Ken's Friend Comments

Thank you for the friendship and the sympathetic message.

Thank you for the invite, Ken. Delighted to be your friend here and looking forward to more bookish interactions.

Thank you for inviting me Ken, glad to be a friend!

Thanks for the group invite. Unfortunately, I'm scheduled tightly to meet my 2020 goal. Cheryl

Butt in all you want, Poppy. Always good to hear your voice. I think I bought The Power of One for my son many moons ago. It sits now in my classroom library for 8th graders....

S. wrote: "Hi NE -
Maybe you could recommend some books for me to push on my 12-year old son. He's a semi-reluctant reader, i.e. it's hard labor getting him to pick something up, but if the story is good, onc..."

Butting in here to recommend THE POWER of ONE. I constantly give my non-reading grandsons books they probably never open - but someday, they might!!! So I have queried all my still-living relatives about their favorite books and passed along their opinions to my boys. AND, I have given them a little book by Einstein in hopes the size of the book will intrigue them!!!

Knausgaard junkies. I like that. And I think I'd enjoy having a beer with good ole Karl Ove, too....

Thanks for the friend request, Ken! Uh oh, it appears we are both Knausgaard junkies. I like the other books we have in common as well. Look forward to your reviews. I'm a bit spotty in my attendance here but try to read and comment on at least some of each friend's reviews.

New blood is always good. And necessary!

Hard to believe this place is a decade old... and I'm only now getting on it.

Lisa wrote: "Thanks for the friend request, Ken. I'm looking forward to sharing thoughts on The Odyssey and will look at your bookshelves and read some of your other reviews. I've kept my friends list small, so..."

Understand completely. Social networks (Twitter, FB, Instagram, et al) are like Sirens that suck you in. It's why I don't bother with a cellphone (the Queen Siren). This is it. GR. And, as you say, it, too, can become a time suck because it's all about my favorite addiction, books!

See you on the boards....

Thanks for the friend request, Ken. I'm looking forward to sharing thoughts on The Odyssey and will look at your bookshelves and read some of your other reviews. I've kept my friends list small, so I can engage with people here. At the current moment, it's tempting to escape into Goodreads whenever I leave my own fictional world . . .

Majenta wrote: "Hello, Ken! Thank you for contacting me. Congratulations on your books! Happy reading, writing, and everything else. Have a great weekend! Blessings!

Best wishes from Majenta"

Thank you, Majenta, for all the well wishes and blessings. I like 'em! My books like 'em! I look forward to reading your reviews...

Erwin wrote: "Hi Ken, thank you for the invite and you recommendation.I haven't read Huck Finn yet but it is on my wish list (and is already present in my book case :) )"

What? I found someone who hasn't read Huck Finn? Annus mirabilis, as they used to say. Glad it's on your shelf, though. Good luck with the dialect. When the day comes, I mean.

Hello, Ken! Thank you for contacting me. Congratulations on your books! Happy reading, writing, and everything else. Have a great weekend! Blessings!

Best wishes from Majenta

Hi Ken, thank you for the invite and you recommendation.I haven't read Huck Finn yet but it is on my wish list (and is already present in my book case :) )

Agnieszka wrote: "Greetings from Poland , Ken ! Thanks for the friend invite and here's to future bookish interactions !"

Dzien dobry, Agnieszka! I am 1/4 Polish so know just enough to earn an eye roll from my Polish friends. I look forward to your reviews, comments, etc.

Greetings from Poland , Ken ! Thanks for the friend invite and here's to future bookish interactions !

Thank you, Cindy. I wrote a lot in the summer, of course. And suffering insomnia has a silver lining, too. For writing, I mean. (Certainly not for teaching!)

Ken/NewEngland, I just wanted to congratulate you. To have written something worthy of publication is estimable; to have done so while teaching is a laudable accomplishment, indeed! I felicitate you, and I look forward to reading it.

Miriam wrote: "Any friend of Roger Zelazny.... ;)

Congrats on the publication!"

Thanks, Miriam. I actually tracked down the whole set of Zelazny's Amber series for my classroom library. Alas, the students who tried it weren't as impressed. Kids these days!

Any friend of Roger Zelazny.... ;)

Congrats on the publication!

