Snoozecast

Tonight, we’ll read about selecting wood from “Violin Making” written by Walter H. Mayson and published in 1909. The modern violin was first known in 16th-century Italy. The name fiddle is often used regardless of the type of music played on it, and the genres are not limited to western classical music, folk, country and jazz music along with plenty of non-Western music as well. Violinists and col...

Tonight, we’ll read the opening to the short story “At the Bay” written by Katherine Mansfield, published in 1922. Mansfield was a New Zealand writer, widely considered one of the most influential and important authors of the modernist movement. Her works are celebrated across the world, and have been published in 25 languages. This story, based on her childhood growing up in the suburbs of New Ze...

Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Secret Garden”, a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett published in 1911. If you’d like to listen to this story’s episodes in order, go to snoozecast.com/series. In the last episode, Dickon comes to Misselthwaite Manor to meet Colin with Mary. The three children start devising their plan to covertly bring Colin into the secret garden. Mr. Roach, the head garde...

Tonight, we’ll read “The Cheap Flat”, a short story written by Agatha Christie and published in 1924 as part of her “Poirot Investigates” series. In this story, Captain Hastings meets a couple at a party who have just rented a flat in a fashionable district for an implausibly cheap price. Poirot becomes intrigued and sets out to investigate. If you enjoy this episode, be sure to listen to our firs...

Tonight, we’ll read poems by John Keats starting with one titled “Sleep and Poetry.” John Keats’ poems are a major part of English Romantic poetry. They portray settings loaded with symbolism and sensuality, and draw heavily on Greek and Roman myth along with romanticised tales of chivalry. Keats died in 1821 at the young age of 25, having written the majority of his work in less than four years....

Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “Winnie-the-Pooh” a children’s story written by A.A. Milne and published in 1926. This collection of short stories features an anthropomorphic teddy bear, Winnie-the-Pooh, along with his friends Christopher Robin, Piglet, Eeyore, Owl, Rabbit, Kanga, and Roo. In the previous episode, we read chapter one, in which we were introduced to Winnie-the-Pooh and some be...

Tonight, we’ll read about the musical genius Franz Liszt as a child piano prodigy from the book “Life of Liszt” written by Ludwig Nohl. Liszt was a Hungarian composer, pianist and teacher of the Romantic era. He gained renown during the early nineteenth century for his virtuoso skill as a pianist. Since he often appeared three or four times a week in concert, it could be safe to assume that he app...

Tonight, we’ll read the fairy tale “Felicia and the Pot of Pinks” written by Madame d’Aulnoy and found in the Blue Fairy Book edited by Andrew Lang. The “pot of pinks” in this story refers to a type of dianthus flower know as “garden pinks.” Its name is not due to the color pink but rather to the serrated edges of the petals, which look like they were cut with pinking shears. In fact, the color pi...

Tonight, we shall read the next part of “Pride and Prejudice”, written by Jane Austen. If you’d like to listen to this series in order, please go to snoozecast.com/series. In the last episode, Darcy waits to find Elizabeth on a walk and gives her a letter of explanation. He answers Elizabeth's charges of misconduct toward both Jane and Wickham. He knew that Bingley was in love with Jane, but he de...

Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “The Moon Maid”, a fantasy novel written by Edgar Rice Burroughs and published in 1926. This novel constitutes a future history, and in it Burroughs' vision of what the 20th century held in store for humanity, which could be considered a kind of retroactive alternate history. In Burroughs's vision, in 1967 the planetary rulers send a first manned spacecraft to th...

Tonight, we’ll read another story from our King Arthur series. This one, “The Crowning of Arthur and the Sword Excalibur” comes from a book edited by Rupert S. Holland and published in 1919. If you’d like to listen to this whole anthology easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series. Excalibur is the legendary sword of King Arthur, sometimes also attributed with magical powers or associated with t...

Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,” a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne. In the last episode, the sailors on The Abraham Lincoln keep a keen eye on the water, searching for the sea monster. Every time someone thinks they might see something, a great rush of excitement washes over the ship, only to subside into disappointm...

