KEN'S BOOKSHELF

I started out by absorbing Dr. Seuss and Weekly Reader and have been an avid reader ever since. I read a lot of science fiction, Walter Farley (The Black Stallion series), and sports stories when I was in elementary school. I also liked the classics, and had read "The Three Musketeers", and lots of Jules Verne and Mark Twain before I got out of 6th grade. I scored in the 99th percentile nationwide on the Iowa Basics that year, in the reading and comprehension category.

In junior high I got interested more in classical heroes and read a good bit of Greek and Norse mythology, and Arthurian books. I also found The Story of Roland, and the Story of Sigfried. Good stuff Maynard.

I would say that the books that had the most impact on me as a young adult were Catcher In The Rye, Siddhartha, Be Here Now, Tao Te Ching, and The Lord of the Rings.

Then I found Kerouac. Whew!

I got back into science fiction while I was in the Navy. I had always liked Andre Norton when I was younger, and I got some more of her books, but I was more into Bradbury, Asimov, Clarke and Heinlein later on.

Over the last ten years my reading has been more academically oriented. I like Carl Jung quite a bit. I have also read a considerable amount on the Plains Indians. George Bird Grinnell and Mari Sandoz jump to mind in that vein. Research on Thomas Jefferson led to quite a sizable group of authors as well, Merrill D. Peterson probably being the foremost.

For pleasure, as well as for enlarging my paradigm, Joseph Campbell has turned up quite a bit. I'm into Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time", and am relearning some things I first found in Frijof Capra's "The Tao of Physics". I love Ann Rice. I've got all her vampire books in hardback. I came across Interview With The Vampire in a used bookstore in about 1984 or so, and was hooked. I also like Richard Bach very much, and have read a number of his books. I agree with him about a lot of things. Read his books and guess which things.

Never underestimate the power of Pooh, "The Little Prince", or "The Velveteen Rabbit". I've got "Lightning Bug" by Arkansas writer, Don Harrington under my belt. It's a lovely book with a lot to tell you if you pay attention. I got back into the Arthur stuff in '96. I finished "The Hollow Hills", the second in Mary Stewart's series, and I figured it was time to read Marion Zimmer Bradley's "The Mists of Avalon", so I did it, and liked it. "Lady of Avalon" was even more interesting to me. A trip to Hannibal MO got me to re-read Huckleberry Finn. I also read Tom Sawyer. I thought I had read it as a kid, but I think I had just seen all the movies. There was some stuff in there I didn't remember ever reading before. Great stories, both.

My sister bought me the whole Harry Potter series for my birthday in 2002.  I really enjoy those stories.  I've read all five.  I blew through Order of the Phoenix in a day and a half.  They keep getting darker.  Man, puberty hit THAT dude right in the breadbasket.

Read "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn.  "The Story of B" is great too.  I think "My Ishmael" is my fave though.

Suck on that for a while, and I'll think of some more.