About me
Last updated: 29th November 2017
I’m Cori Samuel, living and working 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, unsure if I’d want to move again, and being well aware of how heavy boxes of books can be.
Instead, I developed a love-hate relationship with my local library system and also started reading books online. This led to a two year stint as a Distributed Proofreader, followed by time at eBookForge. Across both sites, 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, 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. I’m also an admin at LibriVox, helping to run projects, producing community podcasts and supporting new folks as they get going with recording.
More recently, I’ve also been recording books which are NOT in the public domain in the US, but are fine for people in ‘Life+70’ countries (all Europe, many others.) Check out the Legamus! catalog for more info. 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
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You are a talent, Cori. Just plain old fashion classic talent. You have a gift that I can see others have been appreciating as well. Bless you for sharing it.
Cori, I did not mean to drop that i at the end of your name…sorry.
Hello Cor,
I am new to Librivox and am already hooked…
I would like to subscribe to your blog but find no link for this.
Do you take suggestions for reading? I know that you are probably swamped..
I have 2 by my fav. author ELIZABETH GOUDGE
– The Little White Horse (for children from 0-99 yo)
– The Scent of Water
Your voice is lovely and I wish I cold sound like that…but all I can muster is a singsong Argie/Welsh sound am afraid…
Would you mind telling me what equipment you use, your sound is pleasantly clear and bright.
All the best for this year…and your future recording endevours..
Gri (from Dry Creek, Alaska)
I just listened to your recording of “Nine Unlikely Tales For Children” by E. Nesbit. I adore her books, and you have a wonderful reading voice. Thank you so much for your work!
Aha, found you. Glad to see you’re evidently doing well (who ever had any doubts?) Send you very best wishes for 2013 (gulp), from an old DP friend, ian
I just stumbled across your sections of The Inferno on Librivox.
It’s outstanding, thank you.
Thanks, Neil! It’s in my near-future plans to record more of it, but the pronunciation is a bear.
My boys (ages 5 and 6) and I are so much enjoying your reading of Black Beauty. We look forward to listening to it together at bedtime. You have such a lovely, clear and easy to listen to voice. Thanks so much for sharing it and for recording such a treasure.
Tammy
Thankyou, Tammy, it was a pleasure to read, and it’s lovely that you’re all enjoying it as much as I did! 🙂
I just finished listening to your performance, and that is a great word for it, of “wings and the child” by Edith Nesbit. the book itself is an incredible resource of unbelievable value to me, as i work with children who have special needs on a nearly daily basis. (i studied to be a teacher, I am an artist, but actually i’m called a direct care worker.) but just as incredible as the book was, so equally incredible was your vocal rendering of it. I almost imagined you were the author. I know you were not, but you read it with such passion, and with the sort of tonality and conviction that it was not impossible to see you puting on 1913 clothing and doing for e nesbit what Hal Holbrook did for Mark Twain or Leanord Nemoy did for Theo VanGoh.
Well Done!Well Done indeed!
Thankyou so much, Matthew! I wasn’t sure, when I found the book, what it’d be like. But just a few pages in (and a peek at the illustrations) and I was completely won over. I wish she’d written more like this (as well as everything else, of course.)
Love your reading of Tender Buttons – A real tour de force!
Thankyou, Fred — it was such a fun piece to work on!
Due to eye problems which cause me severe headaches from reading for anything more than 5 minutes, I find your recordings to be amazing. Your voice seems to make the story come alive and I find myself totally lost in the book. I am currently listening to “The Water-Babies” on Libravox.
Thank you so much for the work you do!
Thankyou for taking the time to let me know, James, it’s very much appreciated! Best wishes to you.
Hi Cori,
I just read your rendition of Frankenstein. The book truly becomes”alive” by your soothing and melodious voice. You are doing a fantastic service to myself in particular, and any fortunate soul who happens to listen to your masterpiece of an audio recording.
Sincerely, Adam
U.S.A. U.S.A!
Thankyou ever so much, Adam! I love the book myself (although cordially disliking most of the characters for most of the way through 🙂 Glad to be able to share!
I love doing it, David, it all comes together beautifully. Thankyou 🙂 I’m a huge Shelley fan, too — she’s really a pleasure to read.
I listened to your reading of Mary Shelley’s Mathilda recently. You have a lovely voice. Thank you for taking this seriously and for the work you do.
David
Hillsborough, NC
USA
Thankyou, Michael! I wouldn’t have made it through myself, without the enormous help of Mandarine who did the editing — it was really hard work to make sense of Morris’ writing, and having to listen to the vast number of mistakes on the way to a fair reading would have stopped me getting past the first chapter.
I’m glad the teamwork paid off for you too 🙂
Love your recording of Wood Beyond The World. You read so well making the most complicated English easy to understand. Thankyou for your time and effort its very much appreciated.
You’re very welcome, ChaPPers. Though, perhaps don’t try that with Frankenstein — you’ll likely end up with very odd dreams indeed!
You have a beautiful voice, that I literally listen to all day! The pronounciation and tone are spot on and extremely relaxing, so thank you for sending me to the land of nod each night!
Thankyou, Cristina and George — that’s really lovely to hear. 🙂
You’re one of my two favorite readers. Thanks for taking the time. It’s like being read to when I was a child (I’m 55 now). I put everything I can get of yours on my mp3 player and listen to you every night. You’re one of my wife’s two favorites also. Thanks on her behalf too.
Hi,
Today I started listening to Black Beauty with my 14-year-old son. We are enjoying it so much that we listened to 24 chapters in a row.
I must say I love your reading so much that I am going to search for other books you’ve read.
Thank you so much for your work.
Cristina in Lisboa, Portugal
Cori,
I am curious, would/do you accept contracts to do recordings?
Drop me a line, if you would interested in such.
Certainly, have emailed you. 🙂
You have a nice voice :D.
Thankyou, Amir!
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
No problem, David, I’ve dropped you a line.
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.
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! 🙂
*whinnies gratefully* It was a pleasure to revisit something I’d loved so much as a child — am glad you enjoyed listening too, 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
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!
please, please do the entire divine comedy.
your reading of the first 5 cantos was wonderful
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.
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.
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.