Anway, I digress, what a great service though. I would like to download some and listen in my car - great for those long car trips and also good for kid's books - we have lots on cd's but free copies are even nicer - although the Tumblebooks audio books from the local council library is also a good service.
I thought I would listen to "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott as that is one that I have read aloud myself. What was a little disconcerting was the overt American accents (suited this title though as set in America). I liked listening to the different readers, however, didn't think it suited having a man read this text and I was a little worried when I saw that one of the readers was called "Wina Hathaway" - I was hoping that it wasn't "like voice like name". She did turn out to be a lovely lady with a strong Spanish accent - when I clicked on her name it turns out that she is originally from the Philippines.
Hmm listening to "A Child's History of English" by Charles Dickens was quite soporific! The first reader, whilst having a very appropriate English accent, reading Ancient England and the Romans nearly put me to sleep - maybe it was the content. The reader of the chapter England Under Athlestan and the Six Boy-Kings had a very strong American accent - fussy aren't I.
Moving on, I've had great success. I listened to some of "What Katy Did At School" by Susan Coolidge (one of my personal childhood favourites) and it was ready by a very fluent reader called Karen Savage from Waco Texas (don't let the location put you off!). The web, being what it is, when I clicked on her name I was taken to her blog called "gypsygirl - Where I talk about knitting, audiobook recording and other stuff" and I saw pictures of her new house and learnt that she is an actor - which explains why she can read so well. The point of all this is to show how quickly we can get sidetracked on the web and yes, now after listening for a while with headphones my ears hurt and so does my head!
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