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luzulaYay, I'm done with my first Librivox project! It's seven and a half hours long, and you can download it over here (the easiest way is with "zip file of the entire book"). Here's a summary:
Peter Kropotkin was a Russian anarcho-communist and scientist. This is his autobiography, and he writes not only about his own life, but also about 19th century Russian society and politics. He was born into the nobility and had a military education, but he gradually abandoned the values of his social class and became an anti-authoritarian socialist, opposed to both the rule of the Tsars and to the seizing of power by the authoritarian Bolsheviks. He was also interested in literature, biology, economics and geographical exploration. This first volume of his memoirs covers his childhood, his education, and the time he spent in Siberia.
It was interesting to see a community of amateur audiobook recorders which is different from the podfic community. Everything there is a lot more centralized and standardized--there's a certain way you do things--but I didn't really find that limiting. Everyone is a volunteer, and everyone's very helpful, and (my favorite part) the reader isn't alone in producing a book. You get one person (the meta-coordinator) who does the cataloguing for you, and another who prooflistens. This means that you have interaction and cheerleading all the way.
I've also discovered how much I love reading poetry. I told this to my boyfriend, and he said: "Yeah, I know." Me: "How did you know that?" Him: "Remember the time when you recited the whole of 'The Lady of Shalott' for me from memory?" Me: "Oh yeah." He knows me well. Anyway, there's an awesome poetry reading culture over at Librivox--there's no prestige attached to it, and anyone can submit readings. In fact, they encourage multiple readings of the same poem--there's a weekly poetry project where everyone reads the same poem, and monthly collections where everyone can submit two poems each. Of course, everything has to be public domain, which is a bit limiting.
I learned some new things about getting the most out of my ZOOM H2, too. I was recording on high gain from a distance before, but now I've got a mike stand and am recording on medium gain closer in, though I'm putting the mike at the side of my mouth to avoid plosives. This gets me better volume and less background noise.
But don't worry, I am not abandoning podfic--in fact, I've just started on a new podfic project--although I will go back to Librivox in a while to record volume two of Kropotkin. And possibly later I'll do some arctic exploration literature, like Amundsen's "Northwest Passage" (yeah, you knew that was coming). Anyway, podficcing will always be first in my heart. *clings to podfic*
Peter Kropotkin was a Russian anarcho-communist and scientist. This is his autobiography, and he writes not only about his own life, but also about 19th century Russian society and politics. He was born into the nobility and had a military education, but he gradually abandoned the values of his social class and became an anti-authoritarian socialist, opposed to both the rule of the Tsars and to the seizing of power by the authoritarian Bolsheviks. He was also interested in literature, biology, economics and geographical exploration. This first volume of his memoirs covers his childhood, his education, and the time he spent in Siberia.
It was interesting to see a community of amateur audiobook recorders which is different from the podfic community. Everything there is a lot more centralized and standardized--there's a certain way you do things--but I didn't really find that limiting. Everyone is a volunteer, and everyone's very helpful, and (my favorite part) the reader isn't alone in producing a book. You get one person (the meta-coordinator) who does the cataloguing for you, and another who prooflistens. This means that you have interaction and cheerleading all the way.
I've also discovered how much I love reading poetry. I told this to my boyfriend, and he said: "Yeah, I know." Me: "How did you know that?" Him: "Remember the time when you recited the whole of 'The Lady of Shalott' for me from memory?" Me: "Oh yeah." He knows me well. Anyway, there's an awesome poetry reading culture over at Librivox--there's no prestige attached to it, and anyone can submit readings. In fact, they encourage multiple readings of the same poem--there's a weekly poetry project where everyone reads the same poem, and monthly collections where everyone can submit two poems each. Of course, everything has to be public domain, which is a bit limiting.
I learned some new things about getting the most out of my ZOOM H2, too. I was recording on high gain from a distance before, but now I've got a mike stand and am recording on medium gain closer in, though I'm putting the mike at the side of my mouth to avoid plosives. This gets me better volume and less background noise.
But don't worry, I am not abandoning podfic--in fact, I've just started on a new podfic project--although I will go back to Librivox in a while to record volume two of Kropotkin. And possibly later I'll do some arctic exploration literature, like Amundsen's "Northwest Passage" (yeah, you knew that was coming). Anyway, podficcing will always be first in my heart. *clings to podfic*
