Selected Shorts

Readers & Writers

By: Evelyn Waugh, Molly Giles, Ray Bradbury, Adam Haslett, Italo Calvino

Narrated by: Tony Roberts, John Shea, Leonard Nimoy, Blair Brown, Rochelle Oliver

A boon for booklovers, this audio set features funny, fantastical and poignant stories about people with unique and passionate connections to the written word.

Tony Roberts reads a hilarious Walter R. Brooks story about how Ed - a talking horse - became a voracious reader of adventure tales and mysteries. In a story by Italo Calvino, read by John Shea, a man tries to make the most of his beach holiday by reading and making love at the same time. Leonard Nimoy performs a dark, vintage Evelyn Waugh tickler about a stranded jungle explorer forced to read Dickens aloud. Plus more memorable stories by Ray Bradbury, Molly Giles and Adam Haslett, read by Rochelle Oliver, Blair Brown and Isaiah Sheffer.

©2008 Symphony Space (P)2008 Symphony Space

Truly Enjoyable!

Books about books, reading and authors. A lovely concept. I especially liked The Night Book Mobile. :) And of course Italo Calvino's short story. What a writer!

Great Collection!

I really enjoyed listening to these short stories by some amazing writers. The theme of course of this collection is writers and readers and it's a wonderful collection which introduced to me some authors I was unfamiliar with, i.e.. Molly Giles, Audrey Niffenegger and Adam Haslett.

One criticism I have though is for the publishers who do not include a list of the the authors and their short stories in any fashion in the description of the collection when you are looking at the Audible version. Since there are only 7 chapters this doesn't seem too difficult for Symphony Space to have done. More people may read or listen to the collection if they did that.

Ch. 1 Ed Has His Mind Improved by Walter R. Brooks
Ch. 2 The Adventure