Being allowed to listen to my ipod whilst I do my menial an mind numbing tasks at work has 1) rapidly increased my productivity whilst decreaing my boredom and 2) lead me to the discovery of librivox.
Librivox is an 'acoustical liberation of books in the public domain' or rather, a library of audio books recorded by the public, that are out of copyright in the US. Free audio books! Brilliant.
Which it is, except they are read by members of the public. Mostly American members of public, and they are mostly British books. Having to hear a woman with a grating Southern accent mispronounce their way through Jane Austen novels is nothing short of painful, and Phantom of the Opera was even worse, thanks to one reader who read out every French word as it was spelt. Ouch. The English readers (and the many other nationalities that volunteer) can also be as bad. However, I am hugely grateful that these people have volunteered their time to contribute to this website. However much I may struggle to listen to the odd reading, none of these people are professionals and some do a bloody amazing job (one male American reader made me cry with his reading of Phantom of the Opera. He had a different voice for every character, put a huge range of emotion in and if he's not an actor already, is sorely wasted on whatever it is he does)
Thanks to this website, I'm 'reading' a book every day at work, and it's keeping me going! I also intend to volunteer myself once I've cured myself of my terrible habit of speaking far too quickly. (I'm practising this by reading to my boyfriend every night, from 'A Brief History of Time')
So yes, go to librivox, listen to some books and volunteer! Especially if you're Irish, I'm in love with the voice of the one Irish girl who I've heard so far......
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment