Reviews and other ponderings
I noticed the other day that a lot of the books I have read in the last few weeks were written on or around 1895. I wondered idly to myself how many books must have been published in 1895, and how many are now completely forgotten, and lost forever. I then wondered how many were [...]
According to Woody Allen, “Tolstoy is a full meal. Turgenev is a fabulous dessert. Dostoyevsky is a full meal with a vitamin pill and extra wheat germ.”All I had read of Tolstoy in the past was “Childhood”, his first work, which I enjoyed (until the very dark and almost throw-away ending), but which did not [...]
I have never read a book quite like this before, which surprises me: I have read some stream-of-conciousness novels in the past, and generally found them confusing and opaque (COUGH-Virginia Woolf-COUGH). However, what impressed me here was its clarity, even in the midst of highly poetic language, and overall the relentless, painful honesty. This is [...]
H G Wells: Did you know that he invented table-top wargaming? ‘The Invisible Man’ was a strange book. Another iconic story, but all I had before this was a few scenes from a black and white movie. So I didn’t know what to expect, and at first the prose sounded very flat and pedestrian. (Probably [...]
What are the competing benefits of audiobooks and normal books? Book advantages • Can be read quickly.• Greater choice. (Too much choice?)• Are not free, but require no further equipment.• Can be picked up and read easily anywhere. Book disadvantages • Can invite over-analysis. (You know – following up on every footnote, needing reference material nearby, such [...]
The first thing to say about this book is that it is a work of genius. It is simultaneously a tale of adventure, a masterful display of technique (like a modernist building, the structure is on the outside), and a profound study in human nature. You will notice that I feel it is three novels [...]
When someone on LibriVox posts on the forum, asking how to pronounce the name of your home county. (Yes; county – kind of a British ‘state’. Known by Londoners as ‘the provinces’. Without a trace of condescension)
I came across a forum thread the other day, where kri was discussing the suitability of voices to texts. This was interesting to me, as the first LibriVox recording I heard was her recording of ‘Heart of Darkness’ by Joseph Conrad. Now, Conrad was Polish, English was not even his second language, and he was [...]
The question of the quality of Librivox recordings has been raised, and as a heavy user, I wanted to wade in. The policy of Librivox, as I imperfectly understand it, is not to criticise the recording of a text, by comparing it with a professional recording. The very effective idea seems to be, that if [...]
Not Librivox, I realise. However, I wanted to mention a great site I found which has all of Orson Welles’ ‘Mercury Theatre on the Air’ recordings, including the infamous ‘War of the Worlds’ broadcast. http://www.mercurytheatre.info/