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rec.arts.books Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) |
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Archive-name: books/faq
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Tue Dec 26 16:02:27 EST 2000
Copies of this article may be obtained by anonymous ftp to rtfm.mit.edu
under /pub/usenet-by-group/news.answers/books/faq.Z. Or, send email to
mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with "send usenet-by-group/news.answers/books/faq"
in the body of the message.
This FAQ is in digest format.
Questions include:
1) Where can I find book X by author Y?
1A) What are the (good) bookstores in city X?
2) What is BOOKS IN PRINT?
2A.) Is "Books in Print" available on the Internet?
3) What is the answer to the Lewis Carroll riddle, "Why is a raven like
a writing desk?"
4) What Sherlock Holmes novels (stories) are there besides the ones by
Arthur Conan Doyle?
5) What is Project Gutenberg? How can I access various electronic
information databases?
6) Who wrote the horror story "The Monkey's Paw"?
7) Where can I find books on audio tape?
8) What English-language authors learned English as a second language?
9) What books or plays have been written about scientists?
10) Is there really an S. Morgenstern, listed as the author of THE
PRINCESS BRIDE and THE SILENT GONDOLIERS? And what is the reunion
scene?
11) Does anyone have a list of female mystery writers?
12) What is the difference between the male and female editions of
DICTIONARY OF THE KHAZARS by Milorad Pavic?
13) What is the short story by Jorge Luis Borges in which a Chinese
taxonomy is discussed?
14) Where do ISBNs come from?
15) What are the "Penguin 60s"? Does anyone have a full list?
16) What is KIRKUS REVIEWS?
17) Who wrote THE WONDERFUL FLIGHT TO THE MUSHROOM PLANET?
18) Which is the best translation of Dante's DIVINE COMEDY?
[There are also several other FAQs posted separately: bookstore lists for
various cities, Arthurian lists, Holmesian lists, catalog lists, and
probably lots more. --Evelyn Leeper]
There is a rec.arts.books home page http://www.wco.com/~rteeter/rab.html
with links to all known home pages of r.a.b. regulars. If you consider
yourself a r.a.b. regular and you're not on the r.a.b. page, let Robert
Teeter (rteeter@netcom.com) know. Also on the r.a.b. page are links to
archives of the FAQs and to other pages where you can find more book and
literature links.
Frequently Asked Questions List
(Quarterly Posting to rec.arts.books)
First of all, a few suggestions:
DISCUSSIONS: If you want a discussion on a particular topic, start one
by posting something yourself. Asking "Why isn't anyone talking about
books here" is not likely to get you much (useful) response. Asking
"Why isn't anyone talking about the latest book by I. B. A. Writer"
is slightly better, but posting your opinions and asking for comments
would probably be more successful yet.
However, some topics come up so frequently that people are sick of them.
So here's a re-cap of them (much thanks to Mark Taranto
[mt@mail.duke.edu]):
Q. What do you think of Thomas Pynchon?
A1. Love him.
A2. Hate him.
A3. Who?
A4. His books are too long.
Q. Can you get me the phone number for in ?
A. Yes, I probably could, because I know how to use the phone,
how to use phonebooks, and how to call information.
Q. I have a paper due on , what can you tell
me?
A. I can tell you that if you have some ideas about the book,
many r.a.b.ble will be happy to discuss them with you, but if
you are fishing for ideas, you will probably get a response
like:
Read the book,
look up criticism,
and think for yourself.
Q. Who/What is/are your/the favorite/best:
Author? A. E.M. Forster
Book? A. HOWARDS END
Poets? A. Yeats, Eliot, Auden
Living Poets? A. Cope, Kumin
Movie from book? A. A ROOM WITH A VIEW
Trilogy? A. Davies' Deptford Trilogy
S. F.? A. Bobby Bonds
Q. Is Kingsley Amis Funny?
A. Yes.
Q. What do you think of the books in the Canon?
A1. Love 'em.
A2. Hate 'em.
