Free Audiobooks!

Got your attention?

LibriVox is a wondrously ingenious website. Basically, there are many books (mostly those published in 1920 and earlier) which are currently in the free domain, and which are therefore available online in places like Project Gutenberg for free. The folks who started LibriVox went one step further: Using volunteer readers, they have created and posted online for free listening and download a multitude of free domain audiobooks! Of course, this means that modern books covered by copyright are not included. But to a reader of my tastes, this does not matter. The variety is excellent, as since this is a database of basically fans reading books they like, there's many more obscure titles in audiobook form: Eddison, Dunsany, Chesterton, MacDonald, Morris, and other authors are represented, as are bigger names like Dickens, Melville, and Verne. I've even found a reading of 'The Song of Roland'!

The readers are all volunteers, but those I have listened to so far seem to read pretty well. I'm currently listening to The Worm Ouroboros, and the reader has a slight accent, perhaps Scottish, that I'm enjoying. It's not a professional reading, but it is certainly well done and makes for enjoyable listening. The audio is clear and of excellent quality. What really delights me about this website, though, is that it is for readers like me: Bookworms who have a penchant for obscure old books which normally would never be made into audiobooks. I mean, 'The Day Boy and The Night Girl' audiobook?? Whee!

So what are you waiting for? Go check it out!

Exploring Island History

Hello, all you lovely people, and I hope you are having yourselves a fine weekend.

I pulled my first all-night study session of the semester on Thursday night--mainly due to the "Beowulf" essay that simply did not want to be written. I re-wrote the horrid thing upwards of a dozen times, and I still am not happy with how it turned out. Of course, I'm never happy with anything I write, 

but I really wasn't happy with it. Well, anyway. Speaking of Anglo-Saxon gorgeousness, I hope you all were as ecstatic as me when you heard about the immense new find of Anglo-Saxon treasure in England--three times the size of Sutton Hoo's hoard, or so I have read. Unbelievable. There is an incredible magic in old artifacts like that, something that tugs at my heartstrings in a way nothing else quite does. To understand what I mean, read A String in the Harp.

Today I should have spent my time recuperating from the horridness of being awake for twenty-two hours straight, but instead I went to visit a few local museums: the Mission House downtown, which is the original Mission that was built here in Hawaii in 1820, and Queen Emma's palace. (That's Emma and her husband, King Kamehameha IV in the above photograph.) The Mission House was adorable, and it was really strange and sad to see it in old photographs showing it surrounded with miles of green jungle, when now it sits serene and somewhat forgotten in the middle of downtown Honolulu, dwarfed by roadways and skyscrapers. The house was very small, very quaint, and as the guide pointed out, 'It was built by New Englanders, and they built it in the style of a building they would have lived in back home--that is, they built it to keep out a New England winter. They discovered their mistake later.' He was quite right; the place was stiflingly hot. There's a certain special way to build a house in Hawaii; build it in the right direction, and put large windows and doors in the right places, and make the ceilings high, so that the trade winds flow through the place like cooling water. The missionaries did none of this, and even though they've been dead for over a hundred years, I still felt sorry for them, poor chaps.

Apparently they serve high tea at a little set of tables on the grass next to the house, under some spreading green trees. I hope to partake, one day. Oh, and we got to see the Mission printing press, which excited me a lot. I love printing presses. though for some reason I can't see one without thinking of Rab Silsbee from Johnny Tremain. Then again, perhaps that's one of the reasons why I like printing presses . . .

My grandma and I were going to take the bus to Queen Emma's palace, but some of our fellow Mission tour guide-takers were going to the palace also and offered us a ride. They were really nice, a mother and daughter. We toured the palace with them too, and all four of us became relatively chummy by the end of the day. The palace was lovely; it looked like a Southern mansion, all white with enormous windows and enormous rooms. In one room was the Queen's grand piano, which she purchased while in Germany, and apparently she was a very gifted pianist. What is awesome is that you are allowed to play the Queen's piano, as well as take pictures while you do so! I've often wished that I could play piano, but never more than today . . . that didn't prevent me from posing with my hands on the keys though, ha. There were many portraits of royal family members, including a couple beautiful portraits of her son, the Crown Prince, who died when only four years old. He was an adorable child, and always looks so solemn but sweet in his portraits . . .

For those of you who don't know much about Hawaiian monarchy, I strongly recommend you research and learn about it. It was a monarchy recognized and respected all around the world at one point: Emma was given wedding gifts from places as far off as India and China, and Queen Victoria of England was Emma's son's godmother. The story of the monarchy is one of the most interesting, sad, and, yes, controversial in all of history. There are some people out here who regularly storm I'olani palace and lock themselves in to protest the fact that Hawaii was annexed to the US, and there are some who are fiercely devoted to its identity as a US state, so it's a big issue here. I personally don't like to get embroiled in the issue, but I do like learning about it. And the Hawaiian monarchy was a far more legitimate, advanced, and efficient government than most non-Islanders know, with really fascinating members (Queen Emma and Princess Kai'ulani being among my favorites. Kai'ulani was the last princess of the Hawaiians, good friends with Robert Louis Stevenson, an excellent painter, and died extremely young). Ignorance is sad, so learn!

On a lighter note, I have begun (after much urging from friends) to watch 'Firefly', and must say that I'm enjoying it so far. I found the second episode much better than the first, though; the first was okay, but the dialogue wasn't as sparkly as I would have liked. Still, it seems to be a fun show. Mixing western with the space age was a genius move, and I'm sad the show has so few episodes; it seems to be only getting better, so why cut it off?

