Paper Cuts

Now that we're properly underway on our journey to mars, let's get distracted by the moon real quick! Let's be entirely fair, though, if I were handed a ticket to wander around space carte blanche, even in the here and now, if I had the time before my intended destination, I would definitely check out what's going on on the moon before heading anywhere else. I mean, it's right there! It's been a good bit since we've been there! (Notwithstanding the incoming Artemis 2 mission, but that hasn't happened yet, from my perspective! Darn you, inexorable passage of time) That's not the only tangent we go on, either. The heavy focus on existing, real world scientists easily activates my tendency to go "wait, when was this happening? I forget the context, give me a moment..", so if you like the fun facts that come up as we go along, the sort of "real time english class footnotes", there's plenty of that here!  Unfortunately, the particular focus on real world people lends to some... Particularly Aged spots in the book. As such, here's the disclaimer! TL;DR up front: Paper Cuts is almost all public domain stuff, and some of it hasn't aged well. I'll be doing my best to warn you, but I'm not changing any of it, I don't believe censorship is the path forward here. Paper Cuts, by necessity, has to be a majority books that are in the US public domain. That means it's almost exclusively going to be content produced in the 1920s, or earlier. These works may have aspects that have not aged well to a modern viewer/listener. Now, I'm never one for censorship, but I do believe we are entitled to being able to filter the leisure content we don't want to see. So, this results in the following policy: I'll do my level best to warn you, the viewer, at the beginning of the episode, what's likely to come up. A great example is something like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which had some passages describing natives of various places in a fashion I'd charitably describe as unkindly. In cases where something sneaks up on me unwarned, I will be reading the content unedited, with my sincerest apologies for the lack of active warning. All that said, I'm gonna cover my bases with some common warnings that have come up often in books I've read before: Descriptions of "savage natives" Various racial slurs, unkind terms, and/or Descriptions of groups that have taken on a worse connotation (This one is ESPECIALLY present here) General mistreatment and misrepresentation of cultures Generally speaking, if something I'm reading is on the page? Don't expect me to have opinions aligning with it. We're here to have fun, not disparage people! Want to grab the book to read along with us? check it out here, free of charge! https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19141 (Astounding Stories, August 1930) Have a book to request? Maybe some chats to chit? Finally interested in that bread I bake? drop by the discord! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn Want to listen live? Come drop by, Fridays night, on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/ 

This book really occupies a fascinating niche, to me. In the day and age we're in, the role of unauthorized sequel, if only for copyright law reasons, is most often firmly filled by a fanfiction author. You've got to file the serial numbers if you wanna publish that, buddy! However, in the realm of the public domain (and, by extension, the relatively loosey goosey copyright rules of the late 1800s), you've got free roam to write whatever you like. Didn't like how war of the worlds was set in Britain? Boom, now the martians are invading New York! Didn't think the aliens got their proper walloping after attempting to take over the land of the brave and true? Well, by jove, you're the one who wrote that story about them invading NYC, never you mind that Wells guy, you can just write that tale yourself! Hum? Publisher says you need a recognizable main character for the papers to tell folks about? Howsabout that Thomas Edison guy, he invented the electric light, after all!  What's especially fascinating to me is, beneath all this work building on other's work, we've got the debut of an inarguably iconic science fiction weapon: the disintigrator pistol! Bit of an odd origin for something so widely used (and broadly parodied, besides), if you ask me. I'd always figured the disintigrator was from something like a pulp magazine, or maybe one of those Tom Swift stories. to be fair, I'm not too far off, those are Edisonades as well, but nope, this, the originator of that genre name, is where it comes from! Gotta give Daffy Duck a reason to have his pistol dissolve somehow, I suppose.  This book is also a great example of why we need the disclaimer! It goes like this: TL;DR up front: Paper Cuts is almost all public domain stuff, and some of it hasn't aged well. I'll be doing my best to warn you, but I'm not changing any of it, I don't believe censorship is the path forward here. Paper Cuts, by necessity, has to be a majority books that are in the US public domain. That means it's almost exclusively going to be content produced in the 1920s, or earlier. These works may have aspects that have not aged well to a modern viewer/listener. Now, I'm never one for censorship, but I do believe we are entitled to being able to filter the leisure content we don't want to see. So, this results in the following policy: I'll do my level best to warn you, the viewer, at the beginning of the episode, what's likely to come up. A great example is something like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which had some passages describing natives of various places in a fashion I'd charitably describe as unkindly. In cases where something sneaks up on me unwarned, I will be reading the content unedited, with my sincerest apologies for the lack of active warning. All that said, I'm gonna cover my bases with some common warnings that have come up often in books I've read before: Descriptions of "savage natives" Various racial slurs, unkind terms, and/or Descriptions of groups that have taken on a worse connotation (This one is ESPECIALLY present here) General mistreatment and misrepresentation of cultures Generally speaking, if something I'm reading is on the page? Don't expect me to have opinions aligning with it. We're here to have fun, not disparage people! Want to grab the book to read along with us? check it out here, free of charge! https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19141 (Astounding Stories, August 1930) Have a book to request? Maybe some chats to chit? Finally interested in that bread I bake? drop by the discord! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn Want to listen live? Come drop by, Fridays night, on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/ 

Well then! Dana learned quite a powerful lesson from this book, I'd say. I suggest you take some of what we've heard to heart, too, yknow? The planet will thank you, even if some of that thanking will have to be done indirectly. I really loved reading this book on stream, and re-hearing the story as I was editing the episodes down for the podcast was quite the delight. It's got me motivated in a major way to keep trying my best to bring some small mote of what's on display here into my own life. I actually have a little garden going out in the backyard (in a series of little pots, with varying success), I've been having an absolute blast embroidering cute little this'n'thats on my clothes to keep them in good repair, I've even been searching for ways to repair the tech I've got around (or, when it needs replacing, getting fixable options!). The solarpunk movement is one made up of what feels like a thousand little decisions, which, I feel, makes it easier to get started. Don't sit there and fuss about what's most optimal, that'll get you all locked up! Start with the choices that seem simple, and remember, it's not a 4-H project, you can enjoy the journey more than the end result!  As for this little chunk of astounding, well... it's good, but it's much better when we read more of it later, y'know? Want to read the book? Go check it out here: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/wheelers/36444581/#edition=64297035&idiq=56656333 Want the book in a nutshell first? Check out Miles Past Xanadu: https://matt-stephens.blogspot.com/2020/07/miles-past-xanadu-complete-for-later.html Have things to say, books to suggest, or just want to join another discord? Come check out mine!  https://discord.gg/PBZNsjn/  Last but not least, you want to catch stories live, well before they hit the podcast feed? Check us out, friday evenings, over on twitch!  https://www.twitch.tv/Glacier_Nester/

To be honest with you, this final act that's going on in this week's episode and the next really nails home how crushing it can feel to know there could be solutions to the sort of problems we've been experiencing of late. Well, that, and the commentary being made about the ins and outs of copyright and the importance of using that carefully! (Unstartlingly, the author is quite an advocate for Open Source, but it's also got a lot to say about corporations using the DMCA as a bludgeon)  I'm really trying to not have this description come out as dire, but the happy ending is coming in next week's episode! The return to the city is not exactly a joyous omen. I promise, it's a vital part of the story, and really makes the finale coming up super good!  Want to read the book? Go check it out here: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/wheelers/36444581/#edition=64297035&idiq=56656333 Want the book in a nutshell first? Check out Miles Past Xanadu: https://matt-stephens.blogspot.com/2020/07/miles-past-xanadu-complete-for-later.html Have things to say, books to suggest, or just want to join another discord? Come check out mine!  https://discord.gg/PBZNsjn/  Last but not least, you want to catch stories live, well before they hit the podcast feed? Check us out, friday evenings, over on twitch!  https://www.twitch.tv/Glacier_Nester/

We inch ever closer to the answer of WHY the city does things like this in this episode, and man, does Stephens really nail the sheer confusion of someone introduced to these concepts from step one just right with the way Dana does things. There's a pervading sense of "Well if there's a better way, why aren't we bothering?" throughout this section of the book, sometimes to the point of almost feeling like we're the ones being talked to. (Which, don't get me started on how that's such a thin line to tread, between preaching to the reader, staring down the camera, in comparison to getting your point across in the tone of the story and its dialogue) (That's a major known weak point of my writing, actually) (Well that, and all these asides) Speaking of asides, I've got things to promote!  Want to read the book? Go check it out here: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/wheelers/36444581/#edition=64297035&idiq=56656333 Want the book in a nutshell first? Check out Miles Past Xanadu: https://matt-stephens.blogspot.com/2020/07/miles-past-xanadu-complete-for-later.html Have things to say, books to suggest, or just want to join another discord? Come check out mine!  https://discord.gg/PBZNsjn/  Last but not least, you want to catch stories live, well before they hit the podcast feed? Check us out, friday evenings, over on twitch!  https://www.twitch.tv/Glacier_Nester/

We're finally getting some resolution on what was set up out front, and hoo boy, it's getting TENSE in a MAJOR WAY this time, folks! I mean, you knew it was gonna be difficult the second she decided to keep the Particular Item from the Fringers, but wow, we really have that drop at perhaps the worst possible time, not to mention just how difficult things are getting with the general conflict between the two major players here, y'know? Honestly, I could really wax on for a long time about the beautiful use of the climate as an antagonistic force in stories like this, too! It really reminds you that the world is a character, alongside the ways the humans have shaped the world. Sure, any good solarpunk story uses the infrastructure as a character, you've got to drive home that we can use technology for the betterment of the world somehow, but when the climate rears its head, like a cow prodded into the defense of the calf, that's a valuable opportunity for the story to REALLY get cooking! (I am once again tempted to get some writing done myself, there's just something about this genre that's inspiring to me beyond what it's normally aiming for, the inspiration of small action to better the world, from the reader) Want to read the book? Go check it out here: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/wheelers/36444581/#edition=64297035&idiq=56656333 Want the book in a nutshell first? Check out Miles Past Xanadu: https://matt-stephens.blogspot.com/2020/07/miles-past-xanadu-complete-for-later.html Have things to say, books to suggest, or just want to join another discord? Come check out mine!  https://discord.gg/PBZNsjn/  Last but not least, you want to catch stories live, well before they hit the podcast feed? Check us out, friday evenings, over on twitch!  https://www.twitch.tv/Glacier_Nester/

