One of Chesterton’s many collections of short essays, Alarms and Discursions, is up on Librivox. For those who have a hard time getting into Chesterton, this may be an easier listen. Each essay is reminiscent of a nice long blog post from a quirky blogger.
You can also listen to Chesterton’s short book about, and called, Charles Dickens. This is neither a biography nor a work of scholarly criticism; it’s more of an appreciation, pointing out things Chesterton liked and found of interest. But I think you’ll find it very insightful.
Stories from Pentamerone by Giambattista Basile is a collection of folktales and fairy tales from late Renaissance Italy. As with most early fairy tale collections, the stories were told and collected by adults for adults. Bad Things Happen. You’re probably better off listening to the stories and retelling them to kids yourself, rather than having them listen direct.
One of the odder consequences of putting audio files into the public domain is their appearance on E-Bay as CDs! The Librivox crew get this all the time. It’s not illegal, and most readers don’t worry about it so long as the CD sellers aren’t deceptive about their source of material. It’s a pity, though, that public libraries aren’t as savvy about putting public domain stuff to good use as E-Bay vendors are!
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Maria Lectrix 