About
Last updated: 28th December 2009
I’m Cori Samuel, a 30+something Brit lass, who lives and works in England. I accidentally emigrated to Australia several years ago and gave away the majority of a vast book collection at that time. Once I’d repatriated myself, I found it quite hard to start buying books again, knowing even that great bastion of a civilised existance — a home library — was still relatively ephemeral.
Instead, I developed a love-hate relationship with my local library (I lean mostly towards the hate side of that now) and also started reading books online. This led to a two year stint as a Distributed Proofreader, followed by time at eBookForge, where I proofread, in one way or another, more than 17,000 pages of public domain texts, most of which are now available at Project Gutenberg. I did the final assembly of about 38 ebooks, both plaintext and (X)HTML formats, and developed a special passion for mentoring other folks starting out with this process, helping another 74 books through the final checks. In summary, I am the kind of person who italicises full-stops where appropriate and thinks that it’s actually important.
I’ve not proofread for some years now, and this is mainly because of a serious addiction to my microphone — the majority of this website relates to my LibriVox activity. The acoustical liberation of books into the public domain is so very cool, and such huge fun, that it’s quite taken over my time. I do all my own recording, editing, sound processing, etc., except in some rare, but very fun cases, so I have tended in the past to contribute mainly single-chapters and short readings to collaborative works. However, in 2008, I took the plunge and since then have also been working on my own solo projects too; both for LibriVox, and for some external publishers, including Audible. The long haul is VERY hard, but rewarding too. I’m also an admin at LibriVox, helping to run projects, producing community podcasts and supporting new folks as they get going with recording.
See my listing page for the books I’ve read or contributed to; it also links to my LibriVox catalogue page which lists both completed works and all the current projects I’ve signed up to.
I welcome feedback, requests and any voice-related queries … you can leave a message here, contact me via the LibriVox forums, or email me: about*at*piratelibrary.com
Comment by Todd
Hey,
Fan here. Love your recording of “Hunger Artist,” one of my favorite stories which I listen to often. For selfish reasons, I’d like to suggest you check out Balzac’s “Passion in the Desert.” It looks in line with the kind of thing you enjoy to record and happens to be another of my favorite stories.
Posted on 24 July, 2009 at 8:27 pm
Comment by Cori
Oh, that’s a really great recommendation, Todd, thankyou. I’ve read exactly no Balzac at all (either aloud or in the regular way) so I’ll let the story sit with me for a bit … but it’s very good, and yes, I’ll definitely record it.
Posted on 24 July, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Comment by David
Just wanted to say, I took your LibriVox recording of Divine Comedy: Inferno Cantos I-V on a long drive to an important meeting. Absolutely beautiful. The work was never so clear to me or so touching. I had the next 5 recordings as well, but they were by other readers, and inferior by comparison; I couldn’t even listen. So, I just listened to your recording a few more times.
Thanks again for illuminating this work for me in such a beautiful way.
Posted on 10 October, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Comment by Cori
I’m happy to hear you enjoyed it, David – it was a pleasure to record, and really surprised me by how easy it was to follow … I’d always thought of it as a “hard book”. That’ll be the sign of an excellent translation, I think. It’s on my list to record all the way through, when I find a little more time …
I hope your meeting went well, too!
Posted on 12 October, 2009 at 9:57 pm
Comment by Neal
Your Black Beauty is great. It brings the whole classic tale to life.
But I do picture you as a rather beautiful black horse.
Thanks
Neal
Posted on 15 March, 2010 at 10:58 pm
Comment by Cori
*whinnies gratefully* It was a pleasure to revisit something I’d loved so much as a child — am glad you enjoyed listening too, Neal!
Posted on 16 March, 2010 at 11:26 pm
Comment by Robyn
Downloaded a Libravox app on my iPhone and your “Black Beauty” was my first book. You did an amazing job and effectively hooked me on audio books. =)
Thank you for helping transform a miserable commute into one I actually look forward to, one chapter at a time.
Posted on 14 August, 2010 at 6:02 pm
Comment by Cori
Oh, you’re ever so welcome, Robyn. I love that story, and I’m glad you enjoyed it too. Happy listening — and goodness, what a thing to say: happy commuting! :)
Posted on 14 August, 2010 at 8:46 pm
Comment by David Seys
Hi Cori,
Please excuse the public posting, but I am not sure how to contact you direct and I was wondering whether you could email me with your contact details so that I can have a word with you about Simon Taylor and Action Audio.
I have narrated 9 of his books
Posted on 21 August, 2010 at 9:56 pm
Comment by Cori
No problem, David, I’ve dropped you a line.
Posted on 21 August, 2010 at 10:38 pm