On Apple podcasts, I recently found various organizations doing audiobook readings of public domain works. Since all the readings are done by volunteers, the quality can be up and down. But free is free and some of the readers are excellent. To date, two of the best that I have found are Rick Kistner (?) and Margaret Espaillat from Lit2Go and Librivox.
I put a question mark next to Rick Kistner because the Lit2Go pages do not present the readers’ names, but he mentions his name at the end of each episode. A quick online search turns up a performing arts professor in Florida named Rick Kistner which aligns well with a dramatic reading podcast produced by the University of South Florida. I enjoyed The Journey to the Center of the Earth and Kistner’s performance. He lent a frenetic, bordering on panic, energy to the narrator of the novel. The narrator’s uncle is the driving force of the journey’s expedition and Kistner makes it sound like the narrator is just trying to keep up. No stiff upper lip in this performance.
While Lit2Go is developed by USF and various educational grants enabling higher production values, Librivox’s army of volunteers has provided a much larger library of work. The quality of recordings is varied, there were some individual episodes of The Canterbury Tales that I found borderline intolerable. Margaret Espaillat however is an excellent reader. Ambassador’s Morgenthau’s Story is the autobiographical memoir of Henry Morgenthau, the US ambassador from 1913-1916. The book itself is an excellent look into a part of World War I that is often overlooked. The closing of the Dardanelles and subsequent British Navy retreat helped push dominoes influenced world history in ways nobody could have guessed. But this is about the readers and Espaillat’s calm and measured voice provides a sense of gravity to Morgenthau’s words. She makes the book sound like diplomat attempting to relay the story in a professional and dignified manner. A lesser reader may unknowingly cheapen the ambassador’s work.
Although these books can be found on the Lit2Go and Librivox websites, I prefer the podcast form. Being able to easily download the books onto my phone for listening is a very low barrier to entry. Public domain is great, there are tens of thousands of pieces of work to enjoy. Public domain is also terrible, there are tens of thousands of pieces of work to enjoy. Choosing something to engage with can be a difficult proposition. Being free lowers the barriers, not needing and special software lowers it further. I could be convinced to download a Jules Verne work and upload it to a listening device the old-fashioned way, but that is not a guarantee. And I doubt I would have listened to Ambassador’s Morgenthau’s Story if I needed to go out of my way to acquire it. A few extra steps in an app I already use is the way to go.
The Keasy Depot 