Librivox book discussion

[John, Moderator]

I have Adrian's reading of The History of Mr. Polly on my TBR pile.

[Lee]

John wrote: "I have Adrian's reading of The History of Mr. Polly on my TBR pile."

I'm sure you'll enjoy his narration, John.

[Kelly]

Claire wrote: "Adrian is a wonderful narrator, Kelly. I also really liked his reading of The 39 Steps on LibriVox."

I plan to check out his other recordings. I love the movie The 39 Steps so I should check out the book. I hear his reading of Treasure Island is also top notch ...

[Tasha]

My favorite narrator on Librivox is Ralph Snelson. He's narrated several Poe short stories, as well as complete science fiction novels like Trips to the Moon and The Land That Time Forgot. He does a great job!

[Db]

Ruth Golding is a fantastic narrator. She does voices for the characters and reads with wonderful flow. There is also no annoying background noise. Highly recommended!!

[Lindsay]

Absolutely agree with DB---Ruth Golding did a smashing job with "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes"

[John, Moderator]

I found a book she narrated that I got from Audible well done, though she spoke v-e-r-y slowly much of the time: It's Behind You.

[Lee]

John wrote: "I found a book she narrated that I got from Audible well done, though she spoke v-e-r-y slowly much of the time: It's Behind You."

Ruth has done several books for Iambik, John. She's a popular narrator.

[Ruth]

Terry wrote: "Jason Mills does a great reading of Eddison's "Worm Ouroboros.". His Scottish accent is well suited to the material. Too bad it's his only recording. "

As a good Lancashire lad, he would find this rather amusing, I think. :D

Sorry that my reading of It's Behind You was a bit slow. I had terrible difficulties with the accents. It was a fun book, though.

Coming soon: I am currently recording The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes (the last of the canon) for Legamus.eu. This is still in copyright in the USA, but out of copyright in Europe and most other places.

Thanks for all the nice words, people. :)

Ruth

[John, Moderator]

Ruth - it was a fun book, completely with one of the more unhinged villains out there!

[Alan]

Anything narrated by Mark D. Nelson is great for folks interested in obscure Science Fiction/Fantasy titles. Here's his Librivox biblio:

Librivox - Reader - Mark Nelson

Each of these titles has a link to his website of freebies, but last time I checked it was broken (sigh).

Whatever the status of Mark Nelson's website, the Librivox listing of his titles is a pretty good catalog of great listening.

Enjoy,
Alan Mintaka

[Lee]

Alan wrote: "Anything narrated by Mark D. Nelson is great for folks interested in obscure Science Fiction/Fantasy titles. Here's his Librivox biblio:

Librivox - Reader - Mark Nelson

Each of these titles has ..."

Alan, Mark also records for Iambik. You can see his list of titles at Iambik.com and search under narrators. I wonder why that LibriVox link isn't working...

[Alan]

Claire wrote: "Alan, Mark also records for Iambik. You can see his list of titles at Iambik.com and search under narrators. I wonder why that LibriVox link isn't working... "

Thanks for that link, Claire! I just finished listening to "See You at the Morgue", a noir mystery that I had downloaded from his old website. It was his "Free Stuff" page on web.mac.com.

I had fun listening to it. He took the time and effort to add some "noir jazz" soundtracks that fit perfectly with the narration. Good stuff.

The web.mac.com server appears to be down. Let's hope Mark Nelson is in the process of moving his website....

PS: also just finished his narration of "Voyage to Arcturus", by David Lindsey - another obscure fantasy of early 20th century, pre-Tolkein. It's tough going if you haven't read the print edition. As usual Nelson does a great job with the characterizations.

There are many editions of these books listed here at Goodreads. I didn't take the time to wade through them to find the product links. Ergo, here are links to the Librivox and PodIOBooks editions:

A Voyage to Arcturus, by David Lindsey, narrated by Mark Douglas Nelson

See You at the Morgue, by Lawrence G. Blochman, narrated by Mark Douglas Nelson

Enjoy,
Alan Mintaka

[Susan]

After eventually exhausting the stock of decent books on CD which were borrowable from my local public library, I moved onto Audible this year (I love this service but for financial reasons am restricting myself to one credit per month). With my recent discovery of Librivox, I'm rejoicing that I can keep feeding my audio book habit without breaking the bank. I feel the greatest admiration and appreciation for all who have volunteered to create this project.