It's really interesting, especially from my perspective, the real glory given to what amounts to subsistence farming in solarpunk tales like this. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm a known enjoyer of that sort of thing, I have a garden in my backyard for a reason (and it's not just that I have a mighty need for the best feasible tomato for my various tomato needs)! But in my humble opinion, the angle that's going to really return a much more fruitful crop in regards to inspiration is the process of mending things that you've already got on hand. Plants are infamously fickle, and there's a reason a pretty broad spectrum of people's ancestors did absolutely everything possible to claw their way out of that lifestyle (it asks a TON of you, in the line of how much work you've got to get done). However, I've had great success for FAR less time in mending my own clothes, for example. Or, depending on your luck finding good instructions, you can get pretty far fixing up old technology that should be working, but isn't, for some reason! For example, I managed to resurrect a kindle that had a completely depleted battery, with nothing but a simple screwdriver, a battery I snagged on the page that explained how to do it, and maybe 30, 40 minutes? This book kinda leans in that direction, talking about the (genuinely very clever) idea of urban mining, but beyond a passing mention of doing some hand sewing on that kite material, and some (well-deserved!) lauding of the use of color to aid in creativity of the fashion, but lean in! Make visible mending a vital part of the fashion movements! Tell me all about how the screws and easily-acessible batteries make the tech repairable by anyone! It's solarpunk, we're supposed to make the infrastructure a main character after all.  (Yes, I should just write my own solarpunk stories that focus on these things) (Yes, I may or may not have written some already) (No, I haven't posted them anywhere... yet!) Want to read the book? Go check it out here: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/wheelers/36444581/#edition=64297035&idiq=56656333 Want the book in a nutshell first? Check out Miles Past Xanadu: https://matt-stephens.blogspot.com/2020/07/miles-past-xanadu-complete-for-later.html Have things to say, books to suggest, or just want to join another discord? Come check out mine!  https://discord.gg/PBZNsjn/  Last but not least, you want to catch stories live, well before they hit the podcast feed? Check us out, friday evenings, over on twitch!  https://www.twitch.tv/Glacier_Nester/

The kite generator mentioned here is actually some really neat tech! I kinda accidentally hit on how they work when we're talking over the potential approaches to a turbine in the kite generation system, essentially, these things take pre-established data on how the windspeed changes based on altitude, and then autonomously pilots it in a neat-looking figure eight pattern, in order to pull a tether out to spin a turbine where the windspeed is high, then move it back down to where the windspeed is low, pulling the kite back in. Interestingly, the article that I found the explanation of the mechanics in noted that the initial pitch for that company's idea was a sort of kite based sail for container ships, but that wasn't exactly an easy sell, (despite being a great idea to lean into in a solarpunk setting, I mean, the less fuel you have to burn to make those big barges go, the better, yknow?) so they pivoted to the kite generator. Anyway, if it's not obvious, there's a lot that you can really sink your teeth into in regards to learning neat stuff that's mentioned in passing in the story, even outside the things that get footnotes. Most of the technology and techniques are either actively being used, or only a few simple steps away from being actively used! Of particular note in my realm of expertise thus far in the story, the use of fractalline encryption, and mesh-based networking, are real processes that can be used. The mesh network in particular would be super handy for communicating through many smaller micronetworks, rather than the way the standard internet browsing experience focuses on a server that needs to be centrally managed. I actually wasn't very surprised to see the callout of that technique, it's a great way to handle a decentralized internet system that works in a similar fashion to those microgrids we're seeing.  Anyway, book good! More next week! Want to read the book? Go check it out here: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/wheelers/36444581/#edition=64297035&idiq=56656333 Want the book in a nutshell first? Check out Miles Past Xanadu: https://matt-stephens.blogspot.com/2020/07/miles-past-xanadu-complete-for-later.html Have things to say, books to suggest, or just want to join another discord? Come check out mine!  https://discord.gg/PBZNsjn/  Last but not least, you want to catch stories live, well before they hit the podcast feed? Check us out, friday evenings, over on twitch!  https://www.twitch.tv/Glacier_Nester/

Phew! We made it out of the city! Luckily, now that we've got that place well behind us, we're able to see the true thrust of the world that made me fall in love with the genre as a whole, and Arcadia in specific. The technology on display being so, so close to what we've got these days is remarkably motivating, at least, in my humble opinion. I do go on in the show itself about it, most especially appealing to me being the building of aeroponic gardens in the spare storage space of the Rigs. If I ever do wind up back in the rv, you know I'm FULLY invested in building that out. I mean, I could manage to cram my stuff into the other cabinets to have the space! Sure, I don't exactly have the CRISPR knowhow to build new varieties of plants well-suited to the tightly enclosed environment, but there's plenty of things that would work just fine in that small of a space, you know? I actually wouldn't hate to try to build a sort of trellised system, where the runners from various "main" plants extend upward and diagonally to let the plants have that space to stretch their feet out, you know? Maybe this is worth trying out in the backyard... I better go get planning!    Want to read the book? Go check it out here: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/wheelers/36444581/#edition=64297035&idiq=56656333 Want the book in a nutshell first? Check out Miles Past Xanadu: https://matt-stephens.blogspot.com/2020/07/miles-past-xanadu-complete-for-later.html Have things to say, books to suggest, or just want to join another discord? Come check out mine!  https://discord.gg/PBZNsjn/  Last but not least, you want to catch stories live, well before they hit the podcast feed? Check us out, friday evenings, over on twitch!  https://www.twitch.tv/Glacier_Nester/

The return of author permission happens pretty quickly, turns out! Welcome to Arcadia, a world in which the years and years of using copyright law as a bludgeon to stop people from doing the easy solutions to save the planet has been taken to its logical extreme. Well, that's the perspective of our protagonist, Dana, intially anyway. However, when she can't afford the utility rates on her inherited house any longer, she's taken to an infringement center and summarily jailed. Surprise surprise, though, her brother's some kind of wild-man revolutionary, who lives outside the city. The cops (better known as Fringers, since they handle the result of Infringements) want to learn more about how her brother's surviving in the wastes outside the city, so they hand her a radio, and let a representative of the people outside come get her, in hopes that Dana will snitch. What Dana finds, however, immediately makes her hesitate, and reconsider the shape of the world around her! That's right, this is the solarpunk novel I was rattling on about being excited to read earlier in the season! Don't worry, if you don't know what solarpunk is, I explain it relatively thoroughly, and this book is a superb example of what the genre can do, when written solidly. If you like this first episode, I'd also heartily suggest looking at Miles Past Xanadu, the short story that this novel was expanded out from. That one even has citations in the relevant footnotes, believe it or not! I really love this fledgeling genre, there's a lot to enjoy in it, and like I say in the episode, it's young enough to still have some teeth, y'know? Doesn't just use the punk as a suffix to denote a vibe, it means punk, and has some words for those in power who've been obliterating our climate. Many thanks to Matt Stephens, who was kind enough to let us read the book, I really love the tale, and here's hoping you do, too!    Want to read the book? Go check it out here: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/wheelers/36444581/#edition=64297035&idiq=56656333 Want the book in a nutshell first? Check out Miles Past Xanadu: https://matt-stephens.blogspot.com/2020/07/miles-past-xanadu-complete-for-later.html Have things to say, books to suggest, or just want to join another discord? Come check out mine!  https://discord.gg/PBZNsjn/  Last but not least, you want to catch stories live, well before they hit the podcast feed? Check us out, friday evenings, over on twitch!  https://www.twitch.tv/Glacier_Nester/  

Despite my immediate nitpicking of the science that goes on in this particular story, this is actually quite the fun little tale! I mean, it's got everything you'd want from an alien invasion story, random alien nonsense stumbled upon by a put-upon scientist, a random dame that has dubious high society connections, and most of all, the wild threat to New York, dispelled by hastily-thrown-together technobabble solutions!  On the note of technobabble, it's really fascinating to me that I don't try NEARLY as hard to unpack the ins and outs of the science in a modern story, but the second these older stories go for any sort of loose accuracy with the science I go "WEll acTUALLY-", and I do wonder if that's more of an issue with my familiarity with the science they're using for the technobabble in particular, or more with the expectations of what science is being used as the base for the technobabble itself, y'know? There's certain key concepts that science fiction nowadays really likes to bend (and break) rules of, but these older stories instead like to wrangle oddities of the electromagnetic rather than the strangeness of the quantum, and I just don't catch on quite as fast, let alone noting how much more of an intuitive sense of electricity and magnetism I have in comparison. Either way, once I get out of my own way, this last little bit of the August issue of Astounding Stories is a real hit!  I do provide a disclaimer, since these books are aged and not well-remembered:  TL;DR up front: Paper Cuts is almost all public domain stuff, and some of it hasn't aged well. I'll be doing my best to warn you, but I'm not changing any of it, I don't believe censorship is the path forward here. Paper Cuts, by necessity, has to be a majority books that are in the US public domain. That means it's almost exclusively going to be content produced in the 1920s, or earlier. These works may have aspects that have not aged well to a modern viewer/listener. Now, I'm never one for censorship, but I do believe we are entitled to being able to filter the leisure content we don't want to see. So, this results in the following policy: I'll do my level best to warn you, the viewer, at the beginning of the episode, what's likely to come up. A great example is something like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which had some passages describing natives of various places in a fashion I'd charitably describe as unkindly. In cases where something sneaks up on me unwarned, I will be reading the content unedited, with my sincerest apologies for the lack of active warning. All that said, I'm gonna cover my bases with some common warnings that have come up often in books I've read before: Descriptions of "savage natives" Various racial slurs, unkind terms, and/or Descriptions of groups that have taken on a worse connotation General mistreatment and misrepresentation of cultures Generally speaking, if something I'm reading is on the page? Don't expect me to have opinions aligning with it. We're here to have fun, not disparage people! Want to grab the book to read along with us? check it out here, free of charge! https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29768 (Astounding Stories, August 1930) Have a book to request? Maybe some chats to chit? Finally interested in that bread I bake? drop by the discord! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn Want to listen live? Come drop by, Fridays night, on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/ 