A3. Not enough women/blacks/non-western/Latin American/
non-(dead-European-white-dudes) on the list.
A4. Not enough Romance novels on the list.
Q. How do you kill bugs in a book?
A1. Grab the book by the spine, shake out all of the bugs onto a
flat surface, smash bugs with book.
A2. Put book into a microwave, zap.
A3. Invite Meg Worley over for dinner, hand her a book.
Q. How many books do you own?
A1. I go to the library.
A2. Less than 100.
A3. 100-300.
A4. 300-500.
A5. 500-1000.
A6. 1000-3000.
A7. Enough so that Meg Worley borrows my books.
Q. What is the best bookstore?
A. Powell's
Q. What do you think of Barnes & Noble verses Borders?
A. Borders has better cappuccino.
Q. What do you think of censorship.
A1. It sucks.
A2. Oddly, nearly everyone agrees on the issue of censorship, yet
it seems to be *the* hot topic on the net.
SPOILER WARNINGS: Many people feel that much of the enjoyment of a book
is ruined if they know certain things about it, especially when those
things are surprise endings or mysteries. On the other hand, they also
want to know whether or not a book is worth reading, or they may be
following a particular thread of conversation where such information may
be revealed. The solution to this is to put the words SPOILER in your
header, or in the text of your posting. You can also put a ctl-L
character in the *first* column, though this only works if your readers
are using rn. Some people think that spoiler warnings are not necessary.
We don't understand why, and do not want to discuss it. Use your best
judgment.
REVIEWS: Many people seem to be interested in reading book reviews.
Unfortunately, not nearly as many people are interested in writing them.
If you do review a book, please try to say more than, "THE RETURN OF
AHAB THE SAILOR was a great book!" Unless you are a well-known
net.personality, this sort of comment tells the reader little about
whether s/he would like the book. Reviews may also be found in
alt.book.reviews and rec.arts.sf.reviews. Which brings us to...
SCIENCE FICTION: Some people think science fiction should be kept in
the sf hierarchy. Other people think that "books" includes "science
fiction books." This is one of those issues that will never be
resolved, so arguing about it is a waste of time and bandwidth.
If you object to reading about science fiction in this newsgroup,
put the string "/rec.arts.sf/hj" in your KILL file.
But for those interested in science fiction, there are archives of
interest currently stored on SFLOVERS.RUTGERS.EDU (165.230.224.130) under
the directory /pub/sf-lovers. The archives are currently available to
anyone with FTP access to this machine. (These are SF-LOVERS archives.)
Text files of interest to readers include:
alternate-histories.txt
amber-timeline.txt
gender-swapping.list
hugos.txt (awards)
nebulas.txt (awards)
prometheus.txt (awards)
transformation-stories.txt
Also in the archives: the author lists provided and maintained by John Wenn
are available. The list for each author is contained in its own file with
the filenames being in the form: Lastname.Firstname, e.g. Niven.Larry
(please remember, unix filenames are case sensitive). Many of the
authorlists have recently been updated.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Where can I find book X by author Y?
The United States's most complete bookstore is the combination of BOOKS IN
PRINT and the U. S. Post Office. BIP will tell you the price and the
publisher's address. Send them a check for the price and they will be happy
to send you the book. We do it all the time. Some publishers grudgingly
send a note with the book saying "Next time please include N% for postage
and handling," or even a bill for the additional amount. You can always
call and ask first. At least once they sent a check with the book because
if ordered direct, they gave a discount. We rarely order through a
bookstore because it is so much easier to order the book and have it sent to
us directly. (This is probably not true for mass-market paperbacks where
the handling charges would be more than the book!)
In addition, Cindy Tittle Moore (tittle@netcom.com) maintains a list of
book catalogues and book clubs which is posted to rec.arts.books and
news.answers every thirty-five days. Copies of this list may be obtained by
anonymous ftp to rtfm.mit.edu under
/pub/usenet/news.answers/books/catalogues. Or, send email to
mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with "send usenet/news.answers/books/catalogues" in
the body of the message.
