Primetime bar work might seem like the busiest of all possible professions, with no time for thinking, let alone reading. But those hours in the middle of the day, as the rummies and regulars shuffle in and out, leave a lot of room for a good book. So, what are they reading?


SHEILA
Where she presides:     Quartino, NoHo
Favorite drink:                 Smithees
Right now I’m reading The Interpretation of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. It’s very well written — a short story collection. They’re all about being Indian American, and the conflict of cultures. Excellent stuff. I’m also reading a bunch of material by Alan Ayckbourn — the 70s British playwright. Basically, I’m just reading him because I feel like I ought to.

MIKE
Where he presides:     Grand Saloon, Murray Hill
Favorite drink:               Bud in a bottle
I’ve been reading High Times and Playboy lately. It’s true — my subscriptions to all my other magazines have lapsed, but these two are still coming. There’s an interview in Playboy this month with the guy who founded the UFC — Ultimate Fighting Championships. I’m a fan of that, so that was pretty interesting. And I look at all the pictures of the naked girls.

MARTY
Where he presides:     Bleecker St. Bar, NoHo
Favorite drink:              Beer
I just finished Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer. It’s about a young man’s journey into the Alaskan wilderness. No, it’s not a very happy ending. He makes it home... but in a body bag. Basically, the kid’s dad took him camping and hiking a lot when he was young, and then he started reading some Russian literature about how evil technology and society can be. He vows to leave it all behind. But in the end, he can’t survive. The end is very poignant, and you realize there was more to him than just being a dumb, naive kid.  

SARA
Where she presides:     CBGB, Bowery
Favorite drink:                 Lemon drop martini
I don’t have much time to read. I just finished The Da Vinci Code and the prequel, which made me want to read The Illuminati, because I hear it’s much better. Let’s see, I also read the new Gabriel Garcia Marquez recently. In Memory Of My Melancholy Whores. What else. Well, I’m going on tour with my band soon, so I’ll probably bring along the latest Tom Robbins. Maybe E.K. Ross On Death and Dying, too. I’m also looking for a really good feminist book. It can be fiction or theory — I don’t care — as long as it’s good. Oh, I also want to read some stuff by Grace Metalious, the Peyton Place author. I just read a Vanity Fair article on her, investigating whether she wrote with a feminist agenda or just for her own sake. I’d like to make up my own mind.