Anyways, that's all for now, folks! Oh, and I'm beginning to type up all my book reviews for the month (there's quite a few, actually!) so you can start looking forward to them now ;)

Pic

Reading and Panicking

So . . . . I have a paper on "Beowulf" Due on Friday, a Russian quiz on Friday, a Physics quiz on Friday, a Jeopardy! style quiz on Athens tomorrow morning, and about sixty pages of Hawaiian studies reading to do. 

Panic ensues.

The worst of it is, I'm so not sure about what I should study first or focus on first, I just kind of dither and end up not getting anything done at all! Ai! I think I'll do a good solid couple hours on the essay, or at least an hour, and then I'll switch over to Russian, and then I'll switch over to studying Athenian trivia, and then repeat. Gah, I hate tough decisions. 

One good thing about today: I walked to the public library about twenty minutes from campus and checked out four books: Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson; Sabriel, by Garth Nix; Dragonspell, by Donita K. Paul; and Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. Unfortunately, due to the old building being knocked down and a new one being built, the library no longer has the enormous selection it used to (Fire and Hemlock is gone!!), and is actually housed in little trailer things on the grounds of an elementary school. But at least I was able to find four books I was interested in, eh? I got Kidnapped because my mind has been inexplicably filled with Alan for the past week or so, Sabriel because I hadn't finished it when I had to return it to the library last weekend, Dragonspell because I believe one of you recommended it, but I forget who (stand and be recognized!), and The Graveyard Book because this way I'll be able to finish it without wearing out the copy at Barnes & Noble.

Tomorrow marks one month (Aug. 24-Sept. 24) of sophomore year for me. Goodness, it seems to have gone by quickly. No complaints from me in that regard, though; it means that Christmas is coming closer!

Now I'm off to the ancient land of Heorot and meres, where dragons flow like gold across the sky and young warriors can grow old and still die heroes. Goodness, I love "Beowulf".

A Return to the World of Bartimaeus!

"Here’s some news. I’m working on a new Bartimaeus project. Actually, I’ve been working on it, off and on, for about a year now, with a big break in the middle to do the Heroes tours. I’ve kept pretty quiet about it up until now for a variety of reasons, partly because I wanted to be sure it was going to work, and partly because I wanted to get the contractual side of things sorted. But (at long last) I think the time’s right to go on the record about it here. The current plan is to aim for an autumn 2010 publication, both in the US and UK, which would be fantastic, and also match up nicely with the proposed publication of the Amulet graphic novel, about the same time. If this is going to work out, though, I’m going to have to write my socks off for the next six months or so, because there’s still a LOT of work to do. Currently Bart resides in two slightly garish pink ring- binders, one comprising text and the other notes. The aim is to turn all this into a nice, neatly stacked pile of manuscript by the spring.

As for the details of the book… small things like plot and structure are still proving slightly fluid, so I won’t make any public predictions just yet. But I’ll let you know more right here, just as soon as I can. In the meantime, I suppose I’d better get back to work. I’ve got a djinni waiting."

Found here, dated September 4. Excellent news for any fan of the Bartimaeus Trilogy! I for one am extremely excited, though I wonder what exactly it will be about. The trilogy itself was rather perfect--Indeed, I often describe it as the only perfect trilogy I have ever read apart from "The Lord of the Rings" (which isn't even really a trilogy at all, but I'll pass that issue over for now), although the "Space Trilogy" is also very good (hush, Linden!). So I don't see how Stroud would continue the story. I can only assume that he would write an entirely different story, and merely set it in the same world. Presumably Bartimaeus will again be a main character. Without Nat and Kitty, however, will he still have the appeal as he did in the trilogy? Only time--and Stroud himself, of course--will tell, but as of this moment I am both apprehensive and delighted ^_^

(Oh, and for the record: Nathaniel is miles awesomer and better than Harry. I just found the depiction in the above pic (source here) too funny and well-done to resist.)

*IMPORTANT* Writing Blog NOW Open *IMPORTANT*

Basically, what the title says. After airing the idea with various friends (all of whom were gratifyingly enthusiastic--thanks for the support, girls!) I've decided to go ahead with my perhaps-crazy scheme and open a new blog. This will be a PRIVATE, LOCKED blog, available to view and comment on only to co-authors. This is to ensure that the blog will be a safe, secure, and comfortable place for us to post our bits of writing for writers we know and trust to comment on.

As a result, if you want in on this blog, I will need your email address. I entirely respect other people's privacy, as well as safety concerns on the web, so if you do not feel comfortable with sending me your email address, then I respect that, but unfortunately I do not think the blog will be accessible to you. If you do send me your email address, I will use it to send you an invite to be a collaborator on the blog, and then will promptly erase it from my address book, unless you give instructions to the contrary. Fear no spam from me! If you do decide that you want to send me your email so that I can invite you to join the writers blog, here's my address: cpsk@hawaii.edu. Just put 'The Radish Room' as your subject line and make sure you mention who you are in your email, so I know who I'm inviting ^_^

I'm really excited about this new blog and the opportunity it is for us to cooperate, work, and grow together as writers. It's currently called 'The Radish Room', as a little nod to the Inklings' 'Rabbit Room' at the Eagle and Child pub, and the web address is http://www.theroomwithnoview.blogspot.com. You will not, however, be able to view the site until you accept an invite.

I hope to see you all there soon!