Today’s reading

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Every reading, month by month

January

January 1Franklin’s Advice for the New Year
January 2School-Day Poems of John Milton
January 3Cicero on Friendship
January 4A Flounder Fish Story
January 5The Soaring Eagle and Contented Stork
January 6Warned by Hector’s Ghost
January 7If He Yawned, She Lost Her Head!
January 8Trying the Patience of Job
January 9A Treasure Hunt in Nombre de Dios
January 10Where Love Lies Waiting
January 11Hamilton—Father of Wall Street
January 12What Is Good Taste?
January 13Rousseau Seeks Sanctuary in England
January 14The First Step Toward Independence
January 15“The Moving Finger Writes”
January 16The Old Woman and the Wine Jar
January 17Franklin’s Family Tree
January 18Origin of Yale “Brekekekex-Ko-ax”
January 19Poe on Poetry
January 20“Ah! It Is St. Agnes’ Eve—”
January 21The Nightingale’s Healing Melody
January 22A King’s Pleasure Now Yours
January 23Pascal Knew Men and Triangles
January 24Odysseus Silenced the Sirens
January 25A Field Mouse Made Famous
January 26In the Cradle of Civilization
January 27Dante and Beatrice in Paradise
January 28Man’s Wings
January 29Visits the Land of Fire
January 30First Problem Play Popular
January 31What “Don Quixote” Really Slew

February

February 1King Arthur’s Knights Find Holy Grail
February 2“Apparel Oft Proclaims the Man”
February 3A House of Mirth and Revelry
February 4“Genius, a Secret to Itself”
February 5Diamonds, Diamonds Everywhere!
February 6Charles Lamb Suggests To-day’s Reading
February 7A Letter from a Lion
February 8Tragic Death of a World-Famous Beauty
February 9Rest Between Wars
February 10No Fancy for a Plain Gentleman
February 11The Queen Freezes Her Philosophy
February 12Oxford Corrects Lincoln’s Mistake
February 13The Frank Story of an Amazing Life
February 14Love Always Young
February 15The World Well Lost?
February 16Social Circles Among Ants
February 17Death His Curtain Call
February 18Lasting Peace with Great Britain
February 19Earthly Experience of a Chinese Goddess
February 20Voltaire Observes the Quakers
February 21Does Football Make a College?
February 22An Ode for Washington’s Birthday
February 23Pepys’ Nose for News
February 24Lights and Shadows of Milton
February 25Punished for Too Sharp a Wit
February 26A David Who Side-stepped Goliath
February 27Poet Apostle of Good Cheer
February 28Spoke Latin First
February 29Goethe’s Tale of a Maiden in Love

March

March 1Invented Sir Roger de Coverly
March 2What Sailors Do on Sunday
March 3For Poets and Fishermen
March 4Penn—Pioneer, Thinker, and Builder
March 5Laughed at Locks
March 6West Point’s Outcast, America’s First Great Poet
March 7Bacon Warns Judges
March 8Dangerous Experiment with a Wife
March 9Common Sense and Good Manners
March 10Beaumont—The Adonis of Elizabethan Playwrights
March 11Gain Gleaned from Suffering
March 12An Irish Bishop’s Wit
March 13Before Nobility Ran Tea Rooms
March 14A Maiden’s Forfeit
March 15Beware the Ides of March!
March 16Crabs Climb Trees?
March 17An Old Irish Legend
March 18New Way to Pay Old Debts
March 19Seeing Old Egypt
March 20Apples, Feathers, and Coals
March 211,000 Years of History on the Surface of a Shield
March 22From Puppet Show to Majestic Drama
March 23First of a Thousand Harem Stories
March 24A Queen Pleads
March 25How Conscience Makes Cowards of Us All
March 26“2,500 Years Ago Æsop Said . . .”
March 27When Is a Lie Not a Lie?
March 28Pins and Other Points
March 29Hero and Goddess Break Engagement
March 30The Plague of Milan
March 31The Ghastly Whim of John Donne

