Audio Excerpts of note

Background and context: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/09/27/anais-nin-reads-from-diary/

Anaïs Nin reads from her famous diary (1966)

Lou Reed talks to Rolling Stone critic Anthony deCurtis about adapting literary works to music. Background, transcript, and context here: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/11/11/lou-reed-anthony-decurtis-interview/

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Lou Reed on Edgar Allan Poe and setting literary texts to music

Background, transcript, highlights, and discussion here: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/02/10/the-project-of-literature-susan-sontag-92y/

Recorded live at the https://soundcloud.com/92y

Audio exclusively available courtesy of the 92Y Unterberg Poetry Center and the Susan Sontag estate. 

TRANSCRIPT / DETAILS

The Project of Literature: Susan Sontag at 92Y (April 16, 1992)

Swizzle your ears for some of the finest, most fantastic first words every written, spoken and dreamt. Stay tuned for more extracts from Roald Dahl’s best loved children’s stories and if you like what you hear then visit the Apple App. Store to download the Audiobooks App for free!
With fantastic features including free access to the first chapter of every title, in–app purchase to continue the story and the ability to stream the audiobooks, the Roald Dahl Audiobooks App is available from the App Store on iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore.


Roald Dahl: The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me read by Hugh Laurie

Recorded at TED 2014. Transcript and context: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/03/20/neil-gaiman-ghost-stories/

Neil Gaiman on why scary stories speak to us

Neil Gaiman on why there is no such thing as "children's" books

Recorded at TED 2014 in Vancouver. Background and context: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/03/20/neil-gaiman-ghost-stories/

Neil Gaiman on the haunting ghost of dead ideas

http://www.democracynow.org - In an exclusive interview, Chilean novelist Isabel Allende remembers the life and legacy of late writer Gabriel García Márquez. She reads from his landmark novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and talks about how García Márquez influenced generations of thinkers and writers in Latin America, and across the world. "He’s the master of masters," Allende says. "In a way, he conquered readers and conquered the world, and told the world about us, Latin Americans, and told us who we are. In his pages, we saw ourselves in a mirror." Allende describes the first time she read "One Hundred Years of Solitude," and how it impacted her. "It was as if someone was telling me my own story," she says. We also air video of García Márquez in his own words and hear Democracy Now! co-host Juan González read from "The General in His Labyrinth."  

Democracy Now!, is an independent global news hour that airs weekdays on 1,200+ TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream 8-9am ET at http://www.democracynow.org.
Please consider supporting independent media by making a donation to Democracy Now! today, visit http://owl.li/ruJ5Q.      

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"He Gave Us Back Our History": Isabel Allende on Gabriel García Márquez in Exclusive Interview (2/2)

http://www.democracynow.org - Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont has announced plans to block $650 million in military aid to Egypt after an Egyptian court sentenced to death 683 alleged supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, including the group's spiritual leader Mohamed Badie. Leahy, who chairs the Senate subcommittee that oversees foreign aid, described the judicial proceedings as a "sham trial." Leahy's announcement comes a week after the Obama administration said it would ease the suspension of military aid to Egypt that followed the overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi last year. In another controversial move, an Egyptian court has banned the April 6 movement, a pro-democracy group that played a key role in the popular uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak in 2011. We get an update on these developments live from Cairo with Democracy Now! correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous. We also speak with Mohamed Soudan, the exiled Foreign Relations Secretary of the Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Watch the full 20-minute segment on Democracy Now!
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/4/30/egypt_is_a_police_state_senior
Democracy Now!, is an independent global news hour that airs weekdays on 1,200+ TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream 8-9am ET at http://www.democracynow.org.
Please consider supporting independent media by making a donation to Democracy Now! today, visit http://owl.li/ruJ5Q.      

FOLLOW DEMOCRACY NOW! ONLINE:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/democracynow 
Twitter: @democracynow   
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Egypt is a Police State: Senior Muslim Brotherhood Member Condemns New Mass Death Sentence for 683

Recorded at the Books at Noon program at The New York Public Library. Details and transcript: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/05/19/eve-ensler-nypl/

Subscribe to the Books at Noon podcast here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/new-york-public-library-podcast/id804982781?mt=2

Eve Ensler on how trauma makes us disconnect from ourselves

Get in the mood for the Brontë's with an extract from the audiobook edition of Emily's dark and tragic classic, Wuthering Heights.

Emily Brontë: Wuthering Heights (Audiobook Extract), read by Juliet Stevenson

An audio extract from Tales from Shakespeare.

Discover Shakespeare's best-loved plays

A perfect introduction for all ages to the breadth and beauty of Shakespeare's work. TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE has become a classic work in its own right. The tales bring vividly alive the power of HAMLET and MACBETH, the fun of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM and the drama of THE TEMPEST. Blending detailed narrative with original dialogue and poetic language, they fully convey the wit, wisdom and imagination of Shakespeare's magnificent plays.

Includes King Lear, the Tempest, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Measure for Measure

Read by Alan Cumming, Juliet Stevenson, Nigel Davenport, and Andrew Sachs.All stories are Unabridged.

William Shakespeare: Tales from Shakespeare (Audio Book Extract)

Sylvia Plath reads "A Birthday Present." Written in September of 1962, recorded in October. Background and full text: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/10/29/sylvia-plath-reads-a-birthday-present-1962/

Sylvia Plath Reads "A Birthday Present" (1962)

"The arrows of adverse criticism cannot scratch, let alone pierce, the shield of what disappointed archers call my 'self-assurance.'"

Background and context:  http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/01/18/vladimir-nabokov-james-mossman-interview/

Vladimir Nabokov on literature and life (1969)

Excerpt from a 2005 discussion at the Kelly Writers House, courtesy of PennSound. Background and context: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/12/14/adrienne-rich-on-love-loss-happiness-creativity/

Adrienne Rich on public vs. private happiness

From a BBC radio segment broadcast on April 29th, 1937. Background and transcript:http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/04/29/craftsmanship-virginia-woolf-speaks-1937/ 

MORE/TRANSCRIPT

On Craftsmanship: The only surviving recording of Virginia Woolf's voice

Background and context: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/02/20/william-butler-yeats-on-modern-poetry-1936/

Recording courtesy PennSound: http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/

William Butler Yeats on Modern Poetry (1936)

An exclusive recording for Brain Pickings. Background and transcript: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/04/09/ode-to-the-book-pablo-neruda-tom-obedlam/

"Ode to the Book" by Pablo Neruda, read by Tom O'Bedlam

Excerpt from her 2013 McGill University commencement address

Transcript, and discussion: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/06/07/judith-butler-mcgill-2013-commencement-address/

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Judith Butler on the value of reading and the humanities

Background and poem text <a href="http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/09/02/f-scott-fitzgerald-keats-ode-to-a-nightingale/">here</a>. 

Audio Excerpts of note

Sarah Fayed (Om Lily)