To be honest, as much as Murder Madness here dragged its feet in getting to the point, I really enjoyed the story as a whole! It's a bit formulaic from a modern perspective, but what isn't in our usual milleu around here, you know? That's kinda a function of the public domain stories we read around here, just for the sheer factor of how many stories build off of the bits and pieces we're finding, sometimes completely unintentionally!  For example, here, there's the last act twist of just what the Master was up to the whole time. Bit of a spoiler here, to be fair and honest with you, but it's really not all that much of a shocker, if you ask me, that he's aiming to make some kind of improvement on humanity as a whole, just coincidentally finding himself at the top of the heap? Could see it coming pretty clearly, especially with the reveal of the Master's whole calm, cool, collected affect a bit earlier in the story.  I do provide a disclaimer, since these books are aged and, often, not well-remembered:  TL;DR up front: Paper Cuts is almost all public domain stuff, and some of it hasn't aged well. I'll be doing my best to warn you, but I'm not changing any of it, I don't believe censorship is the path forward here. Paper Cuts, by necessity, has to be a majority books that are in the US public domain. That means it's almost exclusively going to be content produced in the 1920s, or earlier. These works may have aspects that have not aged well to a modern viewer/listener. Now, I'm never one for censorship, but I do believe we are entitled to being able to filter the leisure content we don't want to see. So, this results in the following policy: I'll do my level best to warn you, the viewer, at the beginning of the episode, what's likely to come up. A great example is something like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which had some passages describing natives of various places in a fashion I'd charitably describe as unkindly. In cases where something sneaks up on me unwarned, I will be reading the content unedited, with my sincerest apologies for the lack of active warning. All that said, I'm gonna cover my bases with some common warnings that have come up often in books I've read before: Descriptions of "savage natives" Various racial slurs, unkind terms, and/or Descriptions of groups that have taken on a worse connotation General mistreatment and misrepresentation of cultures Generally speaking, if something I'm reading is on the page? Don't expect me to have opinions aligning with it. We're here to have fun, not disparage people! Want to grab the book to read along with us? check it out here, free of charge! https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29768 (Astounding Stories, August 1930) Have a book to request? Maybe some chats to chit? Finally interested in that bread I bake? drop by the discord! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn Want to listen live? Come drop by, Fridays night, on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/   

What do you think is the deal with these Gnomes? I mean, it's not really unpacked in the story very far, but it's kinda gently implied there's a sort of queen-and-workers sort of vibe going on. Sure, it's probably just there to give Sarka a target for this whole superiority schtick, but I'm the type of person to wonder about the ecology of a foreign planet after we've read the story they're set on. Sure, sure, I'm not too worried about it when we're in the middle of reading the tale, mostly because a lot of the stories we read aroud here just sort of glaze over that sort of thing, but I genuinely think between Dune and all the solarpunk I've been reading I'm stuck like this!  Even if the framing often makes no sense to the modern eye, there's plenty to enjoy in these old books. As I've made very clear, I'm a known enjoyer of these short story collections strictly BECAUSE they're not all polished and perfect. There's so much more room to take risky, big swings in the case of a shorter story, y'know?  I do provide a disclaimer, since these books are aged and not well-remembered:  TL;DR up front: Paper Cuts is almost all public domain stuff, and some of it hasn't aged well. I'll be doing my best to warn you, but I'm not changing any of it, I don't believe censorship is the path forward here. Paper Cuts, by necessity, has to be a majority books that are in the US public domain. That means it's almost exclusively going to be content produced in the 1920s, or earlier. These works may have aspects that have not aged well to a modern viewer/listener. Now, I'm never one for censorship, but I do believe we are entitled to being able to filter the leisure content we don't want to see. So, this results in the following policy: I'll do my level best to warn you, the viewer, at the beginning of the episode, what's likely to come up. A great example is something like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which had some passages describing natives of various places in a fashion I'd charitably describe as unkindly. In cases where something sneaks up on me unwarned, I will be reading the content unedited, with my sincerest apologies for the lack of active warning. All that said, I'm gonna cover my bases with some common warnings that have come up often in books I've read before: Descriptions of "savage natives" Various racial slurs, unkind terms, and/or Descriptions of groups that have taken on a worse connotation General mistreatment and misrepresentation of cultures Generally speaking, if something I'm reading is on the page? Don't expect me to have opinions aligning with it. We're here to have fun, not disparage people! Want to grab the book to read along with us? check it out here, free of charge! https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29768 (Astounding Stories, August 1930) Have a book to request? Maybe some chats to chit? Finally interested in that bread I bake? drop by the discord! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn Want to listen live? Come drop by, Fridays night, on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/ 

If you're a bit lost on what's happening in Earth, the Marauder, I'd heartily suggest checking out the previous issue of Astounding, the July Issue! We did indeed read that in a previous episode of the show, just check the titles, I always title the first episode of a given thing with the title of the book, so that should make the July issue pretty easy to find!  Well, hopefully anyway. Even if not, a good most of the time, these serialized stories usually do a great job of reminding you what you missed. They kind of have to, y'know? Since not everybody caught every issue, and you didn't wanna wind up completely lost if you missed a trip to the newstand, that's the tact I'd take, anyway.  Either way, the tale on display here really has its ups and its downs. Loads of fun concepts, but some of them it REALLY doesn't pull off. At least, if you can't stand to hear this one, it's not going to hang around forever! That's the glory of these short story collections, the stuff you don't like doesn't loom large. Sure, that comes with the downside of the things you like not sticking around too long, but some of these stories would need MAJOR reworks to be any longer than they were written here.  I do provide a disclaimer, since these books are aged and not well-remembered:  TL;DR up front: Paper Cuts is almost all public domain stuff, and some of it hasn't aged well. I'll be doing my best to warn you, but I'm not changing any of it, I don't believe censorship is the path forward here. Paper Cuts, by necessity, has to be a majority books that are in the US public domain. That means it's almost exclusively going to be content produced in the 1920s, or earlier. These works may have aspects that have not aged well to a modern viewer/listener. Now, I'm never one for censorship, but I do believe we are entitled to being able to filter the leisure content we don't want to see. So, this results in the following policy: I'll do my level best to warn you, the viewer, at the beginning of the episode, what's likely to come up. A great example is something like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which had some passages describing natives of various places in a fashion I'd charitably describe as unkindly. In cases where something sneaks up on me unwarned, I will be reading the content unedited, with my sincerest apologies for the lack of active warning. All that said, I'm gonna cover my bases with some common warnings that have come up often in books I've read before: Descriptions of "savage natives" Various racial slurs, unkind terms, and/or Descriptions of groups that have taken on a worse connotation General mistreatment and misrepresentation of cultures Generally speaking, if something I'm reading is on the page? Don't expect me to have opinions aligning with it. We're here to have fun, not disparage people! Want to grab the book to read along with us? check it out here, free of charge! https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29768 (Astounding Stories, August 1930) Have a book to request? Maybe some chats to chit? Finally interested in that bread I bake? drop by the discord! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn Want to listen live? Come drop by, Fridays night, on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/ 

You never know what you'll happen to find beneath the earth in these oddball little pulp stories we read here on the show. Could it be some sort of monster? Perhaps a whole society of people we've been missing out on interacting with? Maybe, even, depending on the day, some sort of giant aeomeba that just wants to burble about for a while!  That's not even to mention the absolutely madcap volume of oddities you'll find just above the average cruising altitude of a plane, I mean, an entire planet full of blood-drinking frog men, just hanging out up there is just the start of things! Don't even get me started on what they found beyond the heaviside layer, or up there on the moon!  But enough listing possibilities from me, you'll have to listen to the episode itself if you want to know just what we find not only on the second satellite, but beneath the silver dome, as well. I might have invoked the disclaimer in this one? either way, here it is:  TL;DR up front: Paper Cuts is almost all public domain stuff, and some of it hasn't aged well. I'll be doing my best to warn you, but I'm not changing any of it, I don't believe censorship is the path forward here. Paper Cuts, by necessity, has to be a majority books that are in the US public domain. That means it's almost exclusively going to be content produced in the 1920s, or earlier. These works may have aspects that have not aged well to a modern viewer/listener. Now, I'm never one for censorship, but I do believe we are entitled to being able to filter the leisure content we don't want to see. So, this results in the following policy:     I'll do my level best to warn you, the viewer, at the beginning of the episode, what's likely to come up.     A great example is something like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which had some passages describing natives of various places in a fashion I'd charitably describe as unkindly.     In cases where something sneaks up on me unwarned, I will be reading the content unedited, with my sincerest apologies for the lack of active warning. All that said, I'm gonna cover my bases with some common warnings that have come up often in books I've read before:     Descriptions of "savage natives"     Various racial slurs, unkind terms, and/or Descriptions of groups that have taken on a worse connotation     General mistreatment and misrepresentation of cultures Generally speaking, if something I'm reading is on the page? Don't expect me to have opinions aligning with it. We're here to have fun, not disparage people! Want to grab the book to read along with us? check it out here, free of charge! https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29768 (Astounding Stories, August 1930) Have a book to request? Maybe some chats to chit? Finally interested in that bread I bake? drop by the discord! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn Want to listen live? Come drop by, Fridays night, on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/ 