April

April 1“Oh! to Be in England Now That April’s There”
April 2A Spoon Dances in the Moonlight
April 3Romance with a Happy Ending
April 4The Mistakes of a Night
April 5You and Your Dreams
April 6Who Is Bad?
April 7Nature Guided His Pen
April 8Beware the Vengeful Hounds!
April 9A Perfect Land in a Wilderness of Waters
April 10Americans—by Will of the King
April 11Danger in Being Young and Fair
April 12The Perfect Argument
April 13Michelangelo His Boon Companion
April 14A Raid on Spanish Treasure in America
April 15O Captain! My Captain!
April 16Inside the Gates of Hell
April 17Benjamin Franklin—Book Salesman
April 18Ready for Adventures and Conquests
April 19Battle of Concord
April 20Byron Gave His Life for Freedom
April 21Books as Windows to the Past
April 22Happiness as a Duty
April 23“If You Have Poison for Me, I Will Drink It”
April 24Nineteen Million Elephants
April 25Mighty Rome Feared These Men
April 26Do Miracles Still Happen
April 27He Dared to See Forbidden Beauty
April 28“Vanity of Vanities,” Saith the Preacher
April 29How I Got Rich—by Sindbad the Sailor
April 30Washington’s Dictum on Private Life

May

May 1What Would <i>You</i> Ask Judas Iscariot?
May 2First Sparks of Electricity
May 3Why “Machiavellian”?
May 4A Champion of Science
May 5Strange Adventures in Man’s Clothes
May 6A Poor Artist Defies a Rich Duke
May 7A Bishop Bargains
May 8Behind the Screen in the School for Scandal
May 9Relation of Art to Freedom
May 10A Knight Among Cannibals
May 11Latest Gossip in Malfi
May 12His Wife’s Golden Hair Enshrined His Poems
May 13What Does Your Dog Think of You?
May 14Jenner’s Amazing Smallpox Cure
May 15Glimpses Into the Beyond
May 16Favorite Superstitions of Celtic Imagination
May 17An Honest Life’s Reward
May 18The Night Life of Flowers
May 19Golden Advice on Manners
May 20Shakespeare’s Finest Work
May 21An Honest Man Defined
May 22True Love in Difficulty
May 23A Plea for an Unfortunate
May 24They Had No Money—Yet Bought and Sold
May 25Do What You Fear
May 26Daughter Declares Her Love
May 27Lessing’s Courageous Stand for Toleration
May 28Master of Melodious Lyrics
May 29Adventures in Bagdad
May 30When the Throb of the War Drum Is Stifl’d
May 31America’s Most Surprising Poet

June

June 1Thrilling Play by Tutor of Shakespeare
June 2“Back to Nature” in the Seventeenth Century
June 3Pulse Aids Epochal Discoveries
June 4’Neath the Iron Hand of Spain
June 5The Rent of Land from Human Food
June 6A Shrill Cry in the Night!
June 7“There’s Rosemary—that’s for Remembrance!”
June 8Eloquence Wins Over Prejudice
June 9Enchanting Songs of David
June 10Horrible Prophecy Fulfilled
June 11He Sang of His Beautiful Elizabeth
June 12Vishnu Holds Up a Battle
June 13Athens Flouts Aristides
June 14A Philosopher Prefers Prison Cell
June 15Strikers Storm the Tower of London
June 16Spirits at the Top of the World
June 17Risked His Scalp in Prayer
June 18Cinderella Lives To-day
June 19Freaks of the Dog Fad in England
June 20No Salt for These Birds
June 21Would You Converse with Royalty?
June 22Pliny Tells Ghost Stories
June 23Greek Scholar at Three
June 24Had No Right Hand
June 25Advice to Virgins from a Wise Man
June 26In the Lair of the Green-Eyed Monster
June 27Do You Take Poison Daily?
June 28Pages from the Pampas Book of Etiquette
June 29“Is That a Dagger I See Before Me?”
June 30Rather King Than Majority

