http://librivox.org/us-bill-of-rights-by-james-madison/
Now, this was an odd thing to read. I don’t think I’ve ever recorded something so thoroughly studied by other folks. It was very interesting to read the actual words and none of the arguments/disputes/definitions/redefinitions, for once.
It’s less than 4 minutes, and I’m sure there’s an entertaining discussion to be had about which of us readers has an accent most like that of its primary author, James Madison.
A little poetry to celebrate the New Year … but only three people braved the terrors of quirky verse-structure and poetic voice Rossetti-style. I rather like it, though.
http://librivox.org/old-and-new-year-ditties-by-christina-rossetti/
Ah, it’s lovely to have archive.org behaving again … all sorts of long-ago recordings of mine are finding their way home, finally. Like my contribution to A Child’s History of England by Charles Dickens … I read the chapters England Under Richard the Second and England Under Henry the Fourth, Called Bolingbroke last June. Most of it is fairly straightforward prose, but Dickens does have occasional really splendid turns of phrase which remind me of the Horrible History books now … such as here, on greeting an unwanted visitor:
‘Fair cousin of Lancaster,’ said the King, ‘you are very welcome’ (very welcome, no doubt; but he would have been more so, in chains or without a head).
Get edumacated here: http://librivox.org/a-childs-history-of-england-by-charles-dickens/
So, Mystery Story Collection Vol. 1 is now catalogued, and ready for the world’s listening pleasure, and my contribution to it is the rather long short-story, A Jury of her Peers by Susan Glaspell. It is, apparently, a ‘cosy/cozy’ mystery for those who discriminate, and for those who don’t, I can tell you that the lead characters are female and the action takes place in a kitchen. A man is strangled in his own bed, but whodunnit — and why?
I *LOVED* recording this story. It’s been on my To Do list for months, ever since the first time I read it — and cried too, it packed a punch for me. When Gesine invented the Mystery Collection, it was a natural fit, and so, I link here:
A Jury of her Peers by Susan Glaspell - 53 min 26 sec
Source: E-text
[mp3@64kbps - 25.6MB]
[mp3@128kbps - 51.3MB]
[ogg vorbis - 26.8MB]
I’ve also found a variant text as a play, which is retitled Trifles … same author, same plot, similar dialogue. Good stuff!
Now to download the other stories in this collection …
Hooray — finally, archive.org is behaving itself again, and my next solo is complete. Nine Unlikely Tales for Children by E. Nesbit is a 1901 book I found in the library a while back … and there isn’t an online version of the text, so I thought it would be jolly to scoop a reading of it. Nesbit is a pure joy to read aloud: the stories go along at a great pace for the kids, and there’re enough nods to an adult sense of humour to make an entertaining listen no matter how old one is. Now, that said, folks have to cope with me Doing Voices, which isn’t to everyone’s liking. But, I don’t believe in fairy tales without them, just wouldn’t seem quite right in my listening world. And how, exactly, would YOU voice a bouncible ball, anyway..?
http://librivox.org/nine-unlikely-tales-for-children-by-e-nesbit/
Zip file of the entire book (145 MB)
Total running time: 5:01:57
Hope everyone enjoys them — Comments welcome!
Frustratingly, archive.org is all over the place at the moment, and is not accepting new uploads as easily as it used to. Which means I have a heap of recordings just sitting around waiting for things to straighten up. I’ve finished my latest solo (E. Nesbit’s Nine Unlikely Tales - quirky fairy stories), and have contributed some poetry to Weekly / Fortnightly collections which are also waiting. I seized upon the last section of Paradise Lost and it is recorded, but I’ve not found the momentum to edit it yet, since even though that would complete the book … the upload’s in limbo. The Mystery Story Collection, which homes my favourite self-recording to date, is also goin’ nowhere right now. It’s all so annoying. I know archive.org’s free and performing a great service and all that … but I Want It To Work Now.
The one thing that HAS improved there in the last few days, and which had been broken for weeks, is the download counters. Currently, for my solos, Austen’s had 2,336 downloads, Stein is sitting pretty on 816 and Kingsley is at 3,618. Jane Eyre, to whom I contributed a single chapter (but the one where she meets Rochester!) is rapidly approaching the quarter-million mark, today it’s at 247,927 downloads and is LibriVox’s top book. Cool, cool.