Don't let my sleepy, dozy demeanor fool you here, gang, I had just had a long day at the time! This tale is quite the ride, a whole second planet just hanging out within the easy reach of an airplane? Wild!    I mean, the physics of something like that would be turning the world upside down, but who needs physics when you've got a waterworld full of frog-men who seem to subsist on the blood of the other people who live on the planet? You really don't find plots this wild outside the pulps, people! You're really going to want to tune in to next week's episode if that concept interests you at all, this really evolves into quite the story! I do provide a disclaimer, since these books are aged and not well-remembered:  TL;DR up front: Paper Cuts is almost all public domain stuff, and some of it hasn't aged well. I'll be doing my best to warn you, but I'm not changing any of it, I don't believe censorship is the path forward here. Paper Cuts, by necessity, has to be a majority books that are in the US public domain. That means it's almost exclusively going to be content produced in the 1920s, or earlier. These works may have aspects that have not aged well to a modern viewer/listener. Now, I'm never one for censorship, but I do believe we are entitled to being able to filter the leisure content we don't want to see. So, this results in the following policy: I'll do my level best to warn you, the viewer, at the beginning of the episode, what's likely to come up. A great example is something like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which had some passages describing natives of various places in a fashion I'd charitably describe as unkindly. In cases where something sneaks up on me unwarned, I will be reading the content unedited, with my sincerest apologies for the lack of active warning. All that said, I'm gonna cover my bases with some common warnings that have come up often in books I've read before: Descriptions of "savage natives" Various racial slurs, unkind terms, and/or Descriptions of groups that have taken on a worse connotation General mistreatment and misrepresentation of cultures Generally speaking, if something I'm reading is on the page? Don't expect me to have opinions aligning with it. We're here to have fun, not disparage people! Want to grab the book to read along with us? check it out here, free of charge! https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29768 (Astounding Stories, August 1930) Have a book to request? Maybe some chats to chit? Finally interested in that bread I bake? drop by the discord! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn Want to listen live? Come drop by, Fridays night, on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/ 

Indeed, we do stumble into quite the bevy of delights as we delve farther and farther into the past with this particular issue of Astounding Stories. Sure, it's already quite the delight to discover a new saga in the tale we've heard previously in Earth, the Marauder, but in addition to that, we're well on our way to finding other short stories that boggle the mind!  As an aside, I mention a more modern short story collection out front, and I would love to stress to authors: I am more than willing to discuss featuring your work on the show! Guarding Gus, our first episode of the third season, is far from a fluke in terms of the stories I'm hoping to feature on the show going forward. If you've got some writing you feel would be a particularly good fit, feel free to shoot me an email at glaciernester@gmail.com, and we can talk about what that might look like for you!  Back on topic, though, I really do believe that short story collections can contain startling volumes of incredibly compelling work. I'm not sure I've mentioned it on the show, but there's a particular short story that I've been chasing for YEARS, that I first read in high school, and didn't write down the title of, and cannot find for the LIFE of me. In short, it was in a black-covered science fiction anthology that was about to be weeded out of the school library, and the only two major stories I remember have stuck with me ever since: one set in a society where time is used as currency, which opens with a scene of a group of street buskers doing some performance art, wherein they set their internal clocks to tick down simultaneously, such that the mob they were standing in instead causes them to fall, spelling out MEMENTO MORI in a town square. The other swings a bit more horriffic, as a young woman struggles against the thrall of a claude glass, each time she stares, finding herself more and more strongly compelled to never look at anything else. There's a particularly vivid passage of her describing how a lizard that wandered into the house looks after staring into the claude glass, her perception of color forced into eye-popping contrast in comparison to life as it was before.  The sheer vividity of these two stories as they impressed themselves into my then-younger mind has really instilled in me a drive to check out these short story collections, there's some real gems in there! Not just the yearly anthology issues, either, there's great stuff in the monthlies, too. Remind me to talk about Optopia on the live stream, sometime, you'll hear about some fantastic solarpunk yarns.  Also of note, our content disclaimer: TL;DR up front: Paper Cuts is almost all public domain stuff, and some of it hasn't aged well. I'll be doing my best to warn you, but I'm not changing any of it, I don't believe censorship is the path forward here. Paper Cuts, by necessity, has to be a majority books that are in the US public domain. That means it's almost exclusively going to be content produced in the 1920s, or earlier. These works may have aspects that have not aged well to a modern viewer/listener. Now, I'm never one for censorship, but I do believe we are entitled to being able to filter the leisure content we don't want to see. So, this results in the following policy:     I'll do my level best to warn you, the viewer, at the beginning of the episode, what's likely to come up.     A great example is something like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which had some passages describing natives of various places in a fashion I'd charitably describe as unkindly.     In cases where something sneaks up on me unwarned, I will be reading the content unedited, with my sincerest apologies for the lack of active warning. All that said, I'm gonna cover my bases with some common warnings that have come up often in books I've read before:     Descriptions of "savage natives"     Various racial slurs, unkind terms, and/or Descriptions of groups that have taken on a worse connotation     General mistreatment and misrepresentation of cultures Generally speaking, if something I'm reading is on the page? Don't expect me to have opinions aligning with it. We're here to have fun, not disparage people! Want to grab the book to read along with us? check it out here, free of charge! https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29768 (Astounding Stories, August 1930) Have a book to request? Maybe some chats to chit? Finally interested in that bread I bake? drop by the discord! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn Want to listen live? Come drop by, Fridays night, on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/ 

As I've been known to mention a great many times, I absolutely love the wonderful short stories on hand in these old pulp magazines. Sure, they're not exactly always a hit, but when the author nails what they're going for? It's really going to shine! I mean, picture just how many incredibly famous pieces of what forms not only the english class "canon", but also those works that prove definitional to a genre, most especially genre that was then-niche, but now having a moment in the sun, like science fiction, or cyberpunk! (If you're looking at modern story magazines, you can even find things that I feel define essential modern genres, like solarpunk, as well!) Gush as much as I like about these magazines, unfortunately August is the last Astounding issue we're going to be reading outright, directly like this. We don't know it at the time of this recording, but going forward, I'm going to be shifting the focus when it comes to Astounding, leaning in to its strengths as a provider of short stories. We'll, rather than reading the issues all in one run, instead be adding pieces of the issue to act as bonus tales, when a story ends a bit earlier than I was expecting it to. Perhaps I'll add a little tag to the description of the episodes which feature astounding episodes, for my fellow serialized short story enjoyers!  All that said, I hope you enjoy this particular issue of Astounding! As we work our way through the issue, we finish up that Earth the Marauder story that's been being chipped away at! Really, quite the fun twists in store here, as they wrangle their way through the whole conquering space whatnot. Reminds me of how science fiction tends to rhyme, we have this back in the 30s, and now there's tales of societies that prove a dyson sphere doesn't have quite enough energy, and instead propel their planet out of its original orbit, in hopes of finding more resources to work with. Wild to think about! I don't think the disclaimer came up this time, but here it is anyway:  TL;DR up front: Paper Cuts is almost all public domain stuff, and some of it hasn't aged well. I'll be doing my best to warn you, but I'm not changing any of it, I don't believe censorship is the path forward here. Paper Cuts, by necessity, has to be a majority books that are in the US public domain. That means it's almost exclusively going to be content produced in the 1920s, or earlier. These works may have aspects that have not aged well to a modern viewer/listener. Now, I'm never one for censorship, but I do believe we are entitled to being able to filter the leisure content we don't want to see. So, this results in the following policy: I'll do my level best to warn you, the viewer, at the beginning of the episode, what's likely to come up. A great example is something like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which had some passages describing natives of various places in a fashion I'd charitably describe as unkindly. In cases where something sneaks up on me unwarned, I will be reading the content unedited, with my sincerest apologies for the lack of active warning. All that said, I'm gonna cover my bases with some common warnings that have come up often in books I've read before: Descriptions of "savage natives" Various racial slurs, unkind terms, and/or Descriptions of groups that have taken on a worse connotation General mistreatment and misrepresentation of cultures Generally speaking, if something I'm reading is on the page? Don't expect me to have opinions aligning with it. We're here to have fun, not disparage people! Want to grab the book to read along with us? check it out here, free of charge! https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29768 (Astounding Stories, August 1930) Have a book to request? Maybe some chats to chit? Finally interested in that bread I bake? drop by the discord! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn Want to listen live? Come drop by, Fridays night, on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/ 

