The book ambassador with the cargo bike

10,700 kilometers, seven punctures and two accidents lie behind Lennart Schaefer. But when the 27-year-old from Hamburg arrives at the Frankfurt Book Fair on his cargo bike, his valuable cargo is undamaged: eight books. He cycled with them for seven months from the Leipzig Book Fair to the Frankfurt Book Fair - with detours through all 16 German states, where he stopped off at bookshops and schools.

"I've always loved reading and I've always loved cycling," says Schaefer when asked how the idea for his "literary bike tour" came about.

"This book exists. For everyone."

In the fall, Schaefer starts a new job at a publishing house. As a cycling book ambassador, he got into conversation with many people who hardly read. "The conversations often started with the bike and ended with the book."

His biggest insight: "If you ask people: "Do you read?", the answer is almost always: "I don't have the time for that". But reading offers precisely this peace and quiet!" His tip for non-readers who want to become readers: "When people say: 'I'm not a reader', I think they're just missing the right book. This book exists. For everyone."

He himself, however, has read "less in the past seven months than ever before in my life", says Schaefer. Instead, he listened to audiobooks. When the route allowed. Another realization was that a cargo bike is great in cities, but not in the countryside. Once the bike got stuck in the forest. "I had to dig myself a ramp with my breakfast knife."