If, on the other hand, you just want to borrow the book, ask your library
about inter-library loans--chances are good they can find it for you in
a library they have reciprocal agreements with even if they don't have
it themselves.
------------------------------
1A) What are the (good) bookstores in city X?
Check out the following listings of bookstores.
http://www.sover.net/~nichael/books Boston
http://www.sover.net/~nichael/nebooks New England
http://www.sover.net/~nichael/svbooks Vermont
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-nyc-m.htm New York City (NYC)
(Manhattan)
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-nyc-m.htm New York City (NYC)
(other than Manhattan)
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-east.htm Eastern US
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-dc.htm Washington DC
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-chi.htm Chicago
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-midwe.htm Midwestern US
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-south.htm Southern US
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-cent.htm Central US
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-west.htm Western US
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-sw.htm Southwestern US
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-la.htm Los Angeles
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-diego.htm San Diego & Hawai`i
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-bay-s.htm San Francisco Bay Area
(San Francisco & north)
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-bay-b.htm San Francisco Bay Area
(Berkeley and East Bay)
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-bay-p.htm San Francisco Bay Area
(Peninsula and south)
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-nw.htm Northwestern US
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-can-e.htm Eastern Canada
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-can-w.htm Western Canada and Alaska
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/uk-nire.htm UK (Northern Ireland)
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/uk-scot.htm UK (Scotland)
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/uk-engl.htm UK (England)
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/uk-wales.htm UK (Wales)
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/eu-fr.htm France
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/eu-de.htm Germany
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/eu-benl.htm Benelux
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/eu-nord.htm Nordic countries
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/europe.htm Europe (various)
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/asia.htm Asia (excluding Japan)
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/papan.htm Japan
http://www.anatomy.su.oz.au/danny/books/shops/index.html Australia
------------------------------
2) What is BOOKS IN PRINT?
Just about every public library and every bookstore in the country has,
for public use, a multi-volume reference work called "Books in Print."
It is just about what the title claims it is. It is a listing by
title, by author, and by subject of every book currently listed by
publishers as being currently in print in the United States. (There
are versions for other countries as well; in Britain it's WHITAKER'S.)
It tells you the list price and the publisher. It also has a volume of
out-of-print books and a separate volume that lists the mailing
addresses of the publishers. The local B. Dalton keeps it at the
information desk. Almost bookstore or public library will have a set
that they would be happy to have you look at.
Also, "Books in Print" is available as file number 470 in Bowker's Online
Databases on DIALOG. Bowker can be reached at 800-323-3288 and
DIALOG at 800-334-2564.
There is also a similar database on Compuserve.
There is a similar reference set called "Paperback Books in Print." I am
not sure what it would list that would not be listed in its bigger cousin,
but that reference might also be of interest. In Britain, there is "British
Books in Print." At this time, there is no public site that provides "Books
in Print" on-line.
(For used books, there is BOOKMAN'S, the used book trade magazine. Lots
of books are advertised there that haven't been in print for decades.
You may be able to find the annual bound copy of BOOKMAN'S PRICE INDEX
(the used book dealer's pricing bible) in your local library. There's
no guarantee that the book you want will still be for sale if you go
that way, but it is a good way to plan your budget.)
One way of getting out-of-print titles is to get in touch with
University Microfilms, Inc. (or other such companies). They'll print a
copy of a book from microfilm, generally within 3 weeks of your order.
They take care of the copyright issues & royalty payments, and you get
the book (although the printing quality is what you'd expect for a
photoreprint from microfilm). They're a standard resource for
librarians.
A 106-page book was recently quoted as US$30.00, with a US$6.00
surcharge for cloth binding. (The default is paperbound). And of
course,not all books are available for reprinting--they've obviously
specialized in academic books.
University Microfilms, Inc.
300 North Zeeb Road
Ann Arbor, MI
48106
313-761-4700
800-521-0600
800-343-5299 (works in Canada)
------------------------------
2A.) Is "Books in Print" available on the Internet?