Welcome, welcome welcome, to season 3 of Paper Cuts! As you heard in the opening of the podcast, we're shifting our release model. Rather than innundating you with approximately eight hours of material all at once, that you then have to sort out how to listen to, we're instead cutting the stream down into managable, bite size even, 1 hour and 30 minute chunks. You're still getting the same great Live Audiobook content we know and love here at Paper Cuts, but I'm doing all the wrangling of squashing it down into a cleaner timeframe! Fittingly, the first episode of our third season also debuts our other huge shift (well, the one that's audible to you listeners): we've got some modern books now! Thanks to the gracious permissions of several very generous authors, I get to showcase some books published outside the public domain. We've picked an absolutely fantastic starting point here, in showing off what I'd comfortably call a "shareware demo" of Guarding Gus, by Karryn Nagel. Don't let that put you off, however, even the first five chapters of this book are an absolute blast, as we dive into the world of a Multnomah changed by the (relatively) recent addition of things quite fantastical to our own world. We follow the foibles of two young men, Brant and Nico, as they struggle to pin down just what our title character, Gustopher, has roped them into, despite being an adorable baby gargoyle. I immediately fell in love with the characters on display here, Nico just wants his quiet little life with his quiet little bonsai, but his whole world is turned upside down on wanting to make sure everyone has stayed safe, only to find that a) he's been adopted by a local extrovert (in Brant) and b) now he's got to take care of this little baby alongside a guy who he barely knows! Oh, and it's a bit of a reverse heist situation, too, as the local leader of what amounts to the magic mob was originally planning on having Gustopher as a showpiece in his menagerie! I really enjoyed the heck out of the first five chapters of this book, and I really hope you do too! Enough time has passed since the friday this episode came out that you can not only acquire this book through digital booksellers, but also physical copies, and it's available to your local libraries, too! There was a bit of a wait while we were originally airing, but like I've done the organizing for you, I've also done the waiting. Enough waiting, in fact, that the sequel to Guarding Gus, What to Suspect when You're Suspecting, has actually been announced! (Karryn, if you want me to do a demo of that one too, you'd hear no complaints from me, that's for sure!) There's a lot of really good stories coming down the road with this season, and I hope you enjoy the changes I'm making on the backend! Want to read along with us? Find the book here:  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/198424215-guarding-gus Have opinions you want to share, or want to suggest books? Discord's great for that! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/ Want to listen live? Drop by Fridays, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/ Want to catch up in a video format? Check out the youtube channel! https://www.youtube.com/user/glaciernester

Ah, the very last episode of this season! We start to get into the lush world of Arthur Conan Doyle's most popular (non-sherlock) writing, and discover that HOO BOY does that professor have some feelings on the matter of the people he met and the places he went. Well, that, and he really doesn't care for the press. He just wants to be right and have people know he's right, without all the fuss of proving it. Sounds like he'd fit right in on the internet, howsabout we get this guy a podcast, huh? I mean, a radio show would be more appropriate to the time, setting, and theme, but I'd love to see such oddities that an anachronistic old fogey like this would cause!  Additionally of note, this month's episodes are the last ones of season 2, and as we come to season 3, starting in May, we'll be having a different release schedule! That's right, we're finally shifting to weekly episodes, much to the joy of everyone who didn't have time for multiple 3 to 4 hour journeys dropping all at once at the end of the month! No more having to ration out episodes of your favorite books to tide you over, I'll be spreading things out manually! Isn't that exciting? I don't think the disclaimer came up this time, but here it is anyway:  TL;DR up front: Paper Cuts is almost all public domain stuff, and some of it hasn't aged well. I'll be doing my best to warn you, but I'm not changing any of it, I don't believe censorship is the path forward here. Paper Cuts, by necessity, has to be a majority books that are in the US public domain. That means it's almost exclusively going to be content produced in the 1920s, or earlier. These works may have aspects that have not aged well to a modern viewer/listener. Now, I'm never one for censorship, but I do believe we are entitled to being able to filter the leisure content we don't want to see. So, this results in the following policy: I'll do my level best to warn you, the viewer, at the beginning of the episode, what's likely to come up. A great example is something like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which had some passages describing natives of various places in a fashion I'd charitably describe as unkindly. In cases where something sneaks up on me unwarned, I will be reading the content unedited, with my sincerest apologies for the lack of active warning. All that said, I'm gonna cover my bases with some common warnings that have come up often in books I've read before: Descriptions of "savage natives" Various racial slurs, unkind terms, and/or Descriptions of groups that have taken on a worse connotation General mistreatment and misrepresentation of cultures Generally speaking, if something I'm reading is on the page? Don't expect me to have opinions aligning with it. We're here to have fun, not disparage people! Want to grab the book to read along with us? check it out here, free of charge! https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/139 (The Lost World) Have a book to request? Maybe some chats to chit? Finally interested in that bread I bake? drop by the discord! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn Want to listen live? Come drop by, Fridays night, on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/ 

Unsurprisingly, I really breeze through books I know well here on the show, but unfortunately, that also means a goodly sized number of my favorites really are here today, then gone next week. So, while we really did have a blast reading The Time Machine, it's all over now. Well, that is, if it ever even happened? The book is sure insistent on being unsure. Either way, there's so much to enjoy about H.G.'s writing, especially in the hits like this one. As for the short story we got through, it's always a pleasant surprise to see someone realizing the concerning pattern that invasive species can get you into, and that goes double for planets that aren't earth! Come to think of it, we'll have to work out some kind of safe decontamination procedure when it comes to interstellar travel, as even a healthy person's microbiome could wreak major havoc on the little creatures we can't manage to see on even uninhabited planets, maybe I've got something there? Actually, come to think, I've got a better idea involving a sourdough starter and a planet full of gluten... Before I get too off topic, a little notice! This month's episodes are the last ones of season 2, and as we come to season 3, starting in May, we'll be having a different release schedule! That's right, we're finally shifting to weekly episodes, much to the joy of everyone who didn't have time for multiple 3 to 4 hour journeys dropping all at once at the end of the month! No more having to ration out episodes of your favorite books to tide you over, I'll be spreading things out manually! Isn't that exciting? I don't think the disclaimer came up this time, but here it is anyway:  TL;DR up front: Paper Cuts is almost all public domain stuff, and some of it hasn't aged well. I'll be doing my best to warn you, but I'm not changing any of it, I don't believe censorship is the path forward here. Paper Cuts, by necessity, has to be a majority books that are in the US public domain. That means it's almost exclusively going to be content produced in the 1920s, or earlier. These works may have aspects that have not aged well to a modern viewer/listener. Now, I'm never one for censorship, but I do believe we are entitled to being able to filter the leisure content we don't want to see. So, this results in the following policy: I'll do my level best to warn you, the viewer, at the beginning of the episode, what's likely to come up. A great example is something like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which had some passages describing natives of various places in a fashion I'd charitably describe as unkindly. In cases where something sneaks up on me unwarned, I will be reading the content unedited, with my sincerest apologies for the lack of active warning. All that said, I'm gonna cover my bases with some common warnings that have come up often in books I've read before: Descriptions of "savage natives" Various racial slurs, unkind terms, and/or Descriptions of groups that have taken on a worse connotation General mistreatment and misrepresentation of cultures Generally speaking, if something I'm reading is on the page? Don't expect me to have opinions aligning with it. We're here to have fun, not disparage people! Want to grab the book to read along with us? check it out here, free of charge! https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35 (The Time Machine) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32124 (To Choke an Ocean) Have a book to request? Maybe some chats to chit? Finally interested in that bread I bake? drop by the discord! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn Want to listen live? Come drop by, Fridays night, on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/ 

Once again, I return to a personal favorite of mine, this time in The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells. As I note in the episode, I absolutely fell in LOVE with h.g.'s writing as a kid, there's just so much to enjoy, even divorced of context as I originally read it. The Time Machine in particular, though, really shines if you learn more of the context this book was written in. It's actually quite a biting commentary on the aggressive stratification of that era's society, and what an extrapolation of that to its logical maximum could look like. Listen, I could carry on about my english class conclusions on the matter of just who these folks the time traveller meets up with first are meant to reflect, or why it's so important to consider the role of science fiction at large in making social commentary, but really, at the end of the day, it's just a darn solid read, and to be honest? I doubt anyone's reading the show notes anyway! If you ARE reading these, come drop by the discord, tell me something interesting in the infodump channel! You've got an open invitation to carry on about your favorite topic, bonus points for linking sources so we can learn more! Want to read along with us? Find the book here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35 Have opinions you want to share, or want to suggest books? Discord's great for that! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/ Want to listen live? Drop by Fridays, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/

First off, major points to the wizard of oz movie, not only is it the delightful classic we all love to see, they really didn't miss much in the way of adapation, in my humble opinion. Sure, sure, they cut the porcelain people, but they're not really of much consequence to the story at large. My only real complaint proper was cutting the expansion on the backstory of the flying monkeys, which, to be fair, was mostly just nice to know. I'm not really quite sure where they could have managed to put in the details about the crown that commands the monkeys in the sequences of the movie, given that understanding of all that is basically the window onto the whole lore of them being bound in servitude to the witch thanks to it? I guess they could have kinda stuck the power onto the ruby slippers, maybe even not outright making it a magical effect of the slippers (which then allows you to keep the magical reveal later), but have it be an old trade deal between the kingdom of the west and the monkeys that says they owe favors to the holder of the ruby slippers? Either way, what a delightful tale that was! And that's not to discount the short stories we read in this episode, either, mind you. Just how many times have you seen the time dilation plot actually go the way it went in "So They Baked A Cake...", huh? I certainly found myself reeling at the results, not just once while I was reading it, but twice while I was editing the episode, even! Don't get me started on that glowworm guy, though... Want to read along with us? Find the book (and short stories) here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51414 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23104 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67362 Have opinions you want to share, or want to suggest books? (Like, say, the many sequels to this book?) Discord's great for that! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/ Want to listen live? Drop by Fridays, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/

