When I'm Between Books

Choosing The Next Read
by Marc Berlin

Friends and relatives living in balmier climes often ask: "What do you do up there in Bangor, Maine?"

"I read," I reply.

"Yes, but what do you do when you're not reading?"

Always polite, I respond, pleasantly, "When I'm not reading, I'm looking for a book to read."

I used to follow-up with, "What do you do?" but their blank faces, like commercial television at 4:00 AM (or 8:00 PM), made the question a conversation stopper.

So, when I'm between reads I'm looking for a new read. Resources? I check the latest copy of the New York Review of Books. Wonderful, but when I'm done do I need to read the books? Customer recommendations? Always interesting but like a rotary with too many exit spokes I start to get confused. Where exactly do I want to go?

That's always the question because reading is always a journey: a journey through a mind different from my own. Fiction has the colors of imagination and the possibility of Truth but even the black and white of non-fiction can be an interesting trip.
So where do I want to go? Who do I want leading me?

I'm between books. Hmm…