The American "Books in Print" is not available for free searching
on the Internet. "Books in Print", a compendium of basic information
about currently available books from U.S. publishers (excluding Bibles,
government documents, and some small-press titles), is available in
both electronic and paper format. Its publisher, R. R. Bowker, makes a
lot of money from its database. Bowker isn't about to give that
information away for free (IMO).
Bookpages used to have "British Books In Print" up, but when it was
acquired by amazon.com, that went away.
If by this question one means "Can I use "Books in Print" for
free?" or "Can I search "Books in Print" via the Internet?" the answer
to both of those questions is yes.
How to use "Books in Print" for free: Go to almost any bookstore,
public library, or academic library and use it there. Or, you can
probably call your nearest library and get information over the
telephone, as long as you don't overdo it--for example, asking for
every edition of every work by Mark Twain.
How to use "Books in Print" on the Internet: It's available for a
fee from online vendors such as Dialog and from commercial online
services like Compuserve (the command is "Go Books" for the British as
well as the U.S. "Books in Print"; the charge is $2 a search). In both
cases, you will need an account and password, and you will be charged
by the minute or the search. Using Dialog requires knowing the basics
of online searching and Dialog commands. (In the U.S., call
1-800-3-DIALOG; on the Internet telnet to dialog.com.) "Books in Print"
is also available on CD-ROM from R. R. Bowker. It's expensive and
only for the heavy-duty user.
Other big databases : Large library catalogs are excellent sources
for bibliographic data if you want to find out who wrote a certain
book, verify a title when you only have some of the words in the title,
or get a list of books on a certain subject. What they won't tell you
is whether a book is in print and how much it costs. A on-line
collection of these can be found at telnet site pac.carl.org.
Library of Congress http://lcweb.loc.gov/catalog/
telnet locis.loc.gov
gopher locis.loc.gov
select Library of Congress online
systems
(Note the Library of Congress' online catalog is not complete
for titles published before 1968.)
Other library catalogs http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Libweb/
gopher yaleinfo.yale.edu 7700
select Library Catalogs World-wide
Book vendors are another source for book information. Several
vendors make available large catalogs on the Internet. These will tell
you whether a book is currently available and what it costs. See the
FAQ on online bookstores regularly posted to rec.arts.books.
[Provided by Robert Teeter (rteeter@netcom.com).]
------------------------------
3) What is the answer to the Lewis Carroll riddle, "Why is a raven
like a writing desk?"
According to Martin Gardner, Carroll had no answer in mind which he first
wrote this. However, Carroll did gave a solution himself, in an 1896
edition of "Alice": "Because it can produce very few notes, tho they are
very flat; and it is nevar [sic] put with the wrong end in front." Gardner
has recently added another: "Because there is a 'b' in 'both.'"
In a brief preface that Carroll wrote for an 1896 edition
of ALICE IN WONDERLAND, he said he had no answer in mind
when he gave this riddle. Many answers have since been
suggested, including one by Carroll himself, some of which
you will find in my AA note. In 1989 England's Lewis
Carroll Society announced a contest for new answers, to be
published eventually in the society's newsletter,
"Bandersnatch."
Aldous Huxley, writing on "Ravens and Writing Desks"
(Vanity Fair, September 1928), supplies two nonsense
answers: because there's a 'b' in both, and because there's
an 'n' in neither. James Michie sent a similar answer:
because each begins with 'e'. Huxley defends the view that
such metaphysical questions as: Does God exist? Do we have
free will? Why is there suffering? are as meaningless as
the Mad Hatter's question -- "nonsensical riddles,
questions not about reality but about words."
"Both have quills dipped in ink" was suggested by reader
David B. Jodrey, Jr. Cyril Pearson, in his undated
TWENTIETH CENTURY STANDARD PUZZLE BOOK, suggests, "Because
it slopes with a flap."