We're off on a journey into what the author, L. Frank Baum, calls a modern fairytale, to see another one of the real hits of the public domain, this time digging into the antics of not just Dorothy, but all her delightful friends, besides! Well, really, we meet her major enemy as well, and what most people would call (and I'm putting this charitably here) a charlatan! A con man, even! Well, I mean, how else would you ask me to interpret those required green sunglasses, huh? Confused as to what I'm on about? You've got to listen to the episode, then! It's different from the movie, you know! Not a huge volume, different, mind you, but different nonetheless! Keep a close ear on things, and maybe you'll catch just what's up there, I found it quite a fun game when I was listening to edit the episode down.  Want to read along with us? Find the book here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55  Have opinions you want to share, or want to suggest books? (Like, say, the many sequels to this book?) Discord's great for that! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/  Want to listen live? Drop by Fridays, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/   Disclaimer time! TL;DR up front: Paper Cuts is almost all public domain stuff, and some of it hasn't aged well. I'll be doing my best to warn you, but I'm not changing any of it, I don't believe censorship is the path forward here. Paper Cuts, by necessity, has to be a majority books that are in the US public domain. That means it's almost exclusively going to be content produced in the 1920s, or earlier. These works may have aspects that have not aged well to a modern viewer/listener. Now, I'm never one for censorship, but IÂ do believe we are entitled to being able to filter the leisure content we don't want to see. So, this results in the following policy: I'll do my level best to warn you, the viewer, at the beginning of the episode, what's likely to come up. A great example is something like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which had some passages describing natives of various places in a fashion I'd charitably describe as unkindly. In cases where something sneaks up on me unwarned, I will be reading the content unedited, with my sincerest apologies for the lack of active warning. All that said, I'm gonna cover my bases with some common warnings that have come up often in books I've read before: Descriptions of "savage natives" Various racial slurs, unkind terms, and/or Descriptions of groups that have taken on a worse connotation General mistreatment and misrepresentation of cultures Generally speaking, if something I'm reading is on the page? Don't expect me to have opinions aligning with it. We're here to have fun, not disparage people!

With a name like The Forgotten Planet, you immediately wonder what's going to cause someone to forget a WHOLE PLANET, but this particular tale really takes us on some twists and turns before we find out just what's going on, there. As I say, a lot of these old short story collections from the public domain have a surprising quantity of solid concepts, writing, and even execution! Aren't you glad I go trawling through the massive libraries of text available to find only the best for the show? I even read it aloud, just for you! You'd never think some of this would have an audiobook of any sort, let alone a live one! Want to read along with us? Find the book here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29198  Have opinions you want to share, or want to suggest books? Discord's great for that! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/  Want to listen live? Drop by Fridays, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/ Disclaimer time! TL;DR up front: Paper Cuts is almost all public domain stuff, and some of it hasn't aged well. I'll be doing my best to warn you, but I'm not changing any of it, I don't believe censorship is the path forward here. Paper Cuts, by necessity, has to be a majority books that are in the US public domain. That means it's almost exclusively going to be content produced in the 1920s, or earlier. These works may have aspects that have not aged well to a modern viewer/listener. Now, I'm never one for censorship, but IÂ do believe we are entitled to being able to filter the leisure content we don't want to see. So, this results in the following policy: I'll do my level best to warn you, the viewer, at the beginning of the episode, what's likely to come up. A great example is something like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which had some passages describing natives of various places in a fashion I'd charitably describe as unkindly. In cases where something sneaks up on me unwarned, I will be reading the content unedited, with my sincerest apologies for the lack of active warning. All that said, I'm gonna cover my bases with some common warnings that have come up often in books I've read before: Descriptions of "savage natives" Various racial slurs, unkind terms, and/or Descriptions of groups that have taken on a worse connotation General mistreatment and misrepresentation of cultures Generally speaking, if something I'm reading is on the page? Don't expect me to have opinions aligning with it. We're here to have fun, not disparage people!

From high in the air, there is a terror descending upon us. No, no, not like that, it's some kind of menace in the air lanes! Well, if we're getting out of the way of that, we should head to space proper! Need something really special? Why not head for someplace uncharted! Well, I've heard tell of a forgotten planet that'd have all sorts of neat stuff within. Ah, I see, I see, you don't have the stomach for space travel, well, there's quite the series of events going on down south, if you've still got the taste for adventure. It's really quite the tale, there's zombies, mesmerism, derring-do, the whole nine yards! Okay, alright, none of that sounds good, just stick at home and discover this fantastic tale of a wonderful new scientific discovery! None of that sound good? Give the episode a listen anyway, I only described some of the Astounding short stories on offer in this episode! Want to read along with us? Find the book here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29198 Have opinions you want to share, or want to suggest books? Discord's great for that! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/ Want to listen live? Drop by Fridays, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/   Disclaimer:  TL;DR up front: Paper Cuts is almost all public domain stuff, and some of it hasn't aged well. I'll be doing my best to warn you, but I'm not changing any of it, I don't believe censorship is the path forward here. Paper Cuts, by necessity, has to be a majority books that are in the US public domain. That means it's almost exclusively going to be content produced in the 1920s, or earlier. These works may have aspects that have not aged well to a modern viewer/listener. Now, I'm never one for censorship, but I do believe we are entitled to being able to filter the leisure content we don't want to see. So, this results in the following policy: I'll do my level best to warn you, the viewer, at the beginning of the episode, what's likely to come up. A great example is something like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which had some passages describing natives of various places in a fashion I'd charitably describe as unkindly. In cases where something sneaks up on me unwarned, I will be reading the content unedited, with my sincerest apologies for the lack of active warning. All that said, I'm gonna cover my bases with some common warnings that have come up often in books I've read before: Descriptions of "savage natives" Various racial slurs, unkind terms, and/or Descriptions of groups that have taken on a worse connotation General mistreatment and misrepresentation of cultures Generally speaking, if something I'm reading is on the page? Don't expect me to have opinions aligning with it. We're here to have fun, not disparage people!

Celebrating a huge milestone for the twitch audience, we dive into another issue of Astounding Stories! This time, in the July 1930 issue, we'll dive into many stories, not the least of which being one in which we learn of a world blocked from its final frontier. What lies beyond the heaviside layer? What noble heroes may operate the flyer managing to plumb the depths of this, our darkest sea? And most importantly, will the reporter make it back in time to get that front page byline? Of course, as usual, the easiest way to find out is listening to this episode of Paper Cuts! (Can you tell I've been listening to some Old Time Radio in place of podcasts lately?) Seriously though, I want to extend a hearty thanks to you all for finally getting us over the hill of affiliate-ship, twitch has a lot of really fun stuff you can do once that's underway, and I've been brewing up some loyalty redeems using those tools that'll be real neat! And hey, you can even subscribe to kick me a little money, if you'd like! Disclaimer, as noted in the episode: TL;DR up front: Paper Cuts is almost all public domain stuff, and some of it hasn't aged well. I'll be doing my best to warn you, but I'm not changing any of it, I don't believe censorship is the path forward here. Paper Cuts, by necessity, has to be a majority books that are in the US public domain. That means it's almost exclusively going to be content produced in the 1920s, or earlier. These works may have aspects that have not aged well to a modern viewer/listener. Now, I'm never one for censorship, but I do believe we are entitled to being able to filter the leisure content we don't want to see. So, this results in the following policy: I'll do my level best to warn you, the viewer, at the beginning of the episode, what's likely to come up. A great example is something like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which had some passages describing natives of various places in a fashion I'd charitably describe as unkindly. In cases where something sneaks up on me unwarned, I will be reading the content unedited, with my sincerest apologies for the lack of active warning. All that said, I'm gonna cover my bases with some common warnings that have come up often in books I've read before: Descriptions of "savage natives" Various racial slurs, unkind terms, and/or Descriptions of groups that have taken on a worse connotation General mistreatment and misrepresentation of cultures Generally speaking, if something I'm reading is on the page? Don't expect me to have opinions aligning with it. We're here to have fun, not disparage people!   Want to read along with us? Find the book here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29198 Have opinions you want to share, or want to suggest books? Discord's great for that! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/ Want to listen live? Drop by Fridays, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/

Our time in the Crystal Age, brief as though it has been, made for quite the tale! Loads of twists and turns have lead us throughout this stunning little pastoral view of a future that did not come to pass. How they went for our main character? Well, you've heard two thirds of it already, so I'm sure you'll enjoy the remaining piece!  I know, I know, I say I enjoy every story we wind up reading on the show, but this one's really got some potential to an adaptation! Maybe it's just the huge isekai glut I've been getting, wtaching some anime here and there with my partner, but I really think this hits the beats of that fish-out-of-water, man-out-of-time tale really fantastically, and there's some really fun details to work with in the general worldbuilding, too! I mean, look at how they treat music, for example, and with what reverence they view the written word and the books in which they're bound, there's room for potentially even something beyond, say, a simple film! I think it'd be quite fascinating to see how a tabletop rpg campaign would look in what details we get here, perhaps something designed to travel from one somewhat isolated city to another and experience the differences between them!  Honestly that gives me an idea, these old "I was sent to the future!" public domain stories really have a specific vibe to them, I wonder if I could make a game Powered By The Apocalypse to address those genre conventions... Much to consider.  The disclaimer does come up in this episode! Here's the full text: TL;DR up front: Paper Cuts is almost all public domain stuff, and some of it hasn't aged well. I'll be doing my best to warn you, but I'm not changing any of it, I don't believe censorship is the path forward here. Paper Cuts, by necessity, has to be a majority books that are in the US public domain. That means it's almost exclusively going to be content produced in the 1920s, or earlier. These works may have aspects that have not aged well to a modern viewer/listener. Now, I'm never one for censorship, but I do believe we are entitled to being able to filter the leisure content we don't want to see. So, this results in the following policy: I'll do my level best to warn you, the viewer, at the beginning of the episode, what's likely to come up. A great example is something like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which had some passages describing natives of various places in a fashion I'd charitably describe as unkindly. In cases where something sneaks up on me unwarned, I will be reading the content unedited, with my sincerest apologies for the lack of active warning. All that said, I'm gonna cover my bases with some common warnings that have come up often in books I've read before: Descriptions of "savage natives" Various racial slurs, unkind terms, and/or Descriptions of groups that have taken on a worse connotation General mistreatment and misrepresentation of cultures Generally speaking, if something I'm reading is on the page? Don't expect me to have opinions aligning with it. We're here to have fun, not disparage people!   Want to read along with us? Find the book here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7401 Have opinions you want to share, or want to suggest books? Discord's great for that! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/ Want to listen live? Drop by Fridays, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/

