Tag-Archive for » Marham Community Library «

Lion, witches and audio

You can find an entire audio book reading of The Chronicles of Narnia online.

Located on a faith based U.S. web site, you can listen on-line or download the entire series to your computer. The books are read by an English academic, based in America, and the download web site offers you a chapter list, so that you can keep track if you use the site for on-line bed time stories.

This is another way to keep the Narnia stories fresh for another generation, or just a new way to revisit old favourites.

The Chronicles were written by the writer C. S. Lewis, between 1949 and 1954, developed as stories to portray Christian ideals to children. The stories have endured, however, for children of all faiths and ages. You can read more about C.S. Lewis here…

Whatever age you are, this is a great way to re-engage with Witch and the Wardrobe.

You can listen to a  sample opening chapter here… 

Get all the chapters as MP3 audio files here. 

Penn Sound – poets broadcast

phongraphPicThe University of Pennsylvania has a terrific archive of modern and contemporary poets available to hear on their PennSound pages.

Whether you are interested in hearing Paul Auster read from The Red Notebook from a few years ago, or to hear W.B. Yeats read The Lake Isle of Innisfree in 1932 – they are all here.

Across the whole A-Z of the catalogue there are some great and challenging recordings to be heard. Be confronted by Kathy Acker or mesmerised by the lilting musicality of Zhimin Li reading his Non-Presence works in his native tongue.

PennSound – a fantastic resource for lovers of poetry, history and the human voice.

Sam’s Selection – featured author this month

stiegLarssonPicStieg Larsson, was a Swedish journalist and writer, born in Skelleftehamn outside Skellefteå.

He is best known for writing the “Millennium series” of crime novels, which was published posthumously. Larsson lived and worked much of his life in Stockholm. he died suddenly at the age of 50 from a heart attack, after climbing seven flights of stairs at his office because of a broken lift.

At his death, Larsson left behind manuscripts of three completed but unpublished novels in a series. He wrote them for his own pleasure after returning home from his job in the evening, making no attempt to get them published until shortly before his death.

The first was published in Sweden in 2005 as Män som hatar kvinnor (“Men who hate women”), published in English as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It was awarded the Glass Key award as the best Nordic crime novel in 2005. His second novel, Flickan som lekte med elden (The Girl Who Played with Fire), received the Best Swedish Crime Novel Award in 2006. The third novel in the Millennium series, Luftslottet som sprängdes (“The air castle that was blown up”), published in English as The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, was published in the United States in May 2010.

The Swedish film production company Yellow Bird has produced film versions of the Millennium series, co-produced with The Danish film production company Nordisk Film and TV company, which were released in Scandinavia in 2009.

Stieg Larsson acknowledged that a significant number of his literary influences were American and British crime/detective fiction authors.

Topping the list were Sara Paretsky, Agatha Christie, Val McDermid, Dorothy Sayers, Elizabeth George and Enid Blyton. One of the strongest influences originates from his own country: Pippi Longstocking, by Sweden’s much-loved children’s author Astrid Lindgren. Larsson explained that one of his main recurring characters in the Millennium series, Lisbeth Salander, is actually fashioned on a grown-up Pippi Longstocking as he chose to sketch her.

You can watch an interview online about Stieg Larson and the publishing phenomenon he became on the Charlie Rose U.S. website.

Story Sack Project comes to Marham…

Help with getting your children to read.

Fun making objects to support your storytelling.

Make their imaginations visible!

We think you’ll love it – have a look at our Story Sacks Project page for more details about the events starting in May 2011.

Are you strong?

Can you help in our Community Library?We are moving some furniture and books around in the library!

If we could get some helpful volunteers to support us in this process that would be great. Our aim is to improve accessibility to our books and library services, as well as give you some more space to sit, read and think whilst you’re in our space.

If you can help (…you don’t need to be Charles Atlas really…) thank you so much.

Please make contact with Sam in the libary to arrange how we can work together as a team on the world of books.

Listen to poetry too!

poetryArchiveLogoHave you discovered The Poetry Archive yet?

This is a fantastic resource for lovers of poetry, or those who wish to explore and take their imagination to new landscapes.

On the site you can hear the voices of poets reading their own works, as well as access recordings via the guided tours that poets and celebrities have created from the archive.

What is Andrew Motion listening to in the files, what is Stephen Fry or Monica Ali? You can find out by visiting The Poetry Archive.

The site has some great resources for students, librarians and teachers. We particularly liked the New to Poetry pages – if you are just discovering poetry or are just becoming confident as a reader this is the section for you.

The Poetry Archive also has a section dedicated to children’s poetry. It can be really surprising to hear some of your favourites in the voice of the poet, changing the way you think about the work by hearing it spoken as the poet imagined it.

This is a great resource – visit The Poetry Archive here and be surprised…