional slab of freshly caught tuna.
In most places the lanes I had planned to ride along had shrunk to a tiny pathway so narrow that people had to shuffle sideways to get through. Occasionally the produce from a particular stall overflowed onto that pathway and people were forced to jump over a pile of artichokes or melons. I was only a couple of hundred metres from the hotel so I decided to chain Marcello to a pole, lug my bag the rest of the way and retrieve him at the end of the day when the market had closed.
Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a guy on a scooter ride into the mass of stalls and negotiate his way through the scrum of people. I expected him to be abused, maybe even set upon, but people stepped aside and let him through. The owners of the stalls that overflowed onto the path even shifted their produce momentarily so he could pass. I thought the rider must have been a one-off – a market official, perhaps, collecting stall fees. But over the next few minutes at least half a dozen other scooter riders plunged into the chaotic scrum of market stalls. So I decided to give it a go myself.
That’s the beauty of a Vespa. It’s not much wider than a person and not nearly as tall. In theory, any-where a human can go a Vespa can too.”

Oh I can almost feel the sun on my face. Summer, where the heck are you?

“Vroom By the Sea” at Amazon.com

This hoodie is on sale for £10 so it might even be worth it for some State-side Haynes Manual devotees to order it. Type in “scooter” to see what else this site has to offer.

Thanks to Alice D. for this find!

sportsdirect.com

An educational book with a scooter on it? I’m so on it! Just $22.79 at Amazon:

“Renowned author and journalist Sheila McLeod Arnopoulos uses her talent for investigative reporting to take us deep into the poorest villages in India. Yet, far from being passive victims of their circumstances, the women who live there-often illiterate, yet possessing outstanding leadership skills-have joined forces and are making astute use of microcredit to break the cycle of poverty. Microcredit was launched by Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus (for which he won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize), and consists of very small loans made primarily to women for the production of essential commodities or to start small businesses. Based on a number of trips to India between 2001 and 2008, Arnopoulos shows her sense of solidarity and desire for authenticity by sharing the daily life of these villagers of all different ages. However, the first-person account of her extensive travels-on foot, in a rickshaw, by bus or train-focuses primarily on these women’s inspiring success stories.”

Thanks to Cassie for this find!

Saris on Scooters

Or maybe she was the dumper. In either case, this book has a cute scooter on the cover.

Thanks to Julie G. for this find!

Rebound Rituals: 50 Ways to Bounce Back After Breaking Up

Having trouble finding the exact right scooter coin bank? Need to find a scooter book that even Amazon doesn’t have? Both Mini Mod Designs and Scooter Products Co. have a long list of swag scores. Check ‘em out.

Thanks to Glen B. and Julie G. for cluing me in on these sites.

Minimoddesigns.co.uk

Scooterproducts.com