Denis Crutch ("Jabberwocky," Winter 1976) reported an
astonishing discovery. In the 1896 edition of ALICE,
Carroll wrote a new preface in which he gave what he
considered the best answer to the riddle: "Because it can
produce a few notes, tho they are *very* flat; and it is
nevar put with the wrong end in front." Note the spelling
of "never" as "nevar." Carroll clearly intended to spell
"raven" backwards. The word was corrected to "never" in
all later printings, perhaps by an editor who fancied he
had caught a printer's error. Because Carroll died soon
after this "correction" destroyed the ingenuity of his
answer, the original spelling was never restored. Whether
Carroll was aware of the damage done to his clever answer
is not known.
Another answer is that Poe wrote on both.
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes also suggested the variant that both have inky quills.
In chapter 39 of THE SHINING, Stephen King says,
"The higher the fewer, of course! Have another cup of tea!"
The latest answer is from Martin Graham (B7337@GTE.NET):
In a LEWIS CARROLL--FRAGMENTS OF A LOOKING-GLASS by Jean Gattengno and
in the first biography on Carroll by his nephew Stuart Dodgson
Collingwood, THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF LEWIS CARROLL, we learn of a few
facts regarding Carroll's (Dodgson's) intrest in the occult. We learn
that "Mr. Dodgson took a great interest in occult phenomena, and was
for time an enthusiastic member of the 'Psychical Society.'" Also we
learn that Carroll had a specific interest in automatic writing. We
also learn when consulting any good dictionary of Symbols that Ravens
are believed to be messengers between the land of living and the land
of the dead. Automatic writing is also used to communicate with the
dead. Thus, though the answer to the riddle taking these factors into
account is not especially humorous, it seems that the correct answer to
this riddle should be.... A raven is like a writing desk because one
might communicate with the dead through either.
------------------------------
4) What Sherlock Holmes novels (stories) are there besides the ones by
Arthur Conan Doyle?
See accompanying posting of non-canonical Sherlock Holmes works. The
list includes all known works using Sherlock Holmes as a character,
though the individual stories by Conan Doyle are not listed, just
the book titles. It includes hundreds of non-Doyle works (many of
which are out of print). (This list was compiled by me over a period
of years from suggestions from many people.)
------------------------------
5) What is Project Gutenberg?
Project Gutenberg is planned as a storage- and clearing-house
for making books available very cheaply, by freely providing them
in standard electronic formats (usually ASCII). This can only be done
for books where the copyrights have expired, or when authors have permitted
free redistribution, so that effectively much of the work has focused
on classic literature.
A sample of famous works or authors would include:
Lewis Carroll: ALICE IN WONDERLAND; THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
Dante: THE DIVINE COMEDY (in several translations and the original Italian)
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, & John Jay: FEDERALIST PAPERS
Charles & Mary Lamb: TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE
Dr. David Livingstone: MISSIONARY TRAVELS AND RESEARCHES IN SOUTH AFRICA
Plutarch: LIVES
Shakespeare: Works
Robert Louis Stevenson: A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES
Mark Twain: TOM SAWYER; HUCKLEBERRY FINN; and others
But just as important is the ability of an electronic medium
to cheaply convey information that is less known, or regional,
but still worthwhile, such as:
Lady Gordon: LETTERS FROM THE CAPE
Henry Lawson: JOE WILSON AND HIS MATES (Australian Lit)
Joseph Munk: ARIZONA SKETCHES
"Banjo" Paterson: THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER; and others (Australian Lit)
W. D. James / W. G. Simms / M. C. Weems: 3 biographies of FRANCIS MARION
Project Gutenberg has produced over 2,000 etexts, and is releasing 32 new
etexts per month, hoping to double production each year until 10,000 etexts
are finished in 2001. These vary from classic fiction to nonfiction to
large numerical calculations like the square root of 2 to 10**n decimal
places). Releases are announced on bit.listserv.gutnberg. Project
Gutenberg is available by anonymous FTP from uiarchive.uiuc.edu in
directory pub/etext/gutenberg, and mirror sites.
