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“Hang In There”
Hiking in Colorado, caught this guy struggling to stay on top of a blade of grass. A little metaphor for this year…
When the processing fee is starting to rival your electricity fee…
Next month, I’ll start selling more than I use, building up a credit for the 115+ degrees F Summer that is coming.
Thank you, sunshine. #solar
A Trip Home ~ Kings and Sawdust
A visual story post over at Exposure from 2015 - A Trip Home ~ Kings and Sawdust
In the early 90s, at a Dewline station at -40F on the North Slope of Alaska, A Canadian company chartered us for weeks while they fully automated the Dewline stations. I’m sure it was mixed emotions for the hardy, brave souls who lived at and cared for these sites to watch them be automated. I wonder how many went to the tropics after that!
I always find these facinating;
Mastodon Users: 11,817,591 accounts +324 in the last hour +6,156 in the last day +31,583 in the last week
Nice winter storm moved through DAL yesterday, my first two flights cancelled this morning, so far my 11am is holding together. DFW was shut down yesterday for awhile due to lack of de-ice fluid for the runways. Going to be lots of chaos the next few days…
Where Do You find Books To Read
This has been a struggle for me in the past. I often found myself running out of books and searching for something new to read, which led me to browse bookstores. Each visit is a wonderful experience; independent shops have a unique charm, often showcasing local authors, and the smell of books is irreplaceable. However, there were times when I left empty-handed, without anything that sparked my interest.
To tackle this, having a collection of online tools for discovering books is essential. Here are some ideas that may inspire you.
Now, I face a new challenge: a to-read list that keeps expanding, which is, in fact, a wonderful problem to have. I used to feel overwhelmed by this, but I’ve learned to embrace the reality that countless books will always remain out of reach. That’s why it’s so important to focus on reading what you love. Don’t linger on a book that feels just okay; there are countless extraordinary stories waiting for you. And don’t let that ever-growing pile of unread books weigh you down; it’s always there with your next book!
I will continue to add to this list with your suggestions and any helpful resources I come across. Please email or comment with your favorites, and I’ll include them.
Updated March 18, 2026 from Somewhere in Arizona
Major Platforms
Five Books - They ask experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview. This site has an archive of more than 1700 interviews and 8000 book recommendations. They publish at least two new interviews per week.
The Millions - A great online publication devoted to books. Check out The Great Fall 2024 Book Preview as a good place to start.
100 Best Books of the 21st Century - NYT Gift Article
The Best Books of 2024 - The New Yorker
NYR Of Books - The New York Review Magazine is over my head and usually out of my wheelhouse, yet I still enjoy it and find it helpful. Although I usually read only one or two articles, the ads are mostly for books, and it’s been a great place to find new books I would never have ordinarily seen.
New Books To Read in 2025 - Penguin Random House. It also has a good weekly newsletter about their books.
Red Pen Reviews - Expert nutrition book reviews that sort fact from fiction
GoodReads - Amazon company
StoryGraph - A fully-featured Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads
Rakuten Kobo - For about a year now, I’ve stopped using Amazon and Kindle for my ebooks. Kobo has been a great replacement. They have a great book selection, and while still a little rough in areas, the Kobo reading app for iPhone and iPad has been good enough. I hope they continue to polish it. I haven’t tried any of their e-readers, as the iPhone/iPad apps are enough for me. I’ve heard really good things about them on Reddit.
Personal Sites & Blogs
Derek Silvers - He does a good job blogging about the books he’s read.
Trey Hunner - Has a great 2024 recap on his books and audiobooks.
The Library of Alexandra - I just found this via microblog and am looking forward to exploring it.
Robert Breen - Excellent book reviews
Social Media
For myself, this is just Mastodon and the newly found Micro.blog. After you acquire a group of people you enjoy following, it can be a great place to see what they are reading and why.
Micro.blog - Really is amazing for book ideas and reviews. In your Discovery feed, you can filter by books to see what everyone is reading and their reviews. I’m new to it, but it looks like a gold mine!
Podcasts
It’s a great place to hear interviews with authors, or you can search your podcast player for book review podcasts.
If Books Could Kill - I haven’t listened to many of them, so I’m unfamiliar with their general theme and structure, but it might be worth checking out.
Friends and Family
I reached out to a small group of friends and said, “Let’s have a texting group where we text about the books we’ve enjoyed and recommend.” This has been an excellent source.
Community Driven
Literature Map - Type in an author, and it will show you other similar authors.
BookWyrm - BookWyrm is a social network for tracking your reading, discussing books, writing reviews, and discovering what to read next. Federation allows BookWyrm users to join small, trusted communities that can connect with one another and with other ActivityPub services like Mastodon.
Library Thing - A Home For Your Books, LibraryThing is a free, library-quality catalog to track reading progress or your whole library.
What Should I Read Next - Enter a book you like, and the site will analyze the huge database of real readers' favorite books to provide book recommendations and suggestions for what to read next.
r/books - Reddit
Literal* - Track what you’re reading, follow friends, and join clubs to collectively explore the ideas of the world’s greatest authors. I don’t use this site because the same features are built into Micro Blog, but it looks excellent for tracking your lists: Currently Reading, To Read, and Read, making custom Bookshelves, and reading other people’s book reviews. If I didn’t have Micro Blog, I’d be here.
Library Tools
OverDrive/Libby - Free ebooks, audiobooks & magazines from your local library.
You only need a public library card or access through your workplace or university. Always free - no fees or subscriptions.
Free EBook Sources
Standard EBooks - Standard Ebooks is a volunteer-driven effort to produce a collection of high-quality, carefully formatted, accessible, open-source, and free public domain ebooks that meet or exceed the quality of commercially produced ebooks. The text and cover art in our ebooks are already believed to be in the U.S. public domain, and Standard Ebooks dedicates its own work to the public domain, thus releasing the entirety of each ebook file into the public domain. All the ebooks we produce are distributed free of cost and free of U.S. copyright restrictions.
Soon, you’ll have a huge To-Read Pile!
From Above & Holding The Line
These are two of my favorite pictures. I was extremely lucky to be driving down the highway and catch these guys working in the hills. I had my 200-500mm lens, which allowed me to take these shots. It was all shot out the window. I sat there for hours, watching these guys work. I would like to do this after I retire. I respect these pilots greatly. I was able to contact the pilots via social media and made sure they received copies of the prints.
