Reading has been a VERY important part of my life ever since I was a youngster. I recall when I was a pre-teen living in Cliffside Park, walking down Palisades Avenue to the public library with my younger brother Stephen, checking out books with little rocket icons on the binding. I’ve been reading regularly ever since, and also spending a lot of time writing about what I’ve read.

What I read depends on my mood. The primary part of my reading consists of SCIENCE FICTION which, contrary to what a lot of “nonbelievers” think, is not a type of fiction but an umbrella term encompassing many types of speculative fiction: alternate history, fantasy, future history, speculative science and technology, futuristic adventures, etc. What you see in the movies or on television is generally part of the “futuristic adventure” sub-genre, since that’s about as deep as movie producers are capable of thinking.

Currently I’m in the mood to read some “world-building,” which consists of stories set in imagined future societies, sometimes set on Earth, often on other worlds, usually populated with alien beings. Such stories can be amazingly detailed scientifically (Hal Clement’s MISSION OF GRAVITY), politically (Ursula K Le Guin’s THE DISPOSSESSED), culturally (C.J. Cherryh’s BROTHERS OF EARTH), historically (Frank Herbert’s DUNE series), ecologically (Kim Stanley Robinson's MARS series), biologically (Ursula K. Le Guin’s THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS) or almost any other way imaginable. When done well, they can be as thought-provoking as they are entertaining.

Any of the books mentioned above are recommended reading for readers interested in serious speculative fiction. What I’m reading right now though is Jack Vance’s THE GREY PRINCE, an offshoot of my enjoyment in reading his TRULLION.

CURRENT LISTENING: The Kinks’ CELLULOID HEROES, their best songs from the first half of the 1970s. Combined with their KINK KRONIKLES (best of the late 60s) and COME DANCING (mid-70s through mid-80s), they provide perhaps the best extended set of rock music of any artist ever!