FARMINGTON – Rick Dale, a professor at the University of Maine at Farmington, will read from his first book, “The Beat Handbook: 100 Days of Kerouactions,” at 7 p.m. Thursday at Devaney Doak & Garrett Booksellers on Broadway.

Listed as part non-fiction how-to, part memoir and part journal, “The Beat Handbook” offers 100 days of reading, writing and introspection to help readers find their inner “Beat.”

“It’s a hybrid … humorous and serious …,” Dale said. “It encourages a state of mind where we live in the moment and be passionate. … It doesn’t take money to have a good time.”

Dale meets the challenges of life with an entertaining yet inspirational take on the work of Jack Kerouac, “the King of Beats.” Kerouac coined the phrase “beat generation” to describe the generation just before the hippie generation of the ’60s, Dale said.

After reading some of Kerouac’s work, Dale became a fan.

“I just really relate to his struggles in life and as a writer. He’s someone who puts his inner life out there. I didn’t know him but I almost feel like I know his struggles and thought processes,” Dale added.

“Jack Kerouac was a man of action … when in doubt, he did something,” Dale writes in his introduction.

Responding to Kerouac’s “On the Road,” and “The Dharma Bums,” two of Dale’s favorites, he wrote his own version of how to act to a certain “beat activity” or idea, he said.

The book offers 100 daily readings on topics as diverse as watching television, freedom, cats and enthusiasm, to name a few. Each reading is followed by a Kerouactivity with room to journal, he said.

Kerouactions is a word Dale coined as the answer to what Kerouac would do, he said.

“So what would Kerouac do regarding this book? … stop wasting time reading it … grab a backpack and supplies and head out … on the road experiencing life,” Dale continued in his book introduction.

Dale is a professor in the Special Education Department at UMF. Along with being a Jack Kerouac enthusiast, he plays bluegrass music semi-professionally and enjoys several outdoor sports.

For more information about the reading, contact DDG Booksellers at 778-3454 or e-mail at [email protected]. More information about the book is available at www.thebeathandbook.com.