It turns out there are loads of good reads in the public domain, and on Librivox many are read by readers with professional quality voices. An added bonus is that it seems you can download a print version of those books (through the Bluefire ap) for free as well. So you can listen to your book for a while, and then curl up on the sofa and continue reading in print, as it suits you.

Now I will confess I'm only halfway through my first Librivox recorded book, but I'm loving it and can barely stop listening. It's a long one: "The Woman in White" by Wilkie Collins, read, mostly in excellent style, by a diverse range of voices which match the characters of the different narrators.

[John, Moderator]

Librivox's recording of Collins' Poor Miss Finch is so well done, I felt slightly guilty about its being free!

[Alan]

John wrote: "Librivox's recording of Collins' Poor Miss Finch is so well done, I felt slightly guilty about its being free!"

Even though it's not free, have you listened to Drood, by Dan Simmons? Wilkie Collins is the central character. Talk about a different perspective on Collins and Dickens....

[John, Moderator]

Thanks for the info, Al -- I may try that one after I finish the bio of Dickens on my TBR pile.

[Chrissie]

John, which bio of Dickens have you chosen to read? I too have Drood on my list.

Alan, thanks for reminding me about Drood!

[John, Moderator]

Chrissie -- Charles Dickens by Michael Slater.

[Chrissie]

John, thanks.

[Alan]

Chrissie wrote: "John, which bio of Dickens have you chosen to read? I too have Drood on my list.
...
Alan, thanks for reminding me about Drood!"

Keep in mind that Simmons' book is extremely fictional. He manages to tie in the real timelines of Dickens and Wilkie, such that "it could have happened" and still be consistent with history.

That said, it's a fun read in the "alternate history" genre, with some classic horror thrown in. At times it sounds like an H. Rider Haggard epic.

[Chrissie]

Alan wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "John, which bio of Dickens have you chosen to read? I too have Drood on my list.
...
Alan, thanks for reminding me about Drood!"

Keep in mind that Simmons' book is extremely ficti..."

Hmm, H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines was not my cup of tea when I read it years and years ago. Thanks for the explaining.

[Alan]

Chrissie wrote: "Hmm, H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines was not my cup of tea when I read it years and years ago. Thanks for the explaining. "

It's only a small part of the story. In fact Simmons blends many sub-genres of horror and adventure, set in a background like that of David Copperfield - the metro underground in England, except that in the case of Drood, it is literally underground.

Actually it's very difficult to encapsulate Drood in a few lines of vague description. It's clear that Simmons used multiple themes from the works of both Dickens and Wilkie, and tossed in his own talents for writing decent suspense and horror stories. Fans of just about any kind of Victorian literature can find something to enjoy in that story.

That's the worst review I've ever written. In any case, I hope you don't write Drood off because I said that part of it was reminiscent of H. Rider Haggard's style. There are many, many other styles in there, and Simmons' style binds them together. At least, that was the impression I got while listening to it. In addition to Simmons I was hearing Dickens, Wilkie, Arthur Conan Doyle, H. Rider Haggard, and, in the descriptions of some of the denizens of the "underground", H. G. Wells. I thought it was a really brilliant blending of those styles.

That reminds me: during the narration of Dickens' survival of a horrific train crash, I kept thinking of Rod Serling standing in front of me, smoking a butt and telling me things I'd rather not know. It was a hoot.

Strange.... I keep getting the feeling that someone else is in the room telling me how to write this down. When I turn around I get a momentary glimpse of someone who resembles me, but then I see only an empty chair. Who is really writing this?

Wilkie's doppelganger and "co-author": it's in the story too.

"What a blast", he said.

I mean, "what a blast", I said.