July

July 1Darwin Not First Evolutionist
July 2“Julius” Becomes “July”
July 3Gettysburg by an Eyewitness
July 4Some Chose to Remain British Subjects
July 5A Tailor Entertains a King
July 6The Origin of “Utopia”
July 7Scandal That Lurked Behind Lace and Powder
July 8Italy’s Fair Assassin
July 9A Little Lying Now and Then
July 10America’s First Immigrants
July 11Star Gazing—A Cure for Tired Minds
July 12But He Walked!
July 13Athenians Also Complained of Taxes
July 14The French People Triumph
July 15When Elizabeth Dined
July 16The Mohammedan Jesus
July 17A Throne for Son or Stepson?
July 18They Loved in Vain
July 19She Wanted Heroes All to Herself
July 20A Cobbler in Jail
July 21Scotland’s Own Poet
July 22Trapped in a Cave with a Frenzied Giant
July 23Friendship Above Love?
July 24Indian Sorcery Blamed for an Earthquake
July 25A Goddess and Her Mortal Lover
July 26Peace Amid Strife
July 27Once Surgeons Operated in Frock Coats
July 28An Idyl of Agriculture
July 29Stonehenge—England’s Unsolved Mystery
July 30The First English Colony in North America
July 31Charm School for Women

August

August 1His Influence Still Lives
August 2Poems from a Heart of Love
August 3When the Greeks Sacked Troy
August 4World’s Greatest Bedtime Stories
August 5Joys of the Simple Life
August 6A Prophet of Aerial Warfare
August 7The Last Golden Words of Socrates
August 8Men Transformed by Circe’s Wand
August 9English Bridal Party Jailed
August 10“Give Them Cake,” said the Queen
August 11Clever Repartee of Epictetus
August 12Zekle’s Courtin’
August 13Too Close to See the Battle
August 14A College Boy Goes to Sea
August 15Into Death’s Face He Flung This Song
August 16Inspiring Ritual of Temple Worship
August 17Three Walls Luther Saw
August 18“I Took Her by the Hair and Dragged Her Up and Down”
August 19Roses Boiled in Wine
August 20Plot Against Eve
August 21Hidden Treasures in an Old Book
August 22Aboard the Old Sailing Ships
August 23Which Is a Beautiful Woman?
August 24Survivor’s Story of Vesuvius
August 25Britain Saved by a Full Moon
August 26The Prince of Wales Wins His Spurs
August 27Priceless Treasures of Memory
August 28The World’s Love Tragedy
August 29Cleopatra Bewitches Mark Antony
August 30Simple Life in a Palace
August 31America’s Greatest Thinker

September

September 1Expelled from College, Founded a City
September 2Too Great a Price for Love
September 3Seven Years to Reach England
September 4Voltaire Criticizes
September 5Survival of the Fittest
September 6The Pride of All Scotchmen
September 7The King’s Love
September 8When Europe Lay Under Ice
September 9When Nature Beckons
September 10Famous Poet-Physician
September 11Wages—Why and How Much?
September 12Love Letters of Elizabeth Browning
September 13Good That Came from a Game Pit
September 14Dante and St. Peter
September 15Refused to Serve Three Terms
September 16Penalty for Silence
September 17Romance on a New England Farm
September 18Home After Storms and Adventures
September 19Humor That Survived Slavery
September 20Women’s Rights in the Harem
September 21Æneas and the Old Witch
September 22A King for a Souvenir
September 23Dying Concerns Every Man
September 24Citizens Lured from Their Homes
September 25A Courtship of Twenty Years
September 26And the World Rocked with Laughter
September 27Pascal’s Fundamentals of Religion
September 28He Introduced the Germ
September 29Prophet of 400 Million People
September 30A Gentleman According to Emerson

