I would like to give thanks to two ladies in St. Blogs. Maureen of Aliens in This World and Julie of Happy Catholic. Both of them run great blogs that are certainly among my favorites and part of my daily blogs of obligation. They also both have side projects and this is what this post is about.
For awhile Maureen has been running another site called Maria Lectrix. She seems to spend considerable time narrating public domain audio books which she then places on archive.org for download. Her motto is “public domain audiobooks six days a week – for people with Catholic tastes ” So as you might expect she does a considerable amount of work with the Fathers of the Church. Maureen also does Science FIction, Mystery, History, Poems and other works. She also has quite an excellent singing voice which I learned when she sang some of the songs in E.R. Eddison’s novel “The Worm Ouroboros.” Her voice acting is also quite good.
Last year Julie D. started the Forgotten Classics podcast where as you would expect she narrates classics that you might not know about. Over the last year we have gotten everything from cavemen to a Agatha Christie novel, Though her podcast provides much more than that. We get commentary on the novels along with reviews of other podcasts, especially reviews of other podcasts narrating books. She also has a great interest in Science Fiction and is also now helping to narrate on other SF podcasts. I have found her suggestions for other books to listen to are always worthwhile.
I listen to a good number of books via audio downloaded from the internet. I listen to them on the commuting to work, household chores or even while brushing my teeth or taking a shower (yes I am a book addict). Librivox and Podiobooks.com have been a good source. Plus there are a number of authors such as Scott Sigler who are podcasting their books before they are published. The first thing I do for planning a long car trip is to make sure I have enough hours of audio along to accompany me.
What I like about Maureen and Julie is that their taste in books is quite close to my own. I am introduced to authors I might never had otherwise read and I am never disappointing by their choices. So I just wanted to thank them for their side projects and that here is one fan quite appreciative of their efforts.
4 comments
Jeff, thank you so much! You have put a great big smile on my face, although also added to my obligation of downsizing my pride (so it is good for my soul too!). 🙂
I would much rather prefer reading an actual book to listening to a recording of it, however, I often do use Maria Lectrix for the recordings of the Fathers and Saints. Like Mister Miller I often listen when I’m doing chores.
People should acquaint themselves with St Thomas More’s DIALOGUE OF COMFORT AGAINST TRIBULATION, which is available online for reading, but has also been recorded on Maria Lectrix.
Thanks, Jeff. That was a real morale boost.
Can someone explain how to listen to these? I mean, I can get stuff on my computer, but that won’t work in the car. What do you buy to put this stuff on so you can listen to it? I tried to ask at a Circuit City but they kept talking about “songs” and no one could answer if you could stop a book at a certain place and go back to it. Is this something you put on an Ipod, those things teenagers use to play “songs”? Is that the same thing as an “Mp3″player? I assume you would have to have a way of stopping it and going back to the same place.
Do any of them work with any computer? My daughter’s IPODs kept crashing from trying to use our Linux computer with them, even though there was supposedly a Linux program to do it. One died after a number of these crashes, and I bought her another for another hundred bucks. This made me very leery of them. Now someone tells me MP3 players are way cheaper than IPODS. But now I have a Mac laptop-do I have to get the more expensive IPOD to go with it?
How many books can you put on one of these at a time?
How do you find what is on them when you want it?
Can someone please give me a basic lesson in this?
Thanks,
Susan Peterson