Ken’s Comments (group member since Jan 21, 2020)

Ken’s comments from the The Obscure Reading Group group.

Sue wrote: "I’m reading my usual variety of books and have been thankful for some short stories that offer that interruptible haven when needed. We’ve had so much reading weather during July, I wonder what Aug..."

Really? The past two weeks have been cooler and rainier in Maine, and you're just down the coast in Mass, no, Sue? I like a bit more sun and warmth on my reading Adirondack, thank you.

Summer company for two weeks with one to go. This has slowed down my reading AND my writing. Having an old camp (as they're called in Maine) is lovely, but it attracts company (family *and* friends) and isn't the greatest when you're a full-time introvert who enjoys being alone (vs. loneliness).

There's something to be said for fall, winter (spare the holidays), and spring. They're more book-friendly.

Trying my best reading poetry. Works better for stop-and-start reading. So no, you won't catch me diving into a Russian novel now.

Hope everyone else's reading is going swimmingly!

Thanks, Sue, for the clarification on those books. I read a couple of more Joy Williams, but it's slow going with my parents now visiting. Williams' stories are definitely quirky. Or should I say, her characters are!

Kathleen wrote: "Ken wrote: "Thanks, all, for the congratulations, kudos, and well-wishes. In lieu of the book, you can always sample a few poems that are in it on what was once called the World Wide Web (though I'..."


Thank you, Kathleen.

I'm four stories in, so things turned uphill from Story #2. Here's the issue: I seem to slow down when I read stories. Maybe I should do as some of you do -- read this on the side (story a day) as I read something else.

Sue wrote: "Ken, I thought I’d read something by Williams and I have, 99 Stories About God. This is a book of short fictions rather than short stories, with each work coming in at between a paragraph and about..."

You made me curious. Is it Home of the Floating Lily you're referencing, or The Best of Elizabeth Hand? Both authors are like today's news to me. News.

Diane wrote: "I'll add my congratulations to the others Ken. Now you can also claim to be an "influencer", as I just got on the library list for Joy Williams."

Cool! (Cooler if only Joy knew!) Maybe I'll be an "influencer" in my next life. I don't have much influence with my wife, but I think that's called "marriage."

Thanks, all, for the congratulations, kudos, and well-wishes. In lieu of the book, you can always sample a few poems that are in it on what was once called the World Wide Web (though I'm not sure how "Wide" the free Internet is in the world these days).

Like this one about a nesting Phoebe (if you like or loathe birds), and these two shorties on meditation and illness, and finally one about being a kid with nothing (remember those good old days?) coupled with one about loyalty in 13 lines (what can I say, I got tired before the sonnet finish line flag was waved).

Angela, I didn't know you were a Maine visiter! Let me know and perhaps we can do the lunch thing or the quick coffee thing in Portland (or environs) if restaurants/cafés are still open (the Delta variant's ambitions and easy feeding grounds among the unvaccinated worry me).

Am reading short story specialist Joy Williams for the first time in the book Honored Guest.

Here's weird: The first story (title story) was fantastic, whetting my appetite. Then the second story was so bad I had trouble caring enough to finish.

THAT was unexpected. Still, I'm carrying on to the tune of Onward Reading Soldier....

Any Joy Williams readers in the house? Any short story readers, for that matter? I mean, people who read short story collections rather regularly. Seems to me, this breed of reader is almost as rare as the poetry reader or the play reader.

Kathleen wrote: "Speaking of toppling TBR's, MacFarlane's The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot is on mine, and I'm assuming is the one you read Ken. Sounds fantastic.

I'm finishing up [book:The Keepers ..."

Yes, that's the title I read.


Matthew Ted wrote: "Stoner is one of my favourites. I studied MacFarlane's The Wild Places in a module called "Writing Place". We also studied Hemingway's Moveable Feast."

Are they in any way similar?

AJ wrote: "Will have to look up Stoner, although I do fear that the huuuge pile of TBR's is gonna topple and squash. One that I'm enjoying immensely is Robert Macfarlane's Underland. It's a fascinating journe..."

We'll all know soon enough!

(And I think I read a McFarlane book about walking through the hills of England. Just walking.)

