Feed your head

I've decided that the publication schedule of this blog will have to revert to "occasional" - i.e. posts at random, sporadic and varied intervals when I remember what my password is and have something I feel like raving about.

Today's topic - my reversion to childhood - or rather my current plan of re-reading all those childhood classics - but in a Web 2.0-ey kinda way. Which means fantastic sites like Librivox - free public domain audio books.

These are all read by volunteers so be prepared for varied sound quality (I swear I could hear someone doing the dishes in the background of Chapter 1 of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) and a cornucopia of American accents (it's OK - only one reader so far sounded like George W. Bush).

But it's just soooooo cool to be able to sit and listen to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - knowing that I have Treasure Island and Little Women waiting in the wings (and yes, Hamster I can listen to Lewis Carroll and Radio Sport at the same time!)

Hints for the Audiobook download newbie

• leave Dickens until you can find version with British narrators - David Copperfield should not sound like he's just left an Iowan cornfield.


• If you have dial-up - don't fall off your chair with shock/disgust/laughter when your computer tells you that Great Expectations will take one week, four days, 5 hours and 53 minutes to download.


• Don't start casting nasturtiums about Mr Carroll's use of hallucenogenic substances while penning his tome before you check that you have loaded the chapters onto your mp3 player in the correct order.

And if you need explanation of the title of this post ...