2024 Reading

The Foxfire Book Edited By Eliot Wigginton

Foxfire 2 Edited By Eliot Wigginton

American Stories By Calvin Trillin

Composed By Rosanne Cash

The Walking Dead Vols. 13, 14, 15, 16 By Kirkman, Adlard, Rathburn

Here’s Negan! By Kirkman, Adlard, Rathburn

The Book of Leviathan By Peter Blegvad

The Contract With God Trilogy By Will Eisner

Through the Woods, Stories By Emily Carroll

The Plot By Will Eisner

Watchmen By Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

As you can tell the beginning of last year was devoted to graphic novels. I finally finished the Walking Dead series (very enjoyable, and different from the never ending TV series) I reread some Will Eisner and a few others, then on to some finance and history books.

Living Well on a Shoestring By the Editors of Yankee Magazine

Ordinary People, Extraordinary Wealth By Ric Edelman

The Americanization of Edward Bok By Edward W. Bok

Iowa, Land Across the River By Don Doyle Brown

Remembering Santa Fe By Willard F. Clark

Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons By Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Vonnegut was one of my favorites growing up, and I have decided to reread some of his stuff during 2025.

Other than newspapers, magazines and online articles that was it for 2024.

May 2025 be a good reading year for both you and me.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nothing Gold Can Stay

This poem has traveled along with me since I was around 12 or 13 years old and has popped up here and there over the following years. I came across it again recently and felt like sharing.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

By Robert Frost

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

Source: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/148652/nothing-gold-can-stay-5c095cc5ab679

Image Of The Month

Carefree


This photo of a 1940’s Iowa farm family could serve as a perfect example of the phrase “dirt poor.” While the father and the two girls manage to muster up smiles for the camera, the mother remains solemn and the boy…well, his attitude seems a little carefree compared to the rest of the group. That was an attitude he would draw from as needed over the course of his life. The reason I know that is because that boy became my dad.

Not Much

Opossum

I don’t have much of a report for the Acreage Update because I was not home for a part of last month, and nothing much happened anyway according to my wife. She spotted another opossum on our acreage, which is good if it sticks around because they eat mice. Another willow tree fell here, adding to the several already down, so there will be no shortage of both firewood and work come spring. A majority of the state is experiencing a “moderate drought” and most of us know better than to wish for precipitation during December through February, but it always comes anyway. We are keeping our eyes on the forecast and staying prepared.