As we continue the tale of our intrepid isekai protagonist, we find that he is, unlike the standard isekai lad, having trouble with the local language. That darn semantic shift, it really does come for us all! Luckily, we're not quite so impacted by this trouble, unless you're also digging up old and middle english texts (like I've been doing offscreen, considering giving a few a read for the show!).  However, like the isekai protagonists who do struggle with literacy, he's got a teacher, and one he seems to be developing quite the fondness for! How does that fondness develop? Well, that's a question you're going to have to listen to the episode to find out the answer to.  The disclaimer hasn't come up in this book quite yet, as I recall, but here's the full text anyway, as it's important to know what's up with these old books: TL;DR up front: Paper Cuts is almost all public domain stuff, and some of it hasn't aged well. I'll be doing my best to warn you, but I'm not changing any of it, I don't believe censorship is the path forward here. Paper Cuts, by necessity, has to be a majority books that are in the US public domain. That means it's almost exclusively going to be content produced in the 1920s, or earlier. These works may have aspects that have not aged well to a modern viewer/listener. Now, I'm never one for censorship, but I do believe we are entitled to being able to filter the leisure content we don't want to see. So, this results in the following policy: I'll do my level best to warn you, the viewer, at the beginning of the episode, what's likely to come up. A great example is something like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which had some passages describing natives of various places in a fashion I'd charitably describe as unkindly. In cases where something sneaks up on me unwarned, I will be reading the content unedited, with my sincerest apologies for the lack of active warning. All that said, I'm gonna cover my bases with some common warnings that have come up often in books I've read before: Descriptions of "savage natives" Various racial slurs, unkind terms, and/or Descriptions of groups that have taken on a worse connotation General mistreatment and misrepresentation of cultures Generally speaking, if something I'm reading is on the page? Don't expect me to have opinions aligning with it. We're here to have fun, not disparage people!   Want to read along with us? Find the book here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7401 Have opinions you want to share, or want to suggest books? Discord's great for that! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/ Want to listen live? Drop by Fridays, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/

I must admit, when I got around to editing this episode, I genuinely didn't remember much about the opening of this book. It definitely leans into that old problem that these public domain books have, where at the time, the opening would have been quite thrilling, but something's changed in the intervening years, and it takes its sweet time getting your attention. Maybe I'm just jaded by the absolute glut of isekai lately, where the protagonist dies (or nearly does so), only to find themselves in a world entirely unfamiliar. Sure, after the initial setup, this story really takes a turn for the interesting, and boy does it turn sharply, given the way this place long removed not only from money, but most material concerns altogether, has its effects on this englishman out of his london-shaped water, but you're really going to have to bear with me for the opening scenes. All that said, the coming episodes are really going to make for some incredible listening, we dig farther into the semantic drift hinted at here, along with some of the wilder implications of the changes that this world holds in comparison to the era our hero is used to.  Want to read along with us? Find the book here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7401 Have opinions you want to share, or want to suggest books? Discord's great for that! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/ Want to listen live? Drop by Fridays, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/

Fall is a great time to dive into tales of the supernatural, and what's more supernatural than your local fair folk, hm? Well, don't get me wrong here, fall's just the best time, I can enjoy a wild tale of a man who's on a journey to see and hear things far beyond what he ought to be experiencing any time! That makes this particular story a great fit for the moment both you, me, and past-me who recorded it, at least, if you ask me. I gotta admit, I'm curious about M.R. James' other work after how much I really enjoyed this one. There's a fantastic story being woven here, one of a man dragged through a whole set of worlds with which he's thoroughly unfamililar. Sure, sure, we've been hammering home that theme a lot with the recent episodes, but this one does it in a way that's fascinatingly different, done more in a fashion akin to modern tales of fantasy "isekai" rather than the more straightforward science fiction planet-hopper. Want to read along with us? Find the book here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24089 Have opinions you want to share, or want to suggest books? Discord's great for that! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/ Want to listen live? Drop by Fridays, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/

We travel farther into the wild world of the red planet, led on and on and on by our dear protagonist, John Carter, who definitely is NOT a Mary Sue and you SHOULDN'T flame Borroughs on AO3 about it, no way. I goof, but seriously, this is a fantastic example of how a wildly overpowered main character simply needs to be written carefully to make for engaging storytelling. I mean, the guy teaches himself TELEPATHY and I'm still interested in just how things will shake out despite how buckwild that is, that has to tell you something about either how solid this story is, or just how awful my taste has become over the years trawling through the public domain. Oh also, there are 10 whole books in this series, let alone the small handful of short stories after it, so if you're interested in hearing more tales of Barsoom, make your voice heard!   Want to read along with us? Check out the book from the internet's second favorite library here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62 Have things to say, or want to suggest new books? Check out the discord! http://discord.gg/PBZNsjn/  Last but not least, want to attend a live version of this? Check out the streams on Friday nights, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/

Ok, Ok, enough short stories for now. Let's dive into a book that was SUPER popular for its time, and one that honestly, I'm shocked had its popularity killed by the botched disney adaptation. I mean, for context, Edgar Rice Borroughs' other major work, Tarzan, is EASILY recognizable and often parodied (I mean, look at how often the stereotypical "Yell while swinging on a vine" trope is used!), and yet, I was genuinely surprised by most of the twists and turns in this one! Sure, there's some stuff in here that I'd recognize as a trope, but only because I'm a huge sucker for sword and planet type fiction that inhabits the same genre! Just bonkers. Anyway, I've been all out of sorts on scheduling lately, and for that, I apologize! Introducing some short form video to the pipeline has me all bent out of shape, and I'm only just now picking up the slack. Hey, at least I remembered to get the episodes out, though!  Want to read along with us? Check out the book from the internet's second favorite library here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62 Have things to say, or want to suggest new books? Check out the discord! http://discord.gg/PBZNsjn/  Last but not least, want to attend a live version of this? Check out the streams on Friday nights, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/  

Definitely didn't forget to click publish, nuh uh, no way!   This batch of stories gets kinda wild in its concepts, very much a creeping horror in its science fiction! Not only do we discover the almost religious terror that can be inspired by the unknown, but we also discover that you REALLY should handle your household products with care, it's not only mustard gas you could be making by accident! Also, we get WHAMMIED by a punch I thought Vonnegut was going to pull. In retrospect, I'm shocked I thought he'd not FULLY send it, honestly. Oh, also, a little touch on multiverse theory, be happy I didn't go off on a tangent about that! Want to read along? Grab the stories here: The Water Eater: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31841 Micro Man: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32579  2 B R 0 2 B: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21279 The Doorway: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29138 Want to chime in about what to read next? Check out the discord! https://discord.gg/PBZNsjn   Last but not least, if you wanna catch episodes live, they're Friday nights, over on Twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester 

Guess who forgot to click publish on this? it's me! I did that! This week, we dive into another couple of short stories, this time hitting up two huge Halloween favorites you may have read in English class, Fall of the House of Usher and The Pit and the Pendulum! I'm a known enjoyer of Poe's general creeping horror, and also a HUGE sucker for weird old science fiction premises, so The Lost Kazoofalum also really appeals to my interests. Can you tell me focusing on the short stories is equal parts me going for stories I enjoy and giving everyone easy episodes to drop in on? Want to read along? You can grab the stories below! Fall of the House of Usher: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/932  The Lost Kafoozalum (misspelled in the title,oops): https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30427 The Pit and the Pendulum: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2148   Want to chime in about what to read next? Check out the discord! https://discord.gg/PBZNsjn   Last but not least, if you wanna catch episodes live, they're Friday nights, over on Twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester 

Another batch of short stories in this episode, gang! Some personal favorites of mine this time (I know, I know, I say a lot of the books on here are my favorites, but I genuinely DO love the creeping horror of Amontillado, and Ring Once for Death inverts a trope that I think sorely needs inverting, anyway!) alongside one that, I must admit, I really didn't care for on my first english class reading, and was really begging to be removed from that stuffy, academic context. Well, that, or I just wasn't hungry enough while reading it! What absolutely lavish descriptions of food, this and high fantasy will be what I'm reaching for if I find I'm not in a mood to eat when I have to!  Books this time (To read along with):  https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31840 (Ring Once for Death) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41 (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1063 (The Cask of Amontillado)  Have things to say? Books to recommend? Need a way to get reminded things are happening? check out Discord! https://discord.gg/PBZNsjn/ Want to catch live episodes? Drop by, Friday nights, where we read on Twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/ 

Wierdly enough, I remember as a kid reading Through the Looking Glass much more often than the original tale. There was always something about the way it went, I just preferred it. Or maybe it was just easier to find in the collection of children's stories my grandma left on my bedside table when I slept up there? Who knows, either way this one is one of my favorites, even if I don't bother with any of its adaptations. I will say, I'm very glad I finished this one in one episode, it's always really clean and satisfying to pull that off!   Want to read this one along with me? Go download the book!  https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12 (Man, that's a small number, gutenberg must have started with the easy confirmations)   Have opinions on the books we read, or maybe you just want to yell at me about how I mispronounced something? come join us on Discord! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/   Last but not least, you want to drop by live? come say hi on twitch, it's friday nights! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/  

