Let’s continue our sleepy tour of the zoological collections of the British Museum and discover the wonders first being seen by the general public circa 1850. This time, reptiles, the fauna of Great Britain, and some philosophy about our place in the history of living things. Because of course that’s included in a 19th century book. Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! All supporters in the month of February will be entered into a drawing for a personal, made-just-for-you episode of...
Feb 03, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let’s climb the slopes of sleep with more from this journey to study the world’s highest mountain. This time, we visit Tingri, climb glaciers, and reach the highest monastery in the world. We’re less than 10 miles from Everest, friends. Dreams of adventure await! Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/d5kcMsW Read “Mount Everest, The Reconnaissance, 1921” at Project Gutenberg: https://www.gut...
Jan 27, 2025•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let’s relax with one of the most boring reads I’ve ever encountered, a minutely detailed guide to the internal workings of legislative assemblies. Why, one might wonder how anything ever gets done at all. Motion to sleep, seconded! Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/d5kcMsW Read “Robert’s Rules of Order” at Project Gutenberg here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9097 Music: "Calling to O...
Jan 20, 2025•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let’s relax with another sleepy stroll across the sands of time to ancient Egypt. This time, we finish our overview of tombs and learn about Egyptian painting conventions, including cat-based satire. It never gets old! Maspero has a marvelous way of bringing these images to life, and I think you'll love his descriptions. Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/d5kcMsW Read “Manual of Egyptian ...
Jan 13, 2025•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let’s kick off a new year of sleep with more from this appreciative guide to the magical cat. This time, shorthaired tortoiseshells and tabbies, plus a touch of my favorite—word etymologies! Your brain will purr with contented boredom. Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/d5kcMsW Music: "Heaven Be Here” by PC III, licensed under CC BY If you'd like to suggest a copyright-free reading for so...
Jan 06, 2025•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast While your reader recovers from a Christmas cough, let’s rewind back to this relaxing guide to the art and craft of embroidery from two years ago. It’s the perfect way to stitch up the year with sweet dreams. Enjoy! Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! Everyone who supports in December will be entered into our holiday giveaways at the end of the month. Hurrah! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/d5kcMsW Read “Travels with a D...
Dec 30, 2024•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let’s take a sleepy browse through this gift guide from the war years. Tasty candies, children’s toys, decorative gourds and gifts for the discriminating housewife, and several grades of fruitcake depending on how much you like the recipient. Sears has what you need! Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! Everyone who supports in December will be entered into our holiday giveaways at the end of the month. Hurrah! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https:/...
Dec 23, 2024•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Let’s continue our journey to sleep with this delightful trek through the mountains of France. This time, we visit a Trappist monastery, where our author appreciates scenery, silence, and the paradoxical stillness of being busy. Peaceful! Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! Everyone who supports in December will be entered into our holiday giveaways at the end of the month. Hurrah! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/d5kcMsW...
Dec 16, 2024•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let’s conclude our sweetly sleepy reading from this guidebook for the nineteenth-century maker of fancy candies. This time, creams, chocolates, and syrups for the soda fountain. Deliciously dreamy! Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! Everyone who supports in December will be entered into our holiday giveaways at the end of the month. Hurrah! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/d5kcMsW Read “Frye’s Practical Candy Maker” at P...
Dec 09, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let’s saw our way to sleep with more from this helpful guide for the novice woodworker. This time, we build our own work bench, improvise a vise, and discover that “measure twice, cut once” is always good advice. Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/d5kcMsW Read “Woodworking for Beginners” at Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43604 Music: "Peace” by Lee Rosevere, licensed ...
Dec 02, 2024•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let’s relax with more from this wonderful guide to studying art in Europe. This time, where to shop in London, the best boarding houses, and then we’re off to Paris with some genteel commentary about being a woman in a man’s artsy world. Take up your brushes, ladies! Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/d5kcMsW Read “Studying Art Abroad and How to Do It Cheaply” at the Internet Archive: htt...
Nov 25, 2024•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let’s, uh, improve our health with this compendium of questionable herbal advice from 1650. But first, the kind of sleep-inducing, self-congratulatory introduction in which only a 17th-century apothecary can excel. Delightful! Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/d5kcMsW Read “The Complete Herbal” at Project Gutenberg here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/49513 Music: "Boring Books for Bed...
Nov 18, 2024•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let’s hop in our sleepy wayback machine and relax with more from this remarkable little history of everything. This time, the Roman Empire, Hannibal, and the rise of the emperors. Quiescamus! Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/d5kcMsW Read “A Short History of the World” at Project Gutenberg here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35461 Music: "Cosmic Tingles” by Lee Rosevere, licensed unde...
Nov 11, 2024•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let’s journey to sleep with Henry David Thoreau as he explores the back of beyond in Maine, ponders the fate of forests, visits some barely-there towns, and…gets accosted by politicians? Talk about timing! Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/d5kcMsW Read “The Maine Woods” at Project Gutenberg here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42500 Music: "Boring Books for Bedtime” by Lee Rosevere, li...
Nov 04, 2024•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let’s celebrate the spooky season with more from this history of lycanthropy and a long chapter of wolfish folktales. Bears, hares, and dogs drinking cider are also mentioned. Honestly, the human imagination is so delightfully weird. Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/d5kcMsW Read “The Book of Werewolves” at Project Gutenberg here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5324 Music: "Dream Colou...
