Within a Sky Full of Earth

Down the blue mountain in the evening.
Moonlight was my homeward escort.
Looking back. I saw my path
Lie in levels of deep shadow...
I was passing the farm-house of a friend.
When his children called from a gate of thorn
And led me twining through jade bamboos
Where green vines caught and held my clothes.
And I was glad of a chance to rest
And glad of a chance to drink with my friend...
We sang to the tune of the wind in the pines;
And we finished our songs as the stars went down.
When. I being drunk and my friend more than happy.
Between us we forgot the world.
DOWN ZHONGNAN MOUNTAIN TO THE KIND PILLOW AND BOWL OF HUSI • Li Bai

The Hunting of the Snark (An Agony in 8 Fits) is a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) in 1874, when he was 42 years old. It describes "with infinite humor the impossible voyage of an improbable crew to find an inconceivable creature". It borrows occasionally from Carroll's short poem "Jabberwocky" in Through the Looking Glass (especially the poem's creatures and portmanteau words), but it is a stand-alone work, first published in 1876 by Macmillan. The illustrations were by Henry Holiday.

You can hear it following the links at the bottom. All done thankfully by Librivox.

• The Hunting of the Snark - 00:29:24
Read by Robert Garrison
[mp3@64kb - 14.1MB] [mp3@128kb - 28.2MB]

On LIBRIVOX you can find acoustical liberation of books in the public domain. It's an impressive place on the Internet where everyone can listen to audio books freely. Today, and starting our approach to Librivox, we bring you a classic masterpiece.

The Metamorphosis (in German, Die Verwandlung, “The Transformation”) is a novella by Franz Kafka, first published in 1915, and arguably the most famous of his works along with the longer works The Trial and The Castle. The story begins with a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed into a giant “monstrous vermin”.
(Summary from Wikipedia)

The book is divided in three parts, you can choose the quality of the audio (MP3) that, of course, will be reflected on the file size and the time will take to download it. You can click each of the following links. If you prefer you can take it all from the zip file or subscribe it using iTunes bellow.

I - 00:49:52 [mp3@64kbps - 23.9MB] [mp3@128kbps - 47.8MB]
II - 00:53:51 [mp3@64kbps - 25.8MB] [mp3@128kbps - 51.7MB]
III - 00:50:42 [mp3@64kbps - 24.3MB] [mp3@128kbps - 48.6MB]

The orginal text , translation by Ian Johnston
Wikipedia - The Metamorphosis
Zip file of the entire book - 74.1MB
RSS feed · Subscribe in iTunes
David Barnes is the reader and his home is here.

LibriVox is a hope, an experiment, and a question: can the net harness a bunch of volunteers to help bring books in the public domain to life through podcasting?
LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain, and then release the audio files back onto the net (through a podcast, catalog, and bit torrents). They are a totally volunteer, open source, free content, public domain project, and operate almost exclusively through Internet communications.
Volunteering for LibriVox is easy and does not require any experience with recording or audio engineering or acting or public speaking. All you need is a computer, some free recording software, and your own voice. You will find there a welcoming and friendly community, and if you have any questions they’re likely to be answered quickly on a very busy forum.

[YOU CAN ALSO READ HERE A BLOOM EXCLUSIVE BY RING JOID INSPIRED IN The Metamorphosis]