Good evening and thank you for joining me for another boring books for bedtime.

I hope tonight selection provides all the boredom your busy brain needs to quiet down and let you get some sleep.

So find a comfortable spot.

Adjust your volume, take a nice deep breath in, let it out slowly, and off we go.

This evening we're relaxing to a travelogue about a place very near and dear to my heart. We're reading selections from a journey to the Western

Islands of Scotland by Dr. Samuel Johnson, first published in 1775.

Let's begin.

A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland

I had desired to visit the Hebrides or Western Islands of Scotland

so long that I scarcely remember how the wish was originally

excited and was in the autumn of the year 1773 induced to undertake the journey by finding in Mr Boswell a

companion whose acuteness would help my inquiry, and whose gaiety of conversation and civility

of manners are sufficient to counteract the inconveniences of travel in countries less hospitable than we have passed.

On the 18th of August we left Edinburgh, a city too well known to admit description, and directed our

course northward along the eastern coast of Scotland, accompanied the first day by another gentleman who could

stay with us only long enough to show us how much we lost at separation.

As we crossed the Firth of fourth,

our curiosity was attracted by Inchkeith,

a small island, which neither of my companions had ever visited.

Though lying within their view, it had all their lives solicited their notice.

Here, by climbing with some difficulty over shattered crags,

we made the first experiment of unfrequented coasts.

...