Short Nonfiction Collection, Vol. 059: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Short Nonfiction Collection, Vol. 059, credited to Various, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Short Nonfiction Collection, Vol. 059 by Various. Read by LibriVox Volunteers Sixteen short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Volume 59 contains an eclectic mix of readings, ranging from a description of a Coney Island elephant colossus to meditations on mental telepathy and baseball. Philosophical essays by Leibniz, Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, Francis Bacon and William Blake touch on the topics of truth, prejudice, poetic genius, suicide, and preparation for a Christian life. An educator at a women's college in the early 1920's bemoans the decline in the way high school girls dress for school and recommends a "serge jumper dress, made with a washable under blouse." In the same span of years, a female reporter, going undercover to research conditions in the Detroit House of Corrections has herself arrested and is "stripped to the skin and searched for narcotics" and then made to don prison garb: "a faded gingham coverall, prison-made and drab." A medical doctor, writing in the 1870's, examines the connection between clean living and longevity, while a historian discusses how slave labor was employed in the salines of Southern Illinois. Native American Indian speech patterns are explored in an essay on the evolution of language, while a a chapter from a children's science book explains what happens "when the dew falls." Lastly, a spirited defense of the Bodleian as a research institution rather than a circulating library rounds out this volume of the nonfiction collection. (summary by Sue Anderson) Preparation for a Christian Life III was translated by Lee M. Hollander.

Recording facts

• Recording title: Short Nonfiction Collection, Vol. 059
• Author credits: Various
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 16
• Listed recording duration: 5:05:49

Catalogue topics

• language
• suicide
• library
• baseball
• elephant
• illinois
• coney island
• dew

Track guide

1. 01 - All Religions Are One — 2:29
2. 02 - Appropriate Clothes for the High School Girl — 25:50
3. 03 - The Colossal Elephant of Coney Island — 8:55
4. 04 - Fear and Trembling: Introduction and Preparation — 15:39
5. 05 - Further Remarks On The Policy Of Lending Bodleian Printed Books And Manuscripts — 31:52
6. 06 - How to Pitch to Babe Ruth — 4:52
7. 07 - Human Longevity — 18:49
8. 08 - I Have Been in Hell! Or, In Search of Prison Knowledge — 20:05
9. 09 - Leibniz's Critique of Locke's Essay on Human Understanding — 14:30
10. 10 - Mental Telegraphy Again — 16:20
11. 11 - Of Truth — 6:12
12. 12 - On the Evolution of Language — 47:18
13. 13 - On Suicide — 13:39
14. 14 - Preparation For a Christian Life III — 5:58
15. 15 - The Salines of Southern Illinois — 57:53
16. 16 - When the Dew Falls — 15:28

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