Newengland wrote: "At 17, he can start enjoying some plot-rich books for adults, too. Anyway, some possibilities for browsing:

Winger
Boy Nobody
Runner
[book:Soldier Bo..."

Thank you! Somehow I missed this when you posted it. I will check those all out.

At 17, he can start enjoying some plot-rich books for adults, too. Anyway, some possibilities for browsing:

Winger
Boy Nobody
Runner
Soldier Boys
Soldier X
Boy21
Peak
Little Brother
The Recruit
The Son
Unbroken (The Young Adult Adaptation): An Olympian's Journey from Airman to Castaway to Captive
Shelter
The 5th Wave

Happy shopping (and reading) to He'll-Be-a-Reader-Yet!

Hi - I'm shopping again for YA recommendations for my reluctant just-turned-17 year old son! He's promised to read this summer but isn't interested in my enthusiastic offerings. He loved that Labyrinth series a couple or 3 years ago. In general I need something not brand-new, since it won't have been translated into German yet. Thanks! Hope you're enjoying a reading summer yourself.

S. wrote: "You may enjoy this clutter spoof: http://the-toast.net/2015/02/24/get-r..."

Now there's a woman who gets it. (Hold on, my coffee mug is speaking to me, only I'm not sure I understand its language....)

You may enjoy this clutter spoof: http://the-toast.net/2015/02/24/get-r...

Gabi wrote: "I forgot the most important reason for asking you to be friends: I like you.

You make me laugh! You have a dry humor that I appreciate and I suspect your pupils do, too!

Gabi"

Well shucks thanks, Gabs. You're pretty funny yourself at times! And one hella artist!

I forgot the most important reason for asking you to be friends: I like you.

You make me laugh! You have a dry humor that I appreciate and I suspect your pupils do, too!

Gabi

Hi Newengland.

Thanks for the friends request. I confess that because I follow you, I had forgotten that we weren't already friends. :)

Hee hee. :)

I took many naps on Saturday, and as a result mucked up my sleep schedule. We'll see if I can get back on track.

And my reading progress took a real nosedive last week. I didn't even try to read much - just hung on for the ride. :)

Thanks so much for the friend request! I also got a bit tangled up in windmills. :)

Laugh! Love your Moby pic.

Whoa, another reader is born! Only now I'm dying to know which four.

Also, there are more (recs) where those came from. Just shout when you need them.

Hey NE,
I wanted to thank you for the book recommendations for my son. He read FOUR of them in April.

Ha! Your hatred only gets to play for 12 days. Then you can go back to being smug about mid-May releases vs. late June ones (sigh)....

I might have gloated when we were done in mid-May, but we're pretty much back at work now. I hate you :).

List coming your way, postal express (ipso fasto, as they say in Rome).

Hi NE -
Maybe you could recommend some books for me to push on my 12-year old son. He's a semi-reluctant reader, i.e. it's hard labor getting him to pick something up, but if the story is good, once he's into it, he's very happy.
He liked Harry Potter, and just finished the Rick Riordan books with Percy Jackson. It would have to be something fairly popular, since it'll have to have been translated into German.
I'd be grateful for any suggestions.
thanks, sarah

Merci Merwin, Sarah! I'll give you some feedback when I have time to digest them alone....

Hi NE,
On the Merwin front, try these:
Rain in the Trees
The Second Four Books of Poems: The Moving Target / The Lice / The Carrier of Ladders / Writings to an Unfinished Accompaniment

enjoy.

Thanks for the add Newengland! I've never been to your neck of the woods - hope to get there one day..:)

Beat me to the punch--I planned to send you a request when I got back on. So--thanks! It'll be cool to trade thoughts and recs and all that. cheers!

Selective? Curmudgeonly is more like it. I'm still in "remedial friending" class.

-- Fellow Hamsun fan

Ben... glad you "laked" the Lago Maggiore scene in AFTA. Sorry, just saw your 7/26 comment today (8/4).

Alex-- Nope. Never heard tell of the Carmody books. Looks like a British publisher. Only a 3.49 rating from 95 reviewers, too. Must be some of the kiddies disagree! (Are the kiddies members of GR, one wonders?)

That flight across the lake was awesome. Awesome, indeed.

Newengland, I salute you!