Textbook Sleep #54: Jane Austen, Teenage Historian
Jane Austen, teenage historian? Yup.
Welcome to Textbook Sleep, the Maximum-Strength Sleep Aid, where we read aloud boring public-domain textbooks to help you fall asleep.
This episode finds us listening to Austen’s History of England, From the Reign of Henry the 4th to the Death of Charles the First, By A Partial, Prejudiced and Ignorant Historian.
Okay, it’s not meant to be a typical history. Wikipedia explains, “Austen mockingly imitates the style of textbook histories of English monarchs, while ridiculing historians' pretensions to objectivity.”
Anything Austen writes is filled with her humor and whimsy. That said, I hope my reading of it will nudge you into unconsciousness.
It was written in 1791, when Austen was just 15, but not published until 1922. It was dedicated to her older sister Cassandra, who provided 13 illustrations for it.
My gratitude to Project Gutenberg for the text.
Let us ring the official Textbook Sleep bell three times, to celebrate this timeless sisterly collaboration.
This recording will end quietly.
Get full access to Pieces of Jim at jimnolan1.substack.com/subscribe (https://jimnolan1.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)
1 Oct 2026
Textbook Sleep #53: Psychology of the Stock Market
Welcome to Textbook Sleep, the Maximum-Strength Sleep Aid, where we read aloud boring public-domain textbooks to help you fall asleep.
In this episode we’ll read aloud selections from Psychology of the Stock Market by G. C. Selden, published by Ticker Publishing Company in 1912.
Subjects may include “The Speculative Cycle,” “The Panic and the Boom,” and a chapter mysteriously titled, “They”—“They” being put in quotation marks.
As human nature has not changed terribly much since 1912, some or even most of Selden’s opinions may still be valid. But more than that, they will be boring. Really, really boring.
Which is what Textbook Sleep is all about: Rediscovering yesterday’s dullest writing to make modern listeners fall fast asleep.
My gratitude to Project Gutenberg for the text.
Let’s ring the Textbook Sleep bells three times, in a salute to the opening and closing bell of New York Stock Exchange. May our investment in a sound night’s sleep ever appreciate over time.
This recording will end quietly.
Get full access to Pieces of Jim at jimnolan1.substack.com/subscribe (https://jimnolan1.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)
24 Sept 2026
Textbook Sleep #52: French Painting
Welcome to Textbook Sleep, the Maximum-Strength Sleep Aid, where we read aloud boring public-domain textbooks to help you fall asleep.
In this episode we again explore A Text-Book of the History of Painting by John C. Van Dyke, first published in 1894. This time, we’ll be reading about painting in 19th-century France.
I don’t need to tell you that this is one of the most glorious centuries of painting ever and many of the big names—Manet, Degas, Cassatt, Monet—were working in France.
So this should be an interesting listen, no?
No.
It is going to be deadly boring.
Struggle to stay awake as much as you like—perhaps you hope to hear why Professor Van Dyke thinks every painter is an impressionist—but my aging, dulcet tones will eventually lull you to unconsciousness.
My gratitude to Project Gutenberg for the text.
Now we ring the Textbook Sleep bells three times, no more, no less, to clear our minds of any and all local concerns. And then we travel to France, first class.
This recording will end quietly.
Get full access to Pieces of Jim at jimnolan1.substack.com/subscribe (https://jimnolan1.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)
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