There are several fine websites that save you the trouble of having to read books for yourself
by: Anna Baddeley
Over the years I have managed to fool a number of people into thinking I am terribly well read. My secret – well, three secrets – are Radio 4's Book of the Week, Book at Bedtime and the Classic Serial, whose episodes I save up to devour all at once on iPlayer. These fabulous free audiobooks used to be awkward to listen to, involving balancing acts with laptops in steamy bathrooms.
My iPad has been a liberation. Using a tablet as a portable radio is by far the best way to access the internet's vast archive of free literary audio.
One hands-free route into classic fiction is Librivox, essentially an audio version of Project Gutenberg. The website, recently given a makeover, offers around 7,000 free audiobooks read by (mostly American) volunteers. Like Gutenberg, it is a noble project that suffers from a lack of editorial control. While I'm sure there's great stuff to be found, there's an awful lot of Great Expectations read by Dick Van Dyke.
My top tips for literary-minded listeners are:
1) American broadcaster Michael Silverblatt's incomparable archive of author interviews. Name any famous novelist from the past quarter-century and I'll bet they've appeared on his radio show, Bookworm. Highlights include chats with David Foster Wallace and Martin Amis.
2) The New Yorker Fiction Podcast, which gets a writer to read another writer's short story, sometimes resulting in unlikely pairings. I enjoyed hearing David Sedaris somehow manage to make Miranda July a lot less irritating.
3) Lit Bits, an intelligent and irreverent London-based programme where an academic and a literary journalist invite a guest writer to mull over subjects ranging from art to football to sex.
Now, I advise you to cancel all social engagements and run a hot bath.
from: Guardian
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