One of the best places to find electronic texts (etexts) is:
The Online Book Page: http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/index.html
where over 10,000 online texts are catalogued by author and title,
in a searchable database, with some subject listings as well.
It is by far the best and most comprehensive site for etexts
presently on the net.
[Provided by Alan Light (alight@vnet.net).]
Another similar directory is held at info.umd.edu, in directories under
inforM/EdRes/ReadingRoom/Fiction. Found there are books by 14 authors
including Mark Twain, H. G. Wells, and F. Scott Fitzgerald . They also
have the Bible, Book of Mormon and Koran in ASCII format. Also available
from info.umd.edu is a collection of economics time series data from the
Federal government, as well as daily and long-term weather forecasts.
(I am told info.umd.edu allows you to telnet in and use an intelligent
front end to browse the files on line, and transfer them back using
ftp, tftp, or kermit? Simply telnet info.umd.edu, and login as "info",
then follow the instructions on the screen.)
cwdynm.cwru.edu has the Bible, the Book of Mormon (and other Mormon
texts), and the Koran available via anonymous FTP.
obi.std.com also has a lot of texts; check ~ftp/obi/ls-lR for a list.
The Eden Etext Archive is at http://www.cs.rmit.edu.au/etext/ or via FTP
at ftp.cs.rmit.edu.au:/pub/etext/.
And someone else says, "Probably the best available Bible depository and
concordance type program that I've seen on the net is the Online Bible,
available in the doc/bible subdirectory on wuarchive.wustl.edu. This is
freeware and includes several different English translations of the Bible
as well as Greek and Hebrew texts, concordances, etc. I spoke to one of
the developers yesterday, and a major upgrade is coming (in August, I
believe). There are also plans for foreign language Bible editions in
the works."
There is also a huge archive available from Oxford, but most of the
texts here require a physical letter of request be sent to England --
still cheap, but anyway -- if you want the address/catalog, send a
'help' message to archive@vax.ox.ac.uk.
And if you're looking for general electronic information, try telneting
to consultant.micro.umn.edu and logging in as 'gopher'. It is
menu-driven and you can access the library catalogs of many
universities, as well as lots of other neat stuff.
Other sources for etexts include the Online Book Initiative at
obi.std.com (available through Gopher or FTP), and the Internet Wiretap
Gopher server at wiretap.spies.com.
Users of the World Wide Web can find pointers to these and other
collections at http://sunsite.unc.edu/ibic/IBIC-homepage.html and there is
also a page of pointers at http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/Web/books.html
which partly overlaps the page above. It's less "official," but does have
some pointers the other page doesn't have.
There is also the Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts on the World-Wide Web,
at http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/alex-index.html, indexes over 1800 books
and shorter texts by author and title, incorporating texts from Project
Gutenberg, Wiretap, the On-line Book Initiative, the Eris system at Virginia
Tech, the English Server at Carnegie Mellon University, Project Bartlesby,
CCAT, the on-line portion of the Oxford Text Archive, and many others.
[Thanks to John Ockerbloom (ockerbloom@cs.cmu.edu) for updating this info.]
------------------------------
6) Who wrote the horror story "The Monkey's Paw"?
William Wymark Jacobs (1863-1943), an English writer of sketches of
seafaring and rural life, mostly comic. He wrote a few other horror
stories, notably "The Toll-House." For more information see E. F.
Bleiler's THE GUIDE TO SUPERNATURAL FICTION, Kent State Univ., 1983.
------------------------------
7) Where can I find books on audio tape?
Duane Morse (duane@anasaz) suggests several sources (much of this is
*very* old):
Books on Tape
P.O. Box 7900
Newport Beach, CA 92658
http://www.booksontape.com/
To order: 1-800-626-3333
Comment: very large selection of unabridged books on tape. Rentals
available for just about everything in the catalog. Good readers.
Recorded Books
270 Skipjack Rd.
Prince Frederick, MD 20678
1-800-638-1304
FAX: 1-301-535-5499
hrrp://www.recordbooks.com
Comment: unabridged books on tape. Rentals available for just about
everything in the catalog. Not nearly as large a selection as Books on
Tape, but rentals are cheaper. Generally outstanding readers. Can be
ordered via their web site.
