I started this book several months ago, after beginning Frankenstein, and it took some doing to shift my head from 8ft Tall Creature voice to 23-yr Young Shopaholic voice. In fact, the only way to do it was to buy several pairs of shoes, including a perfectly lovely pair of stilettos. This is how I found out I could barely move in such footwear … but standing around in them was entirely feasible, and put me very much more in the mood of the book. Look, here they are. Admire the shiny!

This is a commercial recording so it’ll eventually be available via Overdrive and Audible, but for now, the only way to hear it is to visit iambik.com (6hrs 12min, US$6.99.)

If Bridget Jones with a shoe-fetish sounds like your kind of thing, give it a go. Here’s the first chapter (13:58)
Download audio file (01-aroundtheworldinstilettos.mp3)

Download audio file (shortstory049_07_valleychildishthings_cs.mp3)
(13:48)

In the introduction to another of her short story collections, she wrote:

“To a generation for whom everything which used to nourish the imagination because it had to be won by an effort, and then slowly assimilated, is now served up cooked, seasoned and chopped into little bits, the creative faculty (for reading should be a creative act as well as writing) is rapidly withering, together with the power of sustained attention; and the world which used to be so grande a la charte des lampes is diminishing in inverse ratio to the new means of spanning it; so that the more we add to its surface the smaller it becomes.”

Little pieces, yes, deliberately so, and beautifully-written. Hopefully they’ll be as fun to listen to as they were to read.

But the problem is, Frankenstein has GOT me. I’ve been thinking about making a free public domain recording of it for more than a year now, and the other day, I thought I’d just try out a sample recording, as a warm-up, you know. Two weeks and nine sections later, I am still largely in denial about this activity. The deadline for $newBook is April and that’s a while away still. And in the meantime, Frankenstein, which is NOT officially being read, I haven’t started a thread for it at LibriVox or anything … is somehow sneaking into files on my computer.

I’m not reading from the 1818 edition, which is rather less flowery than the 1831 “gosh, people like my book, I’d better revise it to make it more suitable for a wider audience” version. I’m not agonising over whether the Preface should be file 00, or considered an integral part of the book and numbered 01. I’m not wondering at all whether I might sound anything like Mary Shelley, and I definitely haven’t looked around online to see if any other women have ever recorded it (couldn’t find any.) I’ve not listened to Simon Vance’s widely available and very excellent version nor subsequently thought about how I myself would have approached those accents and voices.

Really, I’m only trying to fool myself, and I’m not even doing a good job of that. This book has completely gripped me, and I am enjoying recording it hugely. Last time I read the paper version, it was the 1831 one, and that seemed to drag … I’m not even sure I finished it. 1818 is (relatively!) punchy, and different in many ways (according to various comparisons and discussion online) that I approve of. (See also this listing of the 1823 edition’s changes.) A key aspect is the importance of free will in this version, vs. fatalism in the later edition. It’s less conventional — by the standards of the Nineteenth Century, at least. It’s a great book.

Download audio file (pompeythelittle_19_coventry.mp3)
(Book 2, Chapter 1 — 9:03. Download the other two chapters, or the entire book, from: http://librivox.org/the-history-of-pompey-the-little-by-francis-coventry/)

Download audio file (whatkatydidnext_05_coolidge.mp3)
(24:26)

There’s also a new podcast out … I was sent an interesting contribution for the 2009-retrospective by Nicholas, which inspired me to do an entire show on the subject of actively developing resources for language-learning at LibriVox. It’s already a great place to find lots of recordings in many different languages, often by native speakers with varied accents, to help ‘train the ear’. However, we’ve also been working on Primers, Grammars and other intructional material, in several languages, to help people learn. The podcast includes an introduction to the subject, a perspective from Leni who’s recording a Portuguese primer, some samples from different books — and most splendidly, the slight downside of recording books over 100 years old … you’ll be learning how to ask your coachman how long the horses will need to rest, and how to request sealing wax and a light (for sending your postal cards!) Availle quotes from a German/English text, what a hoot!

