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The Heart Forger
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by Rin Chupeco (Goodreads Author)
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An Ember in the A...
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by Sabaa Tahir (Goodreads Author)
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It
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by Stephen King (Goodreads Author)
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Aldo Leopold
“What is a hobby anyway? Where is the line of demarcation between hobbies and ordinary normal pursuits? I have been unable to answer this question to my own satisfaction. At first blush I am tempted to conclude that a satisfactory hobby must be in large degree useless, inefficient, laborious, or irrelevant. Certainly many of our most satisfying avocations today consist of making something by hand which machines can usually make more quickly and cheaply, and sometimes better. Nevertheless I must in fairness admit that in a different age the mere fashioning of a machine might have been an excellent hobby... Today the invention of a new machine, however noteworthy to industry, would, as a hobby, be trite stuff. Perhaps we have here the real inwardness of our own question: A hobby is a defiance of the contemporary. It is an assertion of those permanent values which the momentary eddies of social evolution have contravened or overlooked. If this is true, then we may also say that every hobbyist is inherently a radical, and that his tribe is inherently a minority.

This, however, is serious: Becoming serious is a grievous fault in hobbyists. It is an axiom that no hobby should either seek or need rational justification. To wish to do it is reason enough. To find reasons why it is useful or beneficial converts it at once from an avocation into an industry–lowers it at once to the ignominious category of an 'exercise' undertaken for health, power, or profit. Lifting dumbbells is not a hobby. It is a confession of subservience, not an assertion of liberty.”
Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There

Joseph Bruchac
“Strong words outlast the paper they are written upon. ”
Joseph Bruchac, Code Talker

Leo Tolstoy
“All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.”
Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

Robert Cormier
“They don't actually want you to do your own thing, not unless it's their thing too.”
Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War
tags: truth

Aldo Leopold
“The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: 'What good is it?”
Aldo Leopold

2051 Challenge: 50 Books — 4305 members — last activity 13 hours, 21 min ago
This group is for people who want to be challenged to read 50 books in one year. Start the challenge by creating a post with the title of your chall ...more
17941 Wild Things: YA Grown-Up — 2402 members — last activity Mar 24, 2022 06:18PM
Welcome to Wild Things: YA Grown-Up! Important Information: This group is for mature, grown up discussions of all books included under the term 'Young ...more
2779 Read a book from each country — 1005 members — last activity Mar 02, 2026 11:42PM
I thought this would be a good place to collect recommendations for books from various countries. I don't have a formal goal to read a book from each ...more
185 What's the Name of That Book??? — 121934 members — last activity 2 hours, 0 min ago
Can't remember the title of a book you read? Come search our bookshelves and discussion posts. If you don’t find it there, post a description on our U ...more
4355 Folklore & Fairytales — 383 members — last activity Feb 06, 2026 01:12AM
For everyone who is interested in folklore and fairytales, either as a reader/hearer, writer/storyteller, or researcher.
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