Good listenin' for writers.

Many of you know I am a big fan of audiobooks, mostly because while driving to and from work I would much rather listen to a book or writing-related podcast than the tripe on most generic radio stations.

So ... there is a radio show up here in Canada that is actually worth listening to, but unfortunately the timing isn't right for my drive times. But, lo and behold, it's available for listening to online in RealPlayer, or download in MP3 format.

My iPod is trembling with anticipation.

The show is called Canada Reads. Every year on CBC radio, they assemble a panel of five people (authors and celebrities) to discuss five books and narrow it down to one by the end of the week. It's great fun, and a really cool way to get introduced to books you might not otherwise think of reading. This year's show is currently running.

While downloading the first three episodes just now, I thought it would be fun to start a thread here where we could put links to legally downloadable writing-related content we could listen to on our computers or iPods or whatever audio tools we happen to use.

Here then, are some pertinent links for Canada Reads:

Canada Reads main page
Downloads and blog

Anybody else have some good listenin' to share?

Another one I quite like is Barnes & Noble's Meet the Writers podcast. They have a great host who makes the interviews lively and informative. Each 'cast is between ten and fifteen minutes long, so they're great for listening to during my twenty minute commute. The variety of authors is amazing; from fantasy novelists to political journalists and everything in between. And, you get two interviews a week, so there's no waiting!

Meet the Writers

Kewl, PeeDee.

Here's another CBC radio show:

Words at Large

As I'm sure you've begun to notice, I'm a fan of what the CBC has to offer in this area. Another one is the Studio One Book Club, which has their shows archived online. Unfortunately for us iPodders, it's in RealPlayer format, so you can't download it. But, if you have your computer on and want to take a bit of a break, you could do worse than give one of these shows a listen.

Below I've put a link to a show featuring George R.R. Martin, the page has links to the rest of the Studio One Book Club in the navigation menu to the right.

GRRM reads from A Feast For Crows

In the same vein (RealPlayer only) is a show called Writer's & Company. Click the Audio link to get links to recent shows.

Another great spot for podcasts is FarPoint Media. They are home to such writing related podcasts as The Dragon Page Cover to Cover, and I Should Be Writing. One of the hosts of The Dragon Page is prolific writer and podcaster Michael A. Stackpole. And the host of I Should Be Writing is one of our own Water Cooler members, the inimitable Mur Lafferty.

FarPoint Media

Michael A. Stackpole
Scroll down to see the Podcasts link. Right now he's in the middle of a great tutorial on putting together a novel in his The Secrets podcast.

It's time for Canada Reads again. To recap, this is an annual event on CBC radio where five panelists each defend a book in an effort to whittle the list down to one book.

This year's list of books is:

Not Wanted On The Voyage, by Timothy Findley
From the Fifteenth District, by Mavis Gallant
Icefields, by Thomas Wharton
Brown Girl In The Ring, by Nalo Hopkinson
King Leary, by Paul Quarrington

The literary smack-down is over and a winner chosen, so rather than link to the main page where they let you know which book won, I have linked to the audio page where you can download the mp3 files. (links at the right of the page)

Canada Reads 2008

willietheshakes said:

And if you find the right episode of the Studio One Book Club, you get to listen to a doyenne of CanLit enlist another doyenne in excorciating publicly a reviewer who *gasp* had the audacity to accuse her of pulling her punches in her most recent book.

That un-named reviewer? That'd be me...

Click to expand...

Really? Cool!

"A-hunting we will go, a-hunting we will go...."

Okay, I give up. Which episode?

KTC said:

I know which episode! (-;

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tellmetellmetellmetellme....