The Classic Tales Podcasts and Audiobooks

Last Friday, marked the 6th anniversary of B.J. Harrison's The Classic Tales Podcast .  This gives me the perfect opportunity to write about some of my favorite stories he has produced during the many years I've listened to the Podcast. I am trying to remember what the first story I listened to was, I think it was Arthur Conan Doyle's " The Speckled Band ."  Although I had read that story a bunch of times, B.J. really made it come alive to me.  Ever since then, each time I read a Sherlock Holmes story, it is his version of the sleuth I hear in my head. Also, if you haven't heard B.J.'s  Jeeves and Wooster you are so missing out.  But don't worry, he has bundled all of the books and stories he's recorded by P.G. Wodehouse for you.  You will love every minute of it and be in constant stitches! But getting to listen to some of my favorite stories is only part of what makes me love this podcast.  There are so many wonderful books and short stori...

The latest production of The Classic Tales Podcast is an episodic presentation of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, by William Shakespeare – a miniseries in 5 episodes. Hamlet has been my favorite play for many, many years and if I had to point to one work of literature that has turned my casual pursuit of books into a passion for the classics, this is it. When I was a teenager, and a junior in high school, I wanted to take it easy. So, instead of enrolling in Honors English 2, as I could have, I thought I’d take the year off , essentially, and enrolled in the “lower grade” English class. This was a profound misstep. While my friends were reading Great Expectations , I was reading Cold, Sassy Tree . When they studied Shakespeare, I read Mrs. Mike . I have no one to blame but myself, I’m afraid. For my elective reading, I chose Hamlet, and it literally changed my life. I memorized the soliloquies and performed them in drama class. I watched the film productions of Derek Jacobi, Kenneth ...