The latest episode of the podcast with readings so interesting they put you to sleep brings you tips on how to run a hotel in 1913. Author John Tellman notes the demise of the American Plan hotel, where you paid a combo price for a room and meals, as founded in "a period of extravagance and waste in America not known in recent times of any other country." The new thing was the European plan, where you select meal items from a menu and pay by the item. If you stay awake long enough, you’ll hear how one of the hotel steward’s jobs was to steer guests away from steaks, chops, and roast beef, which had become so expensive that there was almost no chance of earning a profit from them.

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!