5 Great Audiobook Performances

The list, care of the Chicago Tribune.

Audible Books Using Big Stars

More about Audible's use of fine actors, here.

Behind-the-Scenes Tour of Audible

Audible Ready for Its Hollywood Close Up

The Los Angeles Times explores audio books and, specifically, the growing company Audible.

From the story...

To hear Audible chief executive Donald Katz tell it, his Newark, N.J.-based company is one of the few growth sectors in acting these days. Audible is the largest producer and seller of digital audio books, issuing more than 1,000 titles a year, all in need of narrators. “If you sat at the Broad Street train station, you’d see dozens of actors coming off the train every day, heading to our headquarters,” he told me last week. “We’ve got six studios, running two shifts each day to keep up with the books we’re doing.”

Until now, most of the actors were off-Broadway and TV working stiffs, moonlighting from their day jobs in regional theater or on various “Law & Order” shows. But Katz told me he is about to launch an ambitious effort to rebrand a new line of literary classics. After months of intensive negotiations, Audible has signed up a host of stars, including Dustin Hoffman, Kate Winslet, Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman, Samuel L. Jackson, Anne Hathaway, Annette Bening and Susan Sarandon.

Audible is offering the prestigious group of Oscar-worthy talent unusually high fees for their services, but the real attraction for actors, who often spend years waiting around for a plum dramatic role, is simple enough: The actors picked the book they wanted to read. When the new series debuts early next year — it’s tentatively called Project A List, though Katz is looking for a more formal title — audio book fans can hear Winslet reading Emile Zola’s “Thérèse Raquin,” Hoffman reading Jerzy Kosinski’s “Being There,” Jackson reading Chester Himes’ “A Rage in Harlem,” Sarandon reading Carson McCullers’ “The Member of the Wedding” and Hathaway reading L. Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.”

The Kama Sutra. Now in Audio

'Tis true. For the first time in the book's 1,600 year history you can listen to the book.

From the piece in the Book Bench...

"Too shy to read the Kama Sutra on the train during rush hour? Just take out your headphones," Reuters helpfully suggests. While it's true that listening to a book is even sneakier than reading one on a Kindle, I'd be afraid that my face would give me away. If everyone can see the cover of your Kama Sutra, everyone knows what you're up to—for better or worse. If you're listening to the Kama Sutra, you've got a secret. Suppose you smirk or blush at the wrong moment? What will your fellow passengers think then? Ah, the seeds of paranoia are planted.

It also occurs to me that in many parts of the world, people do not take trains or buses to work. They drive. Listening to the Kama Sutra on a car stereo invites all kinds of potential peril.

And, if you have a Snuggie (who doesn't?!?!) and are in love, don't forget Snuggie Sutra.

LibriVox

Audio books for free using the classics in the public domain, like War and Peace, Middlemarch, and The Three Musketeers. What could be better?