“Between the Lines: Stories From The Underground” — What New Yorkers Read

Holiday greetings from New York

Happy holidays to all who celebrate! 🎄

We’re spending the holidays in New York this year, so this book recommendation is inspired by the city:“Between the Lines: Stories from the Underground” by German-American author Uli Beutter Cohen.

This book is essentially a compilation of the well-known Instagram account Subway Book Review, which was active until 2022. I started following the Instagram account first and picked up the book afterward.

Beutter Cohen began conducting short interviews with New Yorkers on the subway in 2014, asking them to share what book they were reading on the train. This question often evolved into deeper conversations about life.

The book is divided into short chapters, each featuring the names of the interviewed commuters (sometimes accompanied by a photo), the station where Uli met them, the book they had with them, and a brief interview about the book and their life.

It’s brilliant because, after reading several interviews, you feel as though you’re the one having conversations with all these different people in New York. “Between the Lines” feels like meeting a lot of people in a short span of time.

By the end of the book, it does get a tiny bit repetitive, and some interviews are clearly pre-arranged (Uli interviews some more prominent people like artists and comedians), which makes them feel less natural.

But it’s a fantastic book that feels like taking a walk through the streets of Brooklyn and Manhattan — or revisiting them if you’ve been there before.

I never post book reviews without a beer recommendation. Books and beers — that’s what I do.

Today’s beer is an ale I had a few years ago in Fraunces Tavern, the oldest bar in New York City famously linked to George Washington. It was a really unique spot!