Listen Up: One Podcast and Two Classic Books

These have given me a great deal of listening pleasure, so I wanted to be sure you knew about them.

Lanky Guys

A weekly attempt to draw some meaning and humor out of the sacred treasury of the Scriptures in the context of the liturgy.

Our deacon recommended these to me and I'm hooked.

Fr. Peter Mussett and Scott Powell get us ready for each Sunday by taking us through the scriptures. They read each one aloud and dig deeper into context and background about historical, scriptural and liturgical connections. They combine scholarship, humor, and joy which makes the time fly by.

You can pick them up at their website, Lanky Guys, or on iTunes.

Pride and Prejudice

I loved Pride and Prejudice all through my youth, but never explored any of Austen's other novels. Finally having filled that gap in my education a few years ago, Pride and Prejudice sank from favorite to mid-range enjoyment for me.

I have narrations of all except this one of Austen's novels because Juliet Stephenson inexplicably only did an abridged version of it. When Rosamund Pike's new narration came out it was lauded by so many, including Orson Scott Card, that I thought it might be the fitting reading to match the others I love so much.

It is all that and more. Pike's narration raises Pride and Prejudice to the level of the sparkling, delightful tale I loved so much when I was young. In some ways it is as if I was reading it for the first time. Highly recommended.

Around the World in 80 Days 

When I discovered the talented Jim Dale had narrated a new translation of this classic adventure, I began searching ... and was pleased to see that my faithful library had a copy.

I'm not sure if it is the narration or the translation or both, but it is as if this story has new life in it. No one does it better than Jim Dale or this translator. Also Listening Library added occasional sound effects and appropriate music. At first I found it distracting but later it enhanced sense of travel and adventure.