Tonight, we’ll read the second half to "The Adventure of the Crooked Man", one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is one of 12 stories in the cycle collected as “The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes”.  In the first episode, which aired last week, we learn about Colonel Barclay, a man who had risen up the ranks to become the leader of a squadron. He and his wife...

Tonight, we’ll read the first voyage from “Sinbad the Sailor” edited by Laurence Housman and published in 1900. Housman was a prolific English writer and playwright, an activist and an illustrator during the Victorian era. Turning from visual art to writing when his eyesight began to fail, he also advocated tirelessly for the women’s right to vote, and believed that men should be an active partici...

Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Secret Garden”, a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett published in 1911. If you’d like to listen to this story’s episodes in order, go to snoozecast.com/series. In the last episode, Mary shares the full secret of the garden with Colin- that Dickon will come visit him tomorrow, that she has already been inside the garden itself, and that they will take him the...

Tonight, we’ll read "The Adventure of the Crooked Man", written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Out of 56 total stories, Doyle ranked "The Adventure of the Crooked Man" 15th in a list of his 19 favorite Sherlock Holmes stories. Although "Elementary, my dear Watson" is known popularly as a catch-phrase of Sherlock Holmes, the character never says this in any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. In The A...

Tonight, we’ll read “The Magic Lantern,” the next part in our series from French writer Marcel Proust’s monumental “In Search of Lost Time” which is seven volumes long, and first published in 1913. “In Search of Lost Time” follows the narrator's recollections and experiences in the late 19th-century and early 20th-century high-society France, while reflecting on the loss of time and lack of meanin...

Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “Winnie-the-Pooh” a children’s story written by A.A. Milne and published in 1926. This collection of short stories features an anthropomorphic teddy bear, Winnie-the-Pooh, along with his friends Christopher Robin, Piglet, Eeyore, Owl, Rabbit, Kanga, and Roo. The book was well received at release, a commercial success, and has been translated into over 50 language...

Tonight, we’ll read recipes on schoolroom cakes along with tea cakes and biscuits from “The Cake and Biscuit Book” by Elizabeth Douglas, published in 1903. When this cookbook was published, most American students attended a one-room schoolhouse. A single teacher would typically have students of all ages in one class. The youngest children sat in the front, while the oldest students sat in the back...

Tonight, we’ll read the second half to “The Otter Opal”, a Snoozecast original. The first half aired last week. In the last episode, we met two sea otters named Tumma and Nutsmn as they floated above the kelp forest. Their days are spent sleeping, eating, napping, playing and racing. Tumma excels at all activities, except for the swim races. He has felt frustration at frequently coming in almost l...

Tonight, we shall read the next part of “Pride and Prejudice”, written by Jane Austen. If you’d like to listen to this series in order, please go to snoozecast.com/series. In the last episode, alone at the parsonage, Elizabeth mulls over what Fitzwilliam has revealed to her that Darcy saved a friend from an imprudent marriage. She assumes that the friend is Bingley and the imprudent marriage is to...

Tonight, for our 550th episode, we’ll read about dinner party etiquette from the book “Our Deportment” written by John H. Young and published in 1881. The word “deportment” has fallen out of usage starting in the twentieth century, but is defined simply as “a person’s behavior or manners.” It comes from the similar French word déportement. — read by N — Sign up for Snoozecast+ to get expanded, ad-...

Tonight, we’ll read the first half to “The Otter Opal”, a Snoozecast original. The second half will air next week. In this story, we shall meet two dreamy sea otters named Tumma and Nutsnm as they float above the kelp forest.  — read by V — Sign up for Snoozecast+ to get expanded, ad-free access by going to  snoozecast.com/plus ! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See P...

Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,” a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne. In the last episode, we learn that Captain Farragut and his crew on the Abraham Lincoln are led by their faith that the monster exists, and that they will find it. All believe in the monster except Ned Land, a French Canadian and the best harpooner a...

Tonight, we’ll read about hermit caves and rock temples from “The Subterranean World” written by G. Hartwig and published in 1871. A hermit is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions although in modern colloquial usage, "hermit" denotes anyone living apart from the rest of society, for any reason. — read by N — Sign up for Snoozecast+ to get expanded, ad-f...