penaddictPilot Explorer Fountain Pen Giveaway https://www.penaddict.com/blog/2026/3/10/pilot-explorer-fountain-pen-giveaway
Ron Payne
@accipiterf1
- 46 Followers
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- 422 Posts
Vermonter. Birder. Otter Creek Audubon Society President. Reader. 5th degree blackbelt in Tsundoku.
Nahvalur Eclipse Fountain Pen Giveaway https://www.penaddict.com/blog/2026/1/20/nahvalur-eclipse-fountain-pen-giveaway
TWSBI ECO Plum with Onyx Trim Fountain Pen Giveaway https://www.penaddict.com/blog/2025/12/16/twsbi-eco-plum-with-onyx-trim-fountain-pen-giveaway
Pilot Kakuno Madoromi Series Fountain Pen Giveaway https://www.penaddict.com/blog/2025/11/18/pilot-kakuno-madoromi-series-fountain-pen-giveaway
Kaweco Skyline Sport Sea Spray Fountain Pen Giveaway https://www.penaddict.com/blog/2025/11/11/kaweco-skyline-sport-sea-spray-fountain-pen-giveaway
"Charisma does not originate inside the person called “charismatic.” It comes from the need of others to believe that special people exist. Without having met him, I was certain that Pascal Balmy's charisma, like anyone's—Joan of Arc, let's say—resided only in the will of other people to believe. Charismatic people understand this will to believe best of all. They exploit it. That is their so-called charisma."
― Rachel Kushner, Creation Lake
― Rachel Kushner, Creation Lake
And here ends my 2024 reading thread. I kept up with it pretty well until late summer when election anxiety sapped my will. Post election fatalism allowed me to get back to doing it in bursts, including a new year's eve marathon that the clock ran out on. Let's see what I can do in 2025.
The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe
⭐⭐⭐⭐
A collection of three interconnected novellas set in the far future on a pair of binary worlds. The first about young man coming of age and learning his heredity, the second a story purportedly told to an anthropologist by aboriginals, and the third a set of documents about an expedition and the imprisonment of the same anthropologist. I enjoyed reading this but can't say I really understood it, which means, as usual with Wolfe, I need to reread it.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
A collection of three interconnected novellas set in the far future on a pair of binary worlds. The first about young man coming of age and learning his heredity, the second a story purportedly told to an anthropologist by aboriginals, and the third a set of documents about an expedition and the imprisonment of the same anthropologist. I enjoyed reading this but can't say I really understood it, which means, as usual with Wolfe, I need to reread it.
The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A series of essays written in the form of a letters to an English class the author taught. They follow the author's evolving relationship with journalistic ethics through the lens of his upbringing as a black man in America and experiences as a reporter, and fiction and nonfiction author. This book is really good at making you think about who gets to tell the stories we are told.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A series of essays written in the form of a letters to an English class the author taught. They follow the author's evolving relationship with journalistic ethics through the lens of his upbringing as a black man in America and experiences as a reporter, and fiction and nonfiction author. This book is really good at making you think about who gets to tell the stories we are told.
The Book of Witches edited by Jonathan Strahan
⭐⭐⭐⭐
An anthology of short stories and poems featuring a wide variety of types of witches. I enjoyed the project of this book even though quite a few of the stories didn't really work for me. The high points in here were very high, though. My favorites were The Liar by Darcie Little Badger, As Wayward Sisters, Hand in Hand by Indrapramit Das, The Unexpected Excursion of the Mystery Writing Witches by Garth Nix, and Night Riding by Usman T. Malik.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
An anthology of short stories and poems featuring a wide variety of types of witches. I enjoyed the project of this book even though quite a few of the stories didn't really work for me. The high points in here were very high, though. My favorites were The Liar by Darcie Little Badger, As Wayward Sisters, Hand in Hand by Indrapramit Das, The Unexpected Excursion of the Mystery Writing Witches by Garth Nix, and Night Riding by Usman T. Malik.