Alan Mintaka

[Chrissie]

I can see you really liked it!

[[deleted user]]

Hey - I just found this thread - thanks everyone for the excellent recommendations

Another vote here for Mark Nelson - his reading of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Princess of Mars was especially good because he has the perfect southern accent for it (or at least to my British ears he does)

I hadn't realized that Mark had done so much other stuff - I'm going to have to check them out. I read Voyage to Arcturus about 30 years ago.

Also, I loved Stewart Wills reading of Herman Melville's Moby Dick; a really impressive solo project. Moby Dick can be a bit heavy in places, but Stewart's quirky, humorous delivery carries it forward beautifully.

- Jon

[[deleted user]]

...and some off librivox recommendations: There is a free podcast of eleven classic short stories read by Mike Bennett available on his website and itunes

http://www.mikebennettpodcast.com/?q=...

His version of H P Lovecraft's Music of Erich Zann (a story I already love) is perfect, and his readings of some Saki stories (which I'd never tried before) inspired me to go away and read the originals. The first one I listened to was the Open Window and the end made me suddenly laugh out loud in a public place which is always embarrassing.

Another really good non Librivox H P Lovecraft is Andrew Leman's reading of Call of Cthulhu at http://hppodcraft.com/podcasts/TheCal...

- Jon

[Alan]

Chrissie wrote: "I can see you really liked it!"

If you're talking about Drood, yes. I thought it was brilliant. It inspired me to check out John's recommendation of "Poor Miss Finch", by Wilkie Collins. I haven't listened to it yet - I'm still working through the massive 1Q84 series audiobook by Haruki Murakami (not a freebie BTW). It's not bad for such a long story.

Alan Mintaka

[Shirley]

librivox ‏@librivox
we're going to be switching LibriVox severs over to a new set-up, expecting some downtime in the next few days. more info to come.

[Alan]

Shirley wrote: "librivox ‏@librivox
we're going to be switching LibriVox severs over to a new set-up, expecting some downtime in the next few days. more info to come."

Thanks for the notice, Shirley! I just got an email saying the downtime would be from 10:00 PM EST today (11/29/2012) until Friday 10:00 PM EST (11/30/2012). The message included these links for more info:

Librivox Blog

Librivox Forum

Librivox on Twitter

The important part of the announcement for me was that Librivox books can still be accessed at the Internet Archive as usual - we just won't be able to search for them using the Librivox catalog. However the search engine at the Internet Archive works OK.

Here's a link straight to the IA search engine and index (a good favorites link):

Librivox Audiobooks at the Internet Archive.

When all else fails, there's always Google's Advanced Search using the Internet Archive domain as part of the search. Or, you can use the regular Google Web Search with a string that looks like this:

"Audiobook title (include the quotes)" site:http://archive.org

(obviously you'll type the domain without the underline shown in the example - this forum auto-linked the URL and I couldn't figure out a way to shut it down)


Alan Mintaka

[Shirley]

Alan wrote: "Shirley wrote: "librivox ‏@librivox
we're going to be switching LibriVox severs over to a new set-up, expecting some downtime in the next few days. more info to come."

Thanks for the notice, Shirl..."

Thanks for the follow up.

[Alan]

Shirley wrote: "Thanks for the follow up..."



"I live ta soive! Woo! Woo! Woo!"
-- Jerome Lester Horwitz, AKA "Curley Howard"

"It's been an extinct pleasure!"
-- Leo Gorcey as Terence Aloysius "Slip" Mahoney, leader of the Bowery Boys

Alan Mintaka

[Ruth]

I'll post here when we're back up.

Ruth

[Shirley]

Ruth wrote: "I'll post here when we're back up.

Ruth"

Thanks Ruth

[Ruth]

LibriVox is back up. DNS changes sometimes take a few hours to percolate through for some people, unfortunately, but it is all working fine. :)

[Alan]

Ruth wrote: "LibriVox is back up. DNS changes sometimes take a few hours to percolate through for some people, unfortunately, but it is all working fine. :)"

Hmm. Comcast's DNS servers still point to the "Moving" announcement page, so I switched to Google's DNS servers and got the same thing. I assume your URL is still

HTTP://www.librivox.Org

I would think that Google's DNS would pick up the change pretty quickly. I'm going to stay with Google's DNS anyway (works faster than Comcast) and report back when I can see the website.