Oct 28, 2024•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let’s sail the seas of sleep with more from this marvelous travelogue from the South Seas. This time, we encounter a waterspout and get happily marooned on an idyllic island. Cast away your cares, friends. It’s a lovely tale. Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/d5kcMsW Read “Faery Lands of the South Seas” at Project Gutenberg here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54479 Music: "Ocean Tappi...
Oct 21, 2024•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let’s fall asleep with a new reading from this wonderful look into our universe. This time, we contemplate the phases of the moon, the life and death of the stars, and our position in this vast and whirling universe. The stuff of starry visions indeed! Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/d5kcMsW Read “Astronomy for Young Folks” at Project Gutenberg here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45...
Oct 14, 2024•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let’s fall asleep with a new listener request! This time, we travel back in time to learn the origins of that most pleasant and cozy of places, the country inn. From manors to monasteries and pilgrimage houses, it’s quite a relaxing trip. Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/d5kcMsW Read “Old Country Inns of England” at Project Gutenberg here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44382 Music: "...
Oct 07, 2024•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let’s close out our month of new versions of old episodes with a fresh recording of our very first foray into the 1897 Sears, Roebuck & Co. Consumers Guide. In this episode, we trip through the Drugs Department, and what a trip it is. How anyone survived 19th-century medicine, I cannot say. Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/d5kcMsW Music: "Heaven Be Here,” by PC III, licensed under CC BY...
Sep 30, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let’s relax with a new recording of a very old episode from a book I had completely forgotten about! Tonight, we learn what constitutes “thinking,” ponder clouds and forks in the road, and consider the similarity between children and scientists. Cutting edge stuff for 1910! Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/d5kcMsW Music: "Heaven Be Here,” by PC III, licensed under CC BY If you'd like to...
Sep 23, 2024•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let’s relax with another new recording of a very old episode—Part One of a fave on this podcast. In this first episode from Mrs. B, we learn the duties of the mistress of the house, from rising early to hiring servants and wearing pleasing color combos. Frankly, it’s enough to send anyone to sleep with exhaustion! Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/d5kcMsW Read “The Book of Household Mana...
Sep 16, 2024•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let’s relax and sleep with a shiny new recording of a very old episode. This time, dreamy sleep awaits our travel and list lovers as we read a schedule of transatlantic steamer sailings from 1925. You may recognize a few famous names if you stay awake long enough. Bon voyage! Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/d5kcMsW Music: "Cosmic Tingles,” by Lee Rosevere, licensed under CC BY, https:/...
Sep 09, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let’s relax and sleep with the first of some fresh new recordings of very, very old episodes. This time, we learn what architecture covers, what we should study, and why putting buildings in healthy spots is a good idea. Obvious? Apparently not! Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/d5kcMsW Read “The Ten Books on Architecture” at Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20239 Musi...
Sep 02, 2024•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let’s relax and sleep with more history of the British Isles from the wonderful Bede. This time, we wander through four centuries of Roman influence, build some walls, and learn about Saint Alban, who got a miraculous drink on a hill! Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/d5kcMsW Read “Ecclesiastical History of England” at Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38326 Music: "Bor...
Aug 26, 2024•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let’s continue a month of requests from our Patreon raffle winners with more about the operation of agricultural machinery. This time, some Q&A and a surprisingly excellent scientific explanation of the states of matter. Steamy! Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/d5kcMsW Read “Farm Engines and How To Run Them” at Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43867 Music: "Exit Exit,...
Aug 19, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let’s continue a month of requests from our Patreon raffle winners with more about the physical characteristics of animal classes. This time, we learn about camels, chameleons, and the totally-not-made-up manticore. Science! Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/d5kcMsW Read “History of Animals” at Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/59058 Music: "Ocean Tapping,” by PC III, l...
Aug 12, 2024•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let’s kick off a month of requests from our Patreon raffle winners with more about the delicious staff of life. This time, bread baking for (19th century) beginners, yeasty science, and the complexities of communion wafers. Tasty! Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/d5kcMsW Read “The History of Bread” at Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/53219 Music: "Peace,” by Lee Rosev...
Aug 05, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let’s relax and sleep with more about Einstein’s theories of relativity, how geometry gets messy on a sphere, the validity of measuring with eels, and a bit about Pythagoras, who feared beans. Who knew? Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/d5kcMsW Read “The ABC of Relativity” at Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67104 Music: "Boring Books for Bedtime,” by Lee Rosevere, lic...
Jul 29, 2024•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let’s relax and sleep with more about the origins of that magical medium, movies! This time, we explore motion, mess with gelatin, and call “Action!” on the development of celluloid film thanks to one George Eastman. Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/d5kcMsW Read “Moving Pictures” at Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67972 Music: "Boring Books for Bedtime,” by Lee Rosev...
Jul 22, 2024•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let’s relax and sleep with more from this solo journey by sailboat. This time, we cross the Atlantic, serenade dolphins, and…a seafaring ghost saves our narrator from a cheese-induced fever? Sure, why not. I don’t write them, friends. Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener supported! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/d5kcMsW Read “Sailing Alone Around the World” at Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6317 Music: "Ocean T...
Jul 15, 2024•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
