“It is not the intrinsic value that counts, but rather the beneficial effect on the subject.” In other words, the purpose of a hobby is to make *you* better. So say Charles William Taussig and Theodor Arthur Meyer in their 1924 book. Set your sleep timer for 30 minutes and listen to why you should have “an extravagant interest.”

You can support The Forgotten Bookshelf and get a bonus recording! Go to https://buymeacoffee.com/theforgottenbookshelf/extras. Put in a few bucks and download my reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s delightfully self-satirical essay “The Philosophy of Furniture,” and thank you!

Listen to advice on the importance of learning to draw, then get tips on painting panels, stiles, cornices, moldings, etc., flowers, fruits, etc., etc. If you make it to the end you may wake up wanting to paint the interior of your home with “colors of a chaste and pleasant character,” creating “sweet harmony” and avoiding the vulgar “gingerbread style” of decoration!

You can support The Forgotten Bookshelf and get a bonus reading of an essay by Edgar Allan Poe. Please go to https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theforgottenbookshelf/extras, and thank you!

Tonight’s episode of the podcast with readings so interesting they put you to sleep brings you some pages from “Haney’s Manual of Sign Painting” from 1897, revealing secrets of how to mix pigments and select and prepare wood to make a sign with “a sweet harmony of tone, a chasteness of composition, upon which the senses can rest with entire satisfaction.” Free on Apple, Spotify, and Amazon podcasts, or directly from here.

You can support The Forgotten Bookshelf and get a bonus reading of an essay by Edgar Allan Poe. Please go to https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theforgottenbookshelf/extras, and thank you!