Alan Mintaka

[Ruth]

Alan wrote: "I assume your URL is still

HTTP://www.librivox.Org"

It is. The catalogue search is working for me, the only thing I can't see is the home page http://librivox.org/.

See if you can see the advanced search at https://catalog.librivox.org/visitor_...

Ruth

[Alan]

Ruth wrote:
It is. The catalogue search is working for me, the only thing I can't see is the home page http://librivox.org/.
See if you can ssee the advanced search at..."

Yes, I can get there! The search engine also works.

I noticed that if I clicked on the Librivox banner at the top of the Advanced Search page, I got the "moving" page again. I wonder if it's just a temporary URL redirection. Is the "Moving" page actually on the Internet Archive server too?

Server response is a tad slow, but that could be my Comcast service - even though I'm using Google's DNS lookups, I still have to connect through Comcast's backbone. It's pretty bad sometimes.

Anyway, the Advanced Search page and the rest of the catalog are now visible to Google's DNS servers. Thanks for that update !!!

Alan Mintaka

[Alan]

Ruth wrote:
See if you can see the advanced search at..."

UPDATE: actually the bottleneck in the slow server response starts at an Internet Systems Consortium router in Redwood City CA, ISP 149.20.65.157

Just based on the sequencing of servers at that end, it looks like the ISP host for the Internet Archive. Is that right?

Alan Mintaka

[Ruth]

No idea, Alan. I am only a humble admin. I'll see if anyone knows. But we are back up long before the forecast time, so I expect everything will have settled down soon.

[Alan]

Ruth wrote: "No idea, Alan. I am only a humble admin. I'll see if anyone knows. But we are back up long before the forecast time, so I expect everything will have settled down soon."

Hey - we have access to the catalog already, only two days after you started the move to a new server. I understand what that entails and what can go wrong during the move.

FWIW (coming from an obsolescent hacker), I think you've done a phenomenal job - especially considering that the move included database software as well as website content. Nice work!!!

Alan Mintaka

[Ruth]

I will pass your praise on to our sysadmin, who I agree has done splendidly. We have had some problems with overload in the last couple of hours, which I suppose is not surprising, as people have been beavering away recording when they can't be lounging around on the forum. ;)

[Ruth]

Some very knotty problems have arisen since we went live. They are being worked on constantly but haven't yet been resolved, so you may well find the catalog and forum going up and down for a while yet.

[Alan]

Ruth wrote: "Some very knotty problems have arisen since we went live. They are being worked on constantly but haven't yet been resolved, so you may well find the catalog and forum going up and down for a while..."

The catalog and home page are both working now, 12/02/2012 10:00 PM EST. Looking good!

Alan Mintaka

[Leslie]

Hi, I'm new to this group so sorry if this book has been mentioned already...

I just finished Dombey and Son by Dickens narrated by Mil Nicholson. The book was great but Nicholson's narration was magnificent! If you like Dickens and/or Victorian literature, this is definitely one to check out.

[Leslie]

Just finished Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens (narrator not named but this is the only recording of this book). I gave it 3 stars -- narration was fine, it was the book.

[Ruth]

Leslie wrote: "Just finished Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens (narrator not named but this is the only recording of this book).

http://librivox.org/the-life-and-adve... read by Debra Lynn.

Ruth

[Leslie]

Thanks Ruth.

[bup]

Hey, I just discovered Arielle Lipshaw, who's done some complete works for librivox.

He Knew He Was Right (fat classic book by Trollope) looks great!

[Tina]

John Goodman... He does a great job with Mark Twain (all) and a couple more... One of my all time favorites

[Ruth]

John Greenman ;)

He has recorded just about every bit of Twain's writing he can find: https://catalog.librivox.org/people_p...