Book Deliveries by Bike, Now Available in Vienna

For book lovers who loathe online shopping—or just want to support local businesses rather than a certain conglomerate with a jungle-themed name—there’s an Austrian start-up that offers same-day deliveries via bicycle.

Granted, in its trial form it is an extremely small operation. Lobu, as it’s called, was launched by two high-school students in Vienna, one a self-described Kafka fan and the other a connoisseur of the kind of wisdom only available from erudite, wizened booksellers. The process is simple: Send over a text message with your desired tome (title or ISBN), and one of the students will purchase it from a nearby bookstore and pedal it furiously to your door. If the book’s not available, it will typically be delivered in a day or two.