Lest that put people off, Leni also mentioned this, and notes that most of the book she’s working on is as good today as it was when it was written — even in places you wouldn’t expect!

Download audio file (librivox_community_podcast_110.mp3)
(20:21)

Download audio file (beverlyofgraustark_04_mccutcheon.mp3)
(17m 24s)
Chapter 04 – The Ragged Retinue

http://librivox.org/beverly-of-graustark-by-george-barr-mccutcheon/

I’ve been recording a few other collaborative chapters, but nothing else has popped out into the catalogue yet. Mainly, though, I’ve working on a podcast duo — one looking back at 2009 (completed & released) and one looking forward to 2010 (due this Thursday). Hoping to receive a few more contributions for the 2010 one, since it’s a little short as it stands. The request-post is in the forum here, if you’re interested.

Finally, apologies to people subscribed to the RSS feed here, if old posts popped up all day yesterday marked as new! I had a big clearout of catagories, added some logical new ones, and did some behind-the-scenes tidying and planning. In 2010, I’m intending to write here more often, about the process of making audiobooks at home, LibriVoxing generally, and about the public domain. (And hopefully not use that as a way of procrastinating over producing actual audio, too!)

I’ve been working on my solo recording of Anna Sewell’s “Autobiography of a Horse”, Black Beauty, all summer, as its short chapters and positive attitude were a pleasant change from the intense modern non-fiction book I was recording for Audible (not yet released.) Black Beauty was catalogued at the start of the month, and is averaging 30 downloads a day, which isn’t bad going for a book which has previously been recorded for LibriVox.

Listen to Chapter 1 here:
Download audio file (blackbeauty_01_sewell.mp3)
5:03min (128kbps)

Then there was a poem which I found for the LibriVox Weekly Poetry reading. This is more of a challenge than you’d think; finding a shortish poem, by an author who died more than 70 years ago (to maximise the countries in which their work is in the public domain) and which is in some way interesting for multiple readers to try recording, and hopefully, that then has differences in the interpretations that’ll appeal to listeners. Down the Bayou by Mary Ashley Townsend fits many of these criteria, to my mind. I did find I had to check I knew how to say “bayou” correctly, but once I’d done that, I was away! (Along with 11 others. :)
Download audio file (downthebayou_townsend_cs.mp3)
1:15min (128kbps)

There are three other poems, pending cataloguing … that should happen shortly, since both collections are nearly full. I’ve not read poetry for a while, so it’s been really nice to come back to it.

And finally, lady pirates! Yes, my long-ago-read chapter on the “Adventures And Heroism Of Mary Read” has now been entered into the catalogue, and you can hear it as part of The Pirates Own Book by Charles Ellms (Authentic Narratives of the Most Celebrated Sea Robbers)! Or here:

Download audio file (piratesownbook_26_ellms.mp3)
10:04min (128kbps)

I have a few other things very close to finishing … this will have been a super-productive month, all in all!

The story I’ve read, End of Oil, is by Gwyneth Jones, and is a neat little piece of speculative fiction. I’m 98% happy with how it’s turned out; just thinking that I should have left even longer pauses in between the acts. They seemed very long when I was recording and editing!

Listen here (hopefully!)   Download audio file (StarShipSofa_Aural_Delights_No_100_Special.mp3)
…
(My reading at 14:00, overall it’s 132 mins)

Download individual files or the whole thing in a zipped folder from:
http://librivox.org/esther-waters-by-george-moore/

Listen to me starting off the book:

Download audio file (estherwaters_01_moore.mp3)
(17:07)

Download audio file (shortstory037_fromatoz_cs_64kb.mp3)

There are also some other stories of hers in this collection, although read by a different voice. My story has one of my favourite lines in any literature anywhere:

“The main thing” — his voice sank to an impressive whisper — “is not to infringe the copyright.”

And I don’t believe I did. Rule of Shorter Term, American author, first publishing there.

Download this, and 19 other stories, free at: http://librivox.org/librivox-short-story-collection-vol-37/