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Fogs of November

Posted on October 31, 2010 by | Posted in about LibriVox, Blog, Monthly Picks, News | Comments: 2 Comments on Fogs of November

Misty November has arrived, and who knows what’s lurking in its fogs… Nobody can know all the gems hiding in our catalog, but our flashlights light up 10 of them.

November starts with All Saints and All Souls Day. Listen to our Poems and Prose for the Departed to remember your loved ones.

More remembrance – of the end of World War I – is done all over the Commonwealth on November 11. Arthur G. West gives a first hand account of the “Great War” in his autobiographic Diary of a Dead Officer.

What happens after we die is only one of the questions that philosophers try to answer. Why not see what one of their greatest – Bertrand Russell – sees as The Problems of Philosophy?

Lets hope the dead can all rest in peace, and do not come back to haunt the living. Ghosts are known – and feared – all over the world. Lafcadio Hearn spent years in Japan collecting and translating local ghost stories. His Kwaidan is his best know collection.

Therese Raquin and her lover surely did not believe in her husband’s return when they decided to murder him. But then, why can’t they live happily ever after? Find out all about it in Emile Zola’s famous novel.

Men really are good at holding grudges. In Elizabeth Gaskell’s short novel, The Grey Woman is hunted by her husband because she found out about his dirty secret. Will he succeed to kill her or can she escape?

Admittedly, not all women are saints either… William H. Ainsworth tells about the Lancashire Witches of the 17th century. Part of the story is true, part of it is not. But where to draw the line?

If this has failed to placate the men around here, I suggest an enormous party on November 19 – International Men’s Day! Only the best for you – and something to strive for: 33 short biographical sketches of Famous Men of Our Times written by John H. Haaren.

With the guys busy with self-improvement, we can go back into the dark. But beware – here be the vampire! Listen to our brand new dramatic reading of Dracula by Bram Stoker.

We have kept the best for last: The unquestioned master of the horror genre: Edgar Allan Poe. His best known works are collected in the second volume of the Raven edition of The Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Are you sure you know them all?

Enjoy – and keep your flashlight handy!

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Open Knowledge Foundation on LibriVox

Posted on October 10, 2010 by | Posted in News, on the web | Comments: Comments Off on Open Knowledge Foundation on LibriVox

There’s an interview with me up at the Open Knowledge Foundation blog about LibriVox and the Public Domain.

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Chapterme.com

Posted on October 10, 2010 by | Posted in News, on the web | Comments: 1 Comment on Chapterme.com

Says Chapterme.com:

This site is meant to help you discover books and authors by listening to random chapters. Then, your tastes will be compared with those of other listeners in order to choose other chapters.
The recordings are created by the fabulous LibriVox.org site. At any time you can go to the book page on LibriVox.org and listen to the whole book. From there, you can navigate to Project Gutenberg if you want to get the text.

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Autumn Leaves

Posted on September 30, 2010 by | Posted in about LibriVox, Blog, News | Comments: 1 Comment on Autumn Leaves

Autumn has arrived and we have dug deep into our catalog to present 10 gems for your listening pleasure.

October starts out with children’s book week, and what better book to celebrate this than Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. His classic book about the short-nosed, long-nosed marionette has been a kid’s favorite for over 100 years. This recording is also available in the original Italian.

Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift is often dismissed as a mere book for children. Indeed, there are dwarfs and giants, strange races, places and stories… But in fact, it is a well disguised satire by Swift, attacking government, religion, and people’s behavior in general. Why not try and listen to it with adult ears?

October 2nd is the International Day of Non-Violence, in honor of Mahatma Gandhi, who was born on this day in 1869. Unless you read this message in India, it won’t be a national holiday for you though, but you can still celebrate by listening to 6 pieces of his early writings, collected in Third Class in Indian Railways.

417 years before Gandhi, Richard III of England was born. If you feel more like celebrating his birthday, you can listen to our recently finished recording of the famous play by William Shakespeare, where Richard is the main protagonist. Don’t forget to make cake!

Depending on the cake, it may or may not last until October 16, which is Food Engineer Day. A glimpse into their early work can be found in H. G. Wells novel The Food of the Gods and How it Came to Earth. Watch out for the giant chickens!

Hopefully you kept your good sense during all this feasting and celebrating! Good Sense is also the title of a book on freethought by Baron Paul Henry Thiry D’Holbach, published in 1772. It’s interesting to see how the arguments on both sides of the theological divide have not changed much in all these years.

At the end of October 1818 – or the beginning of November, depending on which calender you use – Ivan Turgenev was born. His work Fathers and Sons made him – and Russian literature as a whole – famous in the West.

To stay with the Russian theme for a moment, Red October 1917 marks the time of the Russian Revolution. If you ever wondered about Russia’s exit of World War I in March 1918, you can read From October to Brest-Litovsk, where Leon Trotsky himself gives an account of what happened.

Try imagine the beautifully colored forests with The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy, a novel set in a small village in the woodlands. Delve into the lives, dreams, problems, and of course, loves of the people in the village of Little Hintock.

As our final recommendation for October, have a listen to “Death of Autumn” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. It is contained in Second April, a collection of 49 of her poems.

Enjoy!

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