I was on the LIKE team with Stoner, too. I've noticed some backlash on GR, though -- inevitable with any book that garners a lot of positive word of mouth. It builds expectations to the point where, for some, it can't be met.

Darrin wrote: "Cindy, that is how I felt also. At least we can look forward to the next book."

But, as October is still a distant project and as we don't want to "squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of" (Benjamin Franklin, if memory serves -- and it seldom does), let's enjoy the hell out of books of our own choosing this summer.*



* Because these are the books we are free to abandon at will, moving to the next in a very long line!

Ah, the Unbearable Lightness of Being (a Winter's Night Traveler who's reached the tavern with a warm bed upstairs).

Jan wrote: "Ken wrote: "Ha!

With apologies to William Carlos Williams:


The Type of Company

So much depends
upon

the type of
company

lubricated
with red wine

beside the Maine
lake"

Ah, this is lovely.
..."



Thank you, Jan.

Thanks, Diane and Sue.

This is just to say...
you're too kind!

Ha!

With apologies to William Carlos Williams:


The Type of Company

So much depends
upon

the type of
company

lubricated
with red wine

beside the Maine
lake

Bionic Jean wrote: "Ken wrote: "Bionic Jean wrote: "I thought the poll technique was the most common way virtual reading groups selected a book ..."

Yes, GR encourages this by making it so easy to create a poll. And ..."


I agree. Too many rules works against you. Getting worked up because someone does or does not participate is counter-productive.

Read if you want. Let the book surprise you or disappoint you. And enjoy the varied insights of other readers that month, whether it's 20 other people or two.

Isn't that the point of laid-back, only-three-times-a-year obscurity?


Meanwhile, I'm happy to report waking to sunshine this morning after a four-day, off-and-on-but-much-needed rain. A brisk 48 degrees to start, too. Love it!

Two records were set in Portland, Maine, this past week. First we had the HOTTEST June on record (title of the record = "A Long Time"), and second July 3rd tied for the coldest temperature ever. Didn't get to check yesterday or today yet. Maybe more records for overnight cold.

Not that there's any climate change or anything. I heard as much (in a loamy, kind of muffled way) from some people with their heads in the sand.

Despite the weather, company is here, which is good and bad. Good because last summer we had so little company due to Covid. Bad because I haven't even hit p. 100 of John Green's The Anthropocene Reviewed even though I started it days ago.

Company can really slow a reader down.

Bionic Jean wrote: "Ken - actually this follows on a little! When you say "we encourage selecting a book you yourself have not read -- so nothing is taken personally", that is an aspect I hadn't really considered. Nea..."


Interesting, Jean! I thought the poll technique was the most common way virtual reading groups selected a book.

The only other reading group I'm a member of on GR does a variation and nominates six books at once for half a year (important distinction being they have monthly reads and we only have three a year).

Members use the messaging system to nominate three titles (with brief description and link) to the moderator, who then lists all of the nominated books on a thread for voting. Instead of using GR's poll, though, people email their top three (I think it is) choices to the moderator, who then assigns a point value (maybe 3 points for a 1st place vote, 2 for a 2nd, and 1 for a 3rd) to each reader's picks. In this manner the top vote getters are named for the next six months or so.

It works, but I suppose many systems do, as you know with all your experience moderating. I have far less experience as a moderator. And, looking at the book titles nominated this past year on the ORG, I've never been able to correctly guess the winner, though I *have* been able to predict that some would face an uphill battle because, say, they are über obscure OR, say, a genre other than fiction (a book-length poem, say).

Intriguing stuff, in its way! Probably there's a science to it but science was right behind math in my historical resume of weaknesses!

Cindy wrote: "Ken wrote: "Cindy wrote: "Sorry not to join the discussion on the Calvino book as I have just now gone back to reading it. The style is fragmented. He makes some excellent observations on how reade..."

Re-opened. I'll just leave it be for a few weeks.

Cindy wrote: "Sorry not to join the discussion on the Calvino book as I have just now gone back to reading it. The style is fragmented. He makes some excellent observations on how readers "read" books. Since I'v..."

Cindy, if you keep reading and want to post on the discussion itself (Weeks One OR Two), just message me and I'll be happy to open it up for your comments.