What has been your favourite book this year?
I've read more books in 2025 than I have read in any other year in my life.
After reading a few big books last year, I decided that 2025 would be solely dedicated to books shorter than 400 pages (with a few exceptions).
In total I've read about 11,000 pages of physical books and listened to about 100 hours of audiobooks.
Here are some of my favourites from this past year:
FICTION:
1) The Calculating Stars - Mary Robinette Kowal
2) Ascension - Nicholas Binge
3) The Chosen - Chaim Potok
4) Brothers Keepers - Donald E. Westlake
5) The Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris
6) The Ruins - Scott Smith
NON-FICTION:
1) Everything is Tuberculosis - John Green
2) A History of the World in Six Glasses - Tom Standage
3)Cypria - Alex Christofi
AUDIOBOOKS:
1) Christine - Stephen King
2) Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson
I also re-read Five Decembers by James Kestrel, which is my favourite book of the decade.
If you read, or have read, any of these books let me know!
I stole the idea of this chart from @tomgauld but made it my own.
I recently bought a little Kodak film camera that I took to the states. Here are some of the photos!
1. Agnes and I dressed up as Frankenstein’s monster and the Bride for Halloween.
2. Skyline! Probably the best Cincinnati chilli chain.
3. Abby and Agnes
4. I found a Jaws pinball machine at a bar that everyone was good at except me.
5. Emily, Agnes, and Katie.
6. Agnes and her artwork at the coffee shop she used to work at, Kofenya.
7. We went back to Hueston woods, where we got married.
8. Agnes and Clancy, at a Mexican place we went to on our last night.
9. Nick and me, at the Mexican place.
Point Pleasant, West Virginia.
I’ve been obsessed with the legend of the Mothman since I first saw the film The Mothman Prophecies in 2002 and then read the book by John A Keel. When we were in the states in October, Agnes, Clancy, and I went on a road trip from Cincinnati to Point Pleasant to see where the Mothman was first seen, which has been a lifelong dream of mine!
If you don’t know the Mothman, here’s a quick overview. In the 60’s, in Point Pleasant, a huge winged creature with bright red eyes was spotted in and around the town. At the same time a lot of people were having mysterious dreams. Six months later the Silver Bridge collapsed, killing 46 people. A lot of people realised that their dreams were actually premonitions about the collapse of the bridge. After the bridge collapsed, the Mothman was never seen in Point Pleasant again.
1. Me outside the world’s only Mothman museum.
2. Clancy, Agnes, and me by a statue of the Mothman, inside the museum.
3. Clancy and the Mothman.
4. Props from The Mothman Prophecies film.
5. A statue of the Mothman hanging from the ceiling.
6. Clancy and Agnes by the Mothman statue outside the museum.
7. The Mothman statue!
8. Me and the Mothman!
9. The Silver Memorial Bridge, over the Ohio River.
10. Clancy and Agnes by the river, close to where the bridge collapsed.
11. Welcome to Point Pleasant, WV!
12. An old movie theatre.
13. A sign talking about the bridge collapse.
14. A mural of what the bridge looked like before its collapse.
15. Agnes and me inside an abandoned TNT bunker, outside of Point Pleasant, where the Mothman was first sighted!
16. Graffiti inside the TNT bunker.
17. Agnes, Clancy, and me about to drive home!
All photos are taken on my Kodak Ultra F9 using Kodak Gold film.
@calkinkc13@whitespottedfox
Visby, Sweden
1. Agnes drinking coffee at a fantastic coffee shop in the town square that did the most amazing pastries!
2. Visby Cathedral from the town square. The cathedral had incredible stained glass windows.
3. My parents.
4. We met an astrophysicist who had his telescope pointed at the sun so we got to see the dark sun spots in detail before they erupted into flares.
5. Sailing under the bridge that connects Sweden to Finland.
Tallinn, Estonia
1. My brother and I in the city centre.
2. Estonia has fantastic coffee. This is a little place called OA coffee.
3. Tallinn is a medieval city and the amount of alleys and roads that look like this is incredible.
4. The Russian embassy has been closed and information about the war is plastered all over their fences.
Helsinki, Finland
1. Agnes with a penguin.
2. We rode took the tram around the city.
3. We went to a Finnish sauna, which was incredible! Agnes swam in the Baltic Sea, and I made it up to my knees before I chickened out.
4. Upsenski Cathedral.
5. The view from the cathedral.
Stockholm, Sweden.
1. Met up with my housemate, photographer, and one of my first collaborators, @willycoutts
2. Agnes and I at a coffee shop, taken by @willycoutts
3. Found a really cool light shop and bought a small kerosene lamp.
4. There was a cafe that sold a ton of delicious, fresh orange juice.
5. A pickled fish truck
6. Swedish meatballs from Meatballs for the People.
7. Parliament House
8. I asked to take a photo of a Royal Guard who gave me a short stern nod and then smirked when he saw me take out a disposable camera.
Copenhagen, Denmark
1. I won first place at this horse racing game at Tivoli gardens.
2. The colourful buildings in Nyhaven.
3. Agnes crossing the road on Strøget, annoyed that I crossed without her.
4. Family in Tivoli gardens. Whenever someone asked me to take a photo of them I always asked them for one too.
5. Another from Tivoli gardens.
6. The Little Mermaid!
7. By the little mermaid I befriended a jackdaw and we shared a cookie. This is him.