Audio Editions
P.O. Box 6930
Auburn, CA 95604
To order: 1-800-231-4261
Comment: primarily abridged books on tape, but some poetry and plays;
readers usually professional actors or acting companies.
The Olivia and Hill Press
905 Olivia Avenue
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
To order: 1-313-663-0235
Foreign language tapes, primarily French, German, and Spanish, but some
Russian, including stuff for kids.
Reddings Audiobook Superstores
2302 N. Scottsdale Road
Scottsdale, Arizona 85257
To order: 1-800-REDDING
Comment: Produces nothing of its own, but rents and sells what they have
purchased from Recorded Books, Books on Tape, and others.
Dercum Press
P. O. Box 1425
West Chester, PA 19380
Comment: Has some unabridged short stories on cassette under the label
"Active Books," notably some SF collections. Readers are average.
Blackstone Audio Books
P.O. Box 969
Ashland, Oregon 97520
1-800-729-2665
http://www.blackstoneaudio.com
Comment: lots of unabridged classics on tape. Narration is done in a
different style (less transparent) than some other companies.
Dove Audio
301 N Canon Drive
Suite 207
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Audio Book Contractors
P.O. Box 40115
Washington D.C. 20016-0115
+1-202-363-3429
Some libraries have audio tapes available for loan as well.
The United States federal government also has a (free) program to
provide tapes to people who are blind or who cannot physically
manipulate a book. Contact the reference librarian in your public
library for information.
And now there are on-line sources, including such general (book)stores
as amazon.com. You can also rent from such specialized dealers such as
http://www.audiobook2.com. And lastly, there are companies specializing in
other fields (religion, self-help, etc.), but they are too numerous for
me to list here.
------------------------------
8) What English-language authors learned English as a second language?
AUTHOR FIRST LANGUAGE
Achebe, Chinua Ibo*
Arlen, Michael (Dikran Kouyoumjian) Armenian?
Asimov, Isaac Yiddish*
Bellow, Saul Yiddish, French?
Brodsky, Joseph Russian
Bronowski, Jacob Polish
Broumas, Olga Greek
Budrys, Algis Lithuanian
Codrescu, Andrei Romanian
Conrad, Joseph Polish
Cousteau, Jacques French+
Dinesen, Isak (Karen Blixen) Danish
Heym, Stefan (Helmut Flieg) German
Ishiguro, Kazuo Japanese*
Kakuzo, Okakura Japanese
Kerouac, Jack French
Kingston, Maxine Hong Cantonese
Koestler, Arthur Hungarian
Kosinski, Jerzy Polish
Lewis, Saunders Welsh
Limonov, Eddie Russian
Lin Yu-tang Chinese (Mandarin?)
Lowe, Adolph German
Lundwall, Sam Swedish
Malinowski, Bronislaw Polish
Milosz, Czeslaw Polish
Mukherjee, Bharati Bangla
Nabokov, Vladimir Russian*
Narayan, R. K. Tamil
Nin, Anais French
Rand, Ayn Russian
Sabatini, Rafael Italian
Seth, Vikram Hindi
Skvorecky, Josef Czech
Smirnov, Yakov Russian
Soyinka, Wole Yoruba
Stoppard, Tom Czech*
Traven, B. German?
Tutuola, Amos Hausa? (from Nigeria)
van Gulik, Robert Dutch
Vincinzey, Stephen Hungarian
Wertenbaker, Timberlake French
Wongar, Banumbir Arnhem Land aboriginal language
Zukofsky, Louis Yiddish
* Learned English as a child.
+ First book was in English
B. Traven is a pseudonym for someone of uncertain national origin, who
went to great lengths to obfuscate his past. German was probably his
first language, despite his disclaimers that it was English. (More detail:
His works were mostly originally published in German, and usually
translated into English by someone else, but the US edition of THE
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