October

October 1Princes To-day and Yesterday
October 2Veteran Tells of Indian War
October 3Good Enough for Chaucer
October 4His Mouth Full of Pebbles
October 5Amateur Athlete in Old Athens
October 6The Atrocious Spectacle of October 6th
October 7An Uncanonized American Saint
October 8Fielding’s Parody Becomes History
October 9Songs Shake the Walls of Jericho
October 10A Fugitive in Boy’s Clothes
October 11Æneas Flees from an Inconsolable Love
October 12Columbus’ Letter Miraculously Found
October 13Pagan Virtue Perpetuated
October 14No Spice and Little Gold
October 15First Families of America
October 16When Medicine Was a Mystery
October 17Reason His Only Religion
October 18“If Winter Comes”
October 19Virtue in Smiles
October 20Odysseus Adrift on a Raft
October 21No Fault to Find with Old Age
October 22Swift’s Love Problems
October 23When Cæsar Turned the Tables
October 24Clytemnestra Meets Her Rival
October 25It Greatly Encouraged Intrigue
October 26Franklin Learned the Secret
October 27Fruit of Seven Years’ Silence
October 28How Dice Taught Spelling
October 29Genius Rises from a Stable
October 30Geology’s Greatest Benefactor
October 31Witches Walk To-night

November

November 1Last Strokes of Shakespeare’s Pen
November 2Journey Through a Hot Country
November 3Letters to an Emperor
November 4Gold or Glory?
November 5Costly Opinion on Divorce
November 6A Genius Needs Few Tools
November 7The Voice from a Stone-Dead City
November 8Blind But Unconquered
November 9Once War Songs, Now Pious Prayers
November 10A Poet Who Piped for His Supper
November 11America’s Doughboy Glorified
November 12Story of the First Dresses
November 13When Carthage Was Monte Carlo
November 14He Worried About It
November 15Food Profiteers 300 Years Ago
November 16Just Before the Gold Rush
November 17At Thirty Scott Began to Write
November 18Apple or Son the Arrow’s Mark
November 19No Man Knows His Resting Place
November 20Old Stories Ever New
November 21Bargains in Wives
November 22How a Queen Died for Love
November 23Less Than Star Dust
November 24The Book that Upset Tennessee
November 25Cupid as a Shoemaker
November 26Shakespeare Should Be Heard
November 27What Land is This?
November 28Poems Made from Visions
November 29How Ideas Originate
November 30“Don’ts” for Conversation

December

December 1Are Skeptics Faulty Thinkers?
December 2Practical Jokes in King Arthur’s Day
December 3Met the Gods of Ten Thousand Worlds
December 4The Queen Weds a Poor Stranger
December 5Poems by an Artist’s Model
December 6Moralizing as a Seductive Art
December 7What Cicero Least Expected
December 8Dream Women Shaped His Destiny
December 9Slavery’s Last Stand
December 10Benvenuto Boasts of Gallantry
December 11The Most Dashing Figure in Athens
December 12How the Glorious News was Carried to Aix
December 13To the South Seas with the Gallant Drake
December 14Pastoral Poems and Politics
December 15Odysseus Talks with Ghosts
December 16How Man’s Courtship Differs from Animal’s
December 17Dies on the Eve of Her Son’s Conversion
December 18For a Gentleman
December 19Samson Finds a Champion
December 20Egypt Visited by the First Reporter
December 21“Madam Bubble” Not to Be Discouraged
December 22Rubbing Noses in New Zealand
December 23Saved from a Bonfire of Books
December 24Christmas Made a Dull Day
December 25The Christmas Story
December 26Silence Cost Her a Kingdom
December 27Million-Year-Old Islands
December 28Ho! for the Spanish Main!
December 29These Guests Outstayed Their Welcome
December 30Dana Meets a Tattooed Sailor
December 31Curiosity and Interest as Guides to Reading