Reading Books

 I know that if you've followed this blog for any amount of time, especially in the last few years, you know I also have a podcast. What you may not know is that I have another podcast... 

To be honest, I forgot I had the other podcast. 

My other podcast is called Public Domain Books that are Harmless. I initially created that podcast during the "lockdowns" of 2020. I created it because I had been tasked with making "homeroom" videos for my school, where I was a disciplinary dean. (As you can imagine, there weren't a whole lot of disciplinary issues that we were dealing with.) Since I had a little more time on my hands, I decided to do some reading and making it available to the students.

I don't fully understand all the copyright rules and regulations, but I was fairly certain that if a book was in the public domain, it was available for anyone to create a work based on that work... i.e. I could essentially create an audio book version of a book that was in the public domain. I chose The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald and I set myself to reading through it. It was getting a  few listens here and there, so I kept at it. I made it almost entirely through the book, but then I got to the midpoint of the school year, and we started bringing students back. 

I kept having this annoying twinge that one gets from an incomplete work because I knew that I was almost done with the book, but hadn't quite finished it. I finally logged back in to that podcast account, and to my surprise, it had gained some traction. My regular podcast was just reaching the 1,500 count, when it comes to the number of listens, but this podcast was nearing the 30,000 count, and I hadn't even finished the book and I hadn't posted any new chapters in over two years. There was obviously some measure of interest in listening to someone read old books. 

So, I decided to start it up again. 

I chose The Call of the Wild by Jack London. The Call of the Wild was one of my favorite books from my youth. It is, I believe, considered a classic. I know it is historical in the sense that it is one of the first books to be written entirely from the perspective of an animal, specifically from the viewpoint of the dog named Buck. My reading of chapter 1 was listened to over 20 times in the first couple of days.  I just finished reading Chapter 3. Once I finish this book, I will go back and finish The Princess and the Goblin. After that... well, I am not sure yet. I hope to continue the process from book to book. 

If you have a public domain book that you would like to hear me read, please consider contacting me and letting me know. In the meantime, check out chapter 3...