This time, we finish up The First Men in the Moon! Just what happens to our intrepid hero when he lands upon our earthly shores once more, and more importantly, will he save his more scientifically minded comrade? No spoilers, but I think the ending we got was a great way to set end things off! Honestly, the big surprise is how great that short story we read in the second half is, if you ask me. Really great stuff, plays off of the trope I was expecting in a fascinating fashion, as the pedigree of its serial suggests. And hey, nothing wrong with a little telepathy to spice things up, either!    Want to read along? Grab the text here! https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1013 and https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60743   Want to join us to share some opinions? Drop by discord!  https://www.discord,gg/PBZNsjn/   Want to listen live? Drop by Fridays, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/ 

The Cavorite is working its lovely gravity defying magic, and so Idina Menzel isn't the only one soaring to new heights around here! The moon is a most peculiar place, with odd blue lights, odder little mushroom lads that would do NUMBERS on tumblr today, and outright strange folk tending weird little cattle. If only we could bottle the solid air they're finding on the moon, I'd love to have a little novelty bottle of "fresh lunar air" to open up when I'm needing a little pick-me-up! Actually, come to think, there's sort of a product like that with those concentrated little oxygen bottles you can buy, huh? Glad those don't have some kind of aerosolized energy drink in them, or you KNOW someone would unknowingly overindulge, and that wouldn't end well! Want to read along with us? Find the book here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1013 Have opinions you want to share, or want to suggest books? Discord's great for that! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/ Want to listen live? Drop by Fridays, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/

A new book is always a lovely sight around here, and that goes double for starting a new book from a favorite author of mine. H.G. Wells is solidly a member of the english canon for a reason, sure, but he's also just plain and simple a nostalgic author for me to read. Sure, I really only zoned in on a few books of his, but that just leaves us plenty of room to find new tales of his here! Also, please tell me I'm not the only one who's getting wires crossed about H.G. the actual author, and H.G. the character from Warehouse 13! Dunno what's made that particular piece of alternate history fiction stick in my brain, (I do, it's that the show's so good) but good golly has it been a persistent stumbling of mine. Want to read along with us? Find the book here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1013 Have opinions you want to share, or want to suggest books? Discord's great for that! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/ Want to listen live? Drop by Fridays, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/

In this, our pentultimate dive into Dracula, we find that there's no shortage of good old fashioned american gusto. Yep, our good friend Quincy Morris has returned to the story, and in stereotypical fashion, rather than listening to the expert on the matter of vampiric weaknesses, he just straight up SHOOTS AT DRACULA! Fun fact, in an early draft of the book, Quincy was supposed to show up with a WHOLE MACHINE GUN in the final act! Not kidding, you can look it up! What a wild twist that would have been, huh? Anyway, renfield is going through it too, so stick around to hear about that! Want to read along with us? Find the book here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/345 Have opinions you want to share, or want to suggest books? Discord's great for that! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/ Want to listen live? Drop by Fridays, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/

Listen, I'm not normally one for the whole style of epilogue that comes up at the end of this book, but I really think it shines here! Not every book earns just how that end changes the context of the original final scene, but given the absolute MESS the gang went through, I think they deserve a little comfortable time. And no, I wouldn't call that a spoiler, you don't know how they got to that epilogue! This is a really REALLY long episode, but I couldn't help myself, felt silly to break the book up into one more week of waiting, in the moment! Hope everything came together alright! Want to read along with us? Find the book here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/345 Have opinions you want to share, or want to suggest books? Discord's great for that! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/ Want to listen live? Drop by Fridays, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/

If you can believe it, this episode was originally at least an hour longer! I put in a lot of leg work on this one, splicing sentences, cutting distractions and side-tangents, and most of all, refining the crackle for the Seward sections of the book.  I really like how this one came together, even if I had to ditch the 20-plus minute long diversion into the history of hypnotism, and how it arose from studies on mesmerism, animal magnetism, and generalized occultist whatnot. To be fair, it's probably for the best, given the depth of my research being a long wikipedia hole, but still! Anyway, if you really want the digressions, discussions, and most of the chat interaction back, I can't cut things out of the youtube VODcast, so there's always a way to find me wandering off topic. This book has a lot of ancillary "huh, I didn't know that!" or "Actually, at the time this was written, it could mean XYZ!" that came with it, and I think it's an interesting line between what's worth making the feed, and what isn't! Want to read along with us? Find the book here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/345 Have opinions you want to share, or want to suggest books? Discord's great for that! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/ Want to listen live? Drop by Fridays, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/

We were all waiting on bated breath for this one, I think. When is the mask on this terror going to come off, how are things going to resolve with Lucy, when's Van Helsing going to show up, the tension was ratcheting rapidly! Just because we've reached a small resolution on those, dear listener, don't think the thrills and chills are quite over with, no no! This book's still got a whole 'nother act behind it, and there's a few details from the section early on with the paprika and shaving mirrors that comes back (and what comes back may surprise you!) Personally, I'm surprised nobody has really put in the funds for a more aggressively accurate to the book adaptation, honestly. I hear good things about Bram Stoker's Dracula from the 90's, but I must admit, I have trouble picturing Keanu Reeves as our blorbo Johnathan. It's not a lack of acting chops, guy pulls off Neo AND Ted, more a shortage of my imagination, I expect some wet cat energy, real cheekbones and flop hair type vibes! Want to read along with us? Find the book here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/345 Have opinions you want to share, or want to suggest books? Discord's great for that! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/ Want to listen live? Drop by Fridays, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/

As we work our way further into this much-beloved vampire tale, we find that there's a reason an overly-devoted minion of a monster is occasionally called a Renfield! That's right, we're spending more time with everyone's favorite counting-obsessed cuckoo, and boy will you hate what he's up to with those flies! Outside of our time with Doctor Seward, there's plenty else happening, for that matter. Where's all Lucy's blood going? What's up with her mom? will that american guy show up again? I love finding all these little details that get left out of adaptations, they're so fun to think about how and why they're not there.  Funny how these episodes are coming out right after the end of Dracula Daily, huh? What a ride that was, watching the internet learn stuff I had learned a few weeks ago! Want to read along with us? Find the book here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/345 Have opinions you want to share, or want to suggest books? Discord's great for that! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/ Want to listen live? Drop by Fridays, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/

Alright, onto a seasonally appropriate classic, Dracula! This book just kept surprising me, I'll be honest, you really think you know a book from a few modern adaptations but there's so much more to unpack here! This episode really dives deep into the little details of the internet's favorite blorbo, Johnathan Harker, and the great time he had getting that delicious recipe for paprika hendl. I won't lie, I do very much want to make myself some paprika hendl after that description.  Also a highlight: little unorthodox culinary advice from Renfield! We'll see if I manage to catch up to where Dracula Daily is at with the posted episodes, I got ahead of it pretty quickly in the live recording anyway!  Want to read along with us? Find the book here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/345 Have opinions you want to share, or want to suggest books? Discord's great for that! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/ Want to listen live? Drop by Fridays, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/

Finally, that mysterious extra day draws to a close, just as inexplicably as it had started. As for us, however, we're not leaving the extra day unaffected. Perhaps you're like me, and find that you have a greater appreciation for the whimsy in your day to day life, or perhaps the glories of the nature around you have been opened to your eyes, or maybe something else about this book has touched you! No matter the case, I loved this book, and judging by the comparison I made to one of my childhood favorites, I'll be thinking about it a long time to come. Like I hint at the end of the episode, we're heading right toward something a bit more suiting the season this is posted in! Want to read along with us? Find the book here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5894 Have opinions you want to share, or want to suggest books? Discord's great for that! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/ Want to listen live? Drop by Fridays, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/

Luckily, since this book is set before 1986, the birds are actual birds and not an elaborate series of surveillance cameras, so they can impart their secrets! And you know what they say? I hear it was something about "Time flies like an arrow, and fruit flies like a banana", but that's just a rumor, so don't quote me!    Join us live, friday nights, on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester  Want to read along with me? (it helps when my character voices are hard to hear, promise!) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5894 Things to say about the book? Wanna talk at me? Just need another spot to post your killer loaves of bread? Try the discord! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn 

 Time and space have begun to act oddly on the dear children who lead our story, but just what form does that take? You've got to listen to find out! Perhaps the flowers beneath your feet have more answers than they let on, or the trees have something hiding in their hedgerows?    Come join us on twitch, friday nights! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester  Wanna read along? Come snag the book over on gutenberg! https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5894 Have things to say about the book? Come join the discord! http://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn

Local man enjoys the heck out of a children's book, but hey, what's new? This time around, we find that the kiddo's dear uncle (who, really, despite writing for an entirely different genre of novel, feels a bit like a self-insert from Blackwood, imho) was not idly promising various adventures for each of the kids. We spend some time among the daisies, and spend further time traipsing about through a forest, looking for something that's quite aggressively elusive. Sound like a fun time? The author certainly makes it sound quite wonderful, and it calls me back to times in my own youth spent wandering around outside. Ah, if only I had such stamina today! You can find the text (to read along with) here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5894 We go live each week with a new, live episode of the show on Fridays, over on https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester Join the discord to suggest new books, discuss existing episodes, and just hang out: https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn

New month, new episode, new book! A real thrilling tale this time around folks, we're diving into The Extra Day, by Algernon Blackwood, and I gotta tell ya, this has to have been one of my favorites that I've read on the show so far. There's a real, palpable sense of naturalistic wonder that suffuses every line here, and that calls my mind back to a childhood favorite, The Secret Garden. I do hope you find just as much whimsy in this little tale as I do! I'll have to dig further on Blackwood's work, even if his other tales lean a little farther into horror than is usual around here, his writing is captivating enough to weather that change! You can find the text (to read along with) here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5894 We go live each week with a new, live episode of the show on Fridays, over on https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester Join the discord to suggest new books, discuss existing episodes, and just hang out: https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn