In which two cranky old men discuss older books that are fun to read, for listeners who want to reconnect to a traditional popular culture.

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In which we discuss Vanity Fair (1847/48) by William Thackery and The Tombs of Atuan (1971) by Ursula Leguin, and consider girls’ choices and their consequences, whether the girls be characters in a realistic 19th century novel or a priestess-in-training in a fantasy novel. <a href="mailto:whenbookswerefun@gmail.com" rel="nofollow">whenbookswerefun@gmail.com</a> Check out Al’s stories at sonrisestories.com. Check out Jeff’s upcoming book at perebruinpress.com.

When Books Were Fun Episode 024: Girls’ Choices

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In which we discuss For Whom the Bells Toll (1940) by Ernest Hemingway and The Well of the Unicorn (1948) by Fletcher Pratt, and consider Hemingway’s gritty tale of conflicting wartime loyalties in the Spanish civil war and a gritty high fantasy tale of conflicting wartime loyalties, published several years before Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings defined the fantasy genre. <a href="mailto:whenbookswerefun@gmail.com" rel="nofollow">whenbookswerefun@gmail.com</a> Check out Al’s stories at sonrisestories.com. Check out Jeff’s upcoming book at perebruinpress.com.

When Books Were Fun Episode 023: Warfare: Realistic and Fantasy

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In which we discuss Pride and Prejudice (1813) by Jane Austen and The King of Elfland’s Daughter (1924) by Lord Dunsany, and consider the psychological and social insights of Austen’s beloved classic as compared to a fairy tale of love between moral and immortal, beyond the fields we know. <a href="mailto:whenbookswerefun@gmail.com" rel="nofollow">whenbookswerefun@gmail.com</a> Check out Al’s stories at sonrisestories.com. Check out Jeff’s upcoming book at perebruinpress.com.

When Books Were Fun Episode 022: Romance: Classic and Fantasy

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In which we discuss The Age of Innocence (1920) by Edith Wharton and City of Illusions (1967) by Ursula LeGuin, and consider how a novel of high society New Yorkers and moral problems related to love and marriage parallels a novel of a not quite human man navigating problems on an alien dominated future Earth. <a href="mailto:whenbookswerefun@gmail.com" rel="nofollow">whenbookswerefun@gmail.com</a> Check out Al’s stories at sonrisestories.com. Check out Jeff’s upcoming book at perebruinpress.com.

When Books Were Fun Episode 021: 19th Century New York and 30th Century North America

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In which we discuss Twelve Years a Slave (1853) by Solomon Northrup and This Hallowed Ground (1956) by Bruce Catton, non-fiction accounts of slavery and the civil war it engendered, and consider their ongoing relevance in the 21st century. <a href="mailto:whenbookswerefun@gmail.com" rel="nofollow">whenbookswerefun@gmail.com</a> Check out Al’s stories at sonrisestories.com. Check out Jeff’s upcoming book at perebruinpress.com.

When Books Were Fun Episode 020: Slavery and the Civil War

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In which we discuss Barchester Towers (1857) by Anthony Trollope and consider how a comedy regarding situations unfamiliar to modern readers (in this case, 19th century Anglican Church politics) can nonetheless be funny and fun to read for its handling of timeless aspects of human nature and social interactions. Relevant to anyone ever affected by office politics. <a href="mailto:whenbookswerefun@gmail.com" rel="nofollow">whenbookswerefun@gmail.com</a> Check out Al’s stories at sonrisestories.com. Check out Jeff’s upcoming book at perebruinpress.com.

When Books Were Fun Episode 019: Church Warfare

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In which we discuss Nicholas Nickleby (1838-39) by Charles Dickens and Just William (1922) by Richmal Crompton and consider the comedy of suffering dire circumstances and dire characters versus normal 11 year-old suffering. <a href="mailto:whenbookswerefun@gmail.com" rel="nofollow">whenbookswerefun@gmail.com</a> Check out Al’s stories at sonrisestories.com. Check out Jeff’s upcoming book at perebruinpress.com.

When Books Were Fun Episode 018: Boys in Trouble

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In which we discuss The Coral Island (1857) by R M. Ballantyne and The Lord of the Flies (1954) by William Golding and consider the differing worldviews of authors and critics regarding boys shipwrecked on tropical islands. <a href="mailto:whenbookswerefun@gmail.com" rel="nofollow">whenbookswerefun@gmail.com</a> Check out Al’s stories at sonrisestories.com. Check out Jeff’s upcoming book at perebruinpress.com.

When Books Were Fun Episode 017: Shipwrecked

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In which we discuss Of Mice and Men (1937) by John Steinbeck and take a return visit to Penrod by Booth Tarkington (1914) and consider how changing social mores affect the reading of realistic novels from the past. <a href="mailto:whenbookswerefun@gmail.com" rel="nofollow">whenbookswerefun@gmail.com</a> Check out Al’s stories at sonrisestories.com. Check out Jeff’s upcoming book at perebruinpress.com.

When Books Were Fun Episode 016: A Tragedy and a Comedy (rerun)

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In which we discuss And Then There Were None (aka Ten Little Indians) (1939) by Agatha Christie and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963) by John le Carre and consider another Christie mystery as well as the roles of mystery and betrayal in spy novels. <a href="mailto:whenbookswerefun@gmail.com" rel="nofollow">whenbookswerefun@gmail.com</a> Check out Al’s stories at sonrisestories.com. Check out Jeff’s upcoming book at perebruinpress.com.

When Books Were Fun Episode 015: Murder and Spies

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In which we discuss A Night to Remember (1955) by Walter Lord, a non-fiction account of the Titanic disaster, and The Cruel Sea (1951) by Nicholas Monsarrat, a novel by about British convoys in the North Atlantic during World War II, and reflect on icebergs, U-boats, and hypothermia.  <a href="mailto:whenbookswerefun@gmail.com" rel="nofollow">whenbookswerefun@gmail.com</a> Check out Al’s stories at sonrisestories.com. Check out Jeff’s upcoming book at perebruinpress.com.

When Books Were Fun Episode 014: Death in the North Atlantic

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In which we discuss Farewell My Lovely (1940) by Raymond Chandler and The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1916) by Agatha Chrisie and contrast the sub-genres of gritty urban mystery and genteel English country house mystery. <a href="mailto:whenbookswerefun@gmail.com" rel="nofollow">whenbookswerefun@gmail.com</a> Check out Al’s stories at sonrisestories.com. Check out Jeff’s upcoming book at perebruinpress.com.

When Books Were Fun Episode 013: Murder - Gritty and Genteel

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In which we discuss the Tarzan stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs, particularly Tarzan of the Apes (1912), The Return of Tarzan (1913), The Son of Tarzan (1915), and Jungle Tales of Tarzan (1919). <a href="mailto:whenbookswerefun@gmail.com" rel="nofollow">whenbookswerefun@gmail.com</a> Check out Al’s stories at sonrisestories.com. Check out Jeff’s upcoming book at perebruinpress.com.

When Books Were Fun Episode 012: Tarzan

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In which we discuss The Inimitable Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse (1923) and The Mouse That Roared by Leonard Wibberley (1955) and contrast the faux Edwardian humor of the Jeeves stories with Wibberley’s social satire regarding power politics and nuclear weapons. <a href="mailto:whenbookswerefun@gmail.com" rel="nofollow">whenbookswerefun@gmail.com</a> Check out Al’s stories at sonrisestories.com. Check out Jeff’s upcoming book at perebruinpress.com.

When Books Were Fun Episode 011: Comedy -  Jeeves and Grand Fenwick

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In which we discuss The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (1895) and The Admirable Crichton (1902) by J. M. Barrie, noting the humor of the trivial, and the relevance of these two plays to modern society. <a href="mailto:whenbookswerefun@gmail.com" rel="nofollow">whenbookswerefun@gmail.com</a> Check out Al’s stories at sonrisestories.com. Check out Jeff’s upcoming book at perebruinpress.com.

When Books Were Fun Episode 010: Comedy - Ernest and Crichton

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In which we discuss the plays of William Shakespeare and why reading these plays can often be more entertaining and instructive than seeing them performed. whenbookswerefun@gmail.com Check out Al’s stories at sonrisestories.com. Check out Jeff’s upcoming book at perebruinpress.com.

When Books Were Fun Episode 009: Reading Shakespeare

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In which we discuss The History of Tom Jones by Henry Fielding (1749) and Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser (1969) and discuss how tales of adultery and misbehavior might actually be moralistic, most definitely so in Tom Jones, and somewhat indirectly in Flashman and its sequels. <a href="mailto:whenbookswerefun@gmail.com" rel="nofollow">whenbookswerefun@gmail.com</a> Check out Al’s stories at sonrisestories.com. Check out Jeff’s upcoming book at perebruinpress.com.

When Books Were Fun Episode 008: Comedy - Tom Jones and Flashman

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In which we discuss novels about childhood, Penrod by Booth Tarkington (1914) and The Golden Age and Dream Days by Kenneth Grahame (1895 and 1898) and ponder what aspects of childhood are determined by historical time and place, and what aspects are eternal.whenbookswerefun@gmail.com Check out Al’s stories at sonrisestories.com. Check out Jeff’s upcoming book at perebruinpress.com.

When Books Were Fun Episode 007: Children - Before World War I

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In which we discuss Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome (1889) and The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (1908) and contrast a (somewhat) factual account of three men (and a dog) boating on the Thames with a child’s fantasy of Mole, Rat, Badger, and Mr. Toad, and their adventures along a river and the English countryside.whenbookswerefun@gmail.com Check out Al’s stories at sonrisestories.com. Check out Jeff’s upcoming book at perebruinpress.com.

When Books Were Fun Episode 006: The English Riverside

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In which we discuss Homer’s Odyssey and why reading a poem that’s several thousand years old might be more entertaining that watching its movie adaption.whenbookswerefun@gmail.com Check out Al’s stories at sonrisestories.com. Check out Jeff’s upcoming book at perebruinpress.com.

When Books Were Fun Episode 005: Homer’s Odyssey

In which two cranky old men discuss older books that are fun to read, for listeners who want to reconnect to a traditional popular culture.