Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Sonnets Done

Get them here
I have finally finished recording Shakespeare's Sonnets. It took me about four times longer to complete than I expected. It generally took between three quarters of an hour and an hour to get ten usable sonnets. And I mostly gave up trying to improve the reading, rather than feeling that it could not be improved.
I have always loved Shakespeare, but the sonnets (and the plays, now I come to think of it) only really came alive when I heard them read out loud. I hope my attempt will have that effect for someone.
I think I will avoid recording verse for a while, and I think some narrator driven prose is just what the doctor ordered. Perhaps 'The Way of All Flesh' by Samuel Butler, or 'Story of a South African Farm' by Olive Schreiner.
I am hoping a great, obvious idea will present itself, and so I will wait a while for things to percolate. My wife suggests 'Great Expectations'.

PS I can't really count this towards my 52 audiobooks in a year, as I have read them before, so I am still behind by a couple of books.

2 comments:

Germánico said...

Dear Mr Hughes,

I am a non-native English speaker who is trying to improve his pronunciation by doing some English poetry. Your recordings of Shakespeare's sonnets along with the Norton edition with copious notes are proving most valuable in my enterprise. Your part I got for free so I'd like to express my most sincere gratitude for such fine piece of work.

Res Naturae...Celebrating the Beauty of Nature said...

Mr. Hughes,
I profoundly enjoy your Sonnets recordings. Thank you for your contributions to Librivox.
AnnSterling
in Maine, United States