On August 10, LibriVox celebrates its 14th anniversary! In the last year, we produced more than 1000 audiobooks (more than 13000 in total). So, let’s celebrate with 10 brand new gems from our catalog!
What could be more suitable for an anniversary than A Little Bit of Fluff. An insurance investigator visits the Ayers family to see whether their claim was fraudulent or not. This is our version of the famous farce by Walter W. Ellis.
Teófilo Braga cites Edgar Allen Poe among his influences to write stories of passions, betrayal, suicides and other deaths… His Contos Phantasticos were among the first gothic literature in late 19th century Portugal and very unusual.
Unusual, nay, absolutely shocking to society were the suggestions of surgeon Thomas S. Smith: In his 1827 book Use of the Dead To The Living, he argues for the use of bodies in dissection and medical research.
In the novel Обрыв (Obryv, English: The Precipice), Ivan Goncharov dissects the not very successful life of Boris Raisky in St. Petersburg. When he returns to his paternal home and gets involved in the affairs of Wera, things don’t go as planned either…
Already in 1975, the US Committee for the Global Atmospheric Research Program laid out their findings for Understanding Climatic Change. In this interesting report, the scientists present their predictions for future climate and its changes based on state-of-the-art computer models.
When the elder sister of Joop falls head over heels for Joop’s science teacher, something needs to be done! In De H.B.S. tijd van Joop ter Heul, Cissy van Marxveldt uses letters and diary entries to tell about the life of a typical Dutch girl.
In total contrast to this, the biography of Paul Zech is not entirely without holes and inconsistencies. We do know that his collection of poetry called Das schwarze Revier was inspired by his own work in a coal mine, possibly in Belgium.
Our 14th anniversary is the second big LibriVox celebration this year. On January 1st, a slew of books published in 1923 entered the public domain in the US and our readers were ecstatic! Here are three titles we could only read now:
Probably the most anticipated book of the year 1923 here on LibriVox was Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet. This classic book with views on so diverse topics as love, children, work, time, and freedom already has two completed versions.
In November 1922, Howard Carter discovered The Tomb of Tut-Ankh-Amen in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. It took him and A. C. Mace almost a year to describe the finding of the tomb, the items in the antechamber and the opening of the burial chamber.
Let’s end this list with a very special audio treat: Three Stories & Ten Poems by Ernest Hemingway. This small book was privately printed 1923 in Dijon, France, and only 300 copies were made back then.
A big shoutout to all LibriVox volunteers who made LibriVox what it is today – and will be in the future! Thank you all!
Happy 14th Anniversary!