To my delight, there is a way. Audio books! Anyone that has used iTunes or Audible.com knows that the selection of audio books (formerly known as books on tape/CD) is expansive. Just type in an author’s name or book title, and load up your iPod, Zune, or other media device and go! Many of the newest titles are read by authors or celebrities which makes for a wonderful experience. As times are tough, I’m making less purchases and audio books were the first expense to go. Is it back to the library again? Almost, until I discovered Librivox, a free open-source depository for public domain audio books.

Librivox is operated by volunteers recording audio chapters and uploading them to the site. The files are then collected to form an entire book and released as downloads and podcasts. The quality ranges from book to book and among the various volunteer readers. Despite the hodgepodge nature, most of the audio is decent. The content produced is created for the public domain, which means you can redistribute it on your own web site or send files to friends.

The types of books you’ll find on Librivox are considered “the classics,” which include great stories such as Dracula, The Wizard of Oz, Ulysses, A Tale of Two Cities, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Treasure Island. Its all the books I avoided in high school, but now wonder about as an adult. Are they really good or just overrated? Now its time to find out. The site offers non-fiction, essays and poetry collections. I’m already two titles in an I’m hooked. The best thing is that I’m going through a book much sooner than two weeks!

Librivox is perfect for lit junkies looking to cram a few more novels into the day. Now if I want to listen to Charles Fontenay’s Rebels of the Red Planet while doing the dishes, I can.

Photo: flattop341

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Where exactly is somewhere over the rainbow? For many Wizard of Oz fans, the 1939 MGM film was the beginning and the end of their journey into Oz. The film has become iconic and defined the age of Technicolor and grand movie musicals. New interest in the Oz stories emerged in 2003 with the successful Broadway hit, Wicked, based on Gregory Maguire’s novel. My interest in Oz lead me to search more about the original author, L. Frank Baum and his writings. I was astonished to learn that there are 40 official books published by Baum and his successors that explore the land of Oz.

Being an Oz fan, I’ve been privy to the stories shown in the 1985 Disney film, Return to Oz. The movie features Dorothy, returning to a much darker version of Oz, trying to piece together the cause of the destruction. She meets new friends and eventually re-unites with many of her friends from the original journey, including the Scarecrow, Tinman, and Cowardly Lion. It was interesting to find out that this screenplay was a combination of two books that followed “The Wizard of Oz.”

I’ve recently read the sequel, The Marvelous Land of Oz, which takes place after the events of the first book. With the Wizard now gone, the Scarecrow is left to rule Oz (he was smartest in all of Oz); The Tinman went on to rule the Winkie Country (the land in the west, formerly oppressed by the Wicked Witch); the Cowardly Lion returned to the forest in the southern part of Oz. The story is centered around a new character, a little boy named Tip. The plot shares the same “fish out of water” story line as the original book, as Tip travels towards the Emerald City, collecting new friends on the way. One of the main villains is Tip’s ornery caretaker, Mombi, an old crone that dabbles in magic. It also has an interesting arc of rebellion, as Jinjor (pronounced gin-ger), a female Munchkin, leads an all-female revolt against the Scarecrow’s rule of Oz.

Some of the newly introduced characters are endearing, such as Jack Pumpkinhead, a stick-made man that is brought to life after a dusting of magic powder. Another favorite is the Wogglebug, who’s high fluent attitude and intellect creates a contentious relationship with Oz’s ruler. My favorite is the honest, yet, scarcastic Sawhorse, a wooden creature brought to life by same magic powder.  Baum’s collection of bizarre characters and their origins never cease to amaze.

Over all, I don’t think this is the best book of the series, but it does offer some insight as to how L. Frank Baum envisioned his fantastic land. Many Baum scholars are also quick to note that many of the stories are rich in subtext. Many of the characters represent political ideas and predominant groups of the early twentieth century. Even if you chose to read this book for its fairy tale-like surface, you’ll be able to enjoy the pun-ladened dialog that works so well in all the Oz books. Fans of the MGM film will notice that Baum’s intention was to make Oz a real place, not just a dream. The success of his stage adaptations in the early 1900s lead him to gear the early sequel stories around the friendship of the Scarecrow and Tinman, leaving Dorothy and the Lion completely absent. This attempt was chided by the readers, as they wrote Baum to tell him to bring Dorothy back into the fold. Baum relented and eventually brought all the characters back into the later stories.

The Marvelous Land of Oz was made into a musical in 1981 by The Children’s Theatre Company and School of Minneapolis. The production featured nine original songs and elaborate costumes. The play was filmed and edited for television.

Since The Marvelous Land of Oz is in the public domain, you’re able to read the whole story, free and online. Both the texts and illustrations are freely distributed, so I suggest finding an online edition that features the original format, such as the one offered at Google Books.

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