A Terrible Idea
More miserable crap
I’m not going to sugarcoat this: for the last several years, I’ve been reading works of classic literature out loud and commenting on them as I go. Every half hour or so, I stop reading and commenting, then release what I’ve read that week in podcast form. The podcast is called “Obscure.” It’s a terrible idea, but one to which I have, unfortunately, committed.
Here's how I choose the books I read: first of all, I am not allowed to have read the book before. Second, I must have no interest in reading it. That’s pretty much it. So far, I have read three (3) books in this manner. If you count each book as a single season and do the math, that equals three (3) seasons. Friends, I am about to start the fourth season.
Here are the books I have read to this point:
Season 1: Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
Season 2: Frankenstein by Mary Shelly
Season 3: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (there’s supposed to be a little two dotty thing over the “e” but I don’t know how to find that particular special character and I didn’t like the book enough to look for it.)
Season 4: ???
I haven’t released the title yet, but I can tell you that it will be an American author and an American book. Season 3 was supposed to be an American author but I mistakenly thought the Bronte sisters were American, which goes to show you the depth of my knowledge regarding classic literature.
Now, I know that most of you will not want to listen to even one (1) of these episodes and, believe me, I understand. If it were me being pitched this idea by you, I would say, “No thank you.” The audience for this podcast is small. That’s part of this reason the podcast is called “Obscure.” (The other part of the reason is that it was a nice play on our Season 1 book title. And also because I myself have grown increasingly obscure.)
So that’s it. As I said, Season 4 is about to start. New episodes come out every Friday. I’d love to have you join us, mostly because I have to pay for the production and, as it is, I’m losing money on this endeavor.
To join the (small but mighty) Obscure community, click here.
Or go to: https://www.patreon.com/michaelianblack
Oh my goodness, everybody please come and join us as audience members of Obscure! Michael has a soothing voice, does great character voices, and lends his wit, and also his astute observations to these classic novels. He also sometimes shares a little bit about his life living in a haunted mansion in Savannah, and before that in the wilds of Connecticut. If you enjoy Michael’s writing, you will adore this podcast. And sometime there’s even a live video chat book club that I’m too scared to join.
I look forward to every episode and right now I’m re-listening to season one because I adored that book and I never would have read it if Michael hadn’t read it to me. Come join us over on the Patreon! There are a lot of lovely people there.
To be completely honest, paying to hear you read aloud and discuss a book in which you have absolutely no interest for hours and hours has always been the primary draw of Obscure for me. Fuck the “literature”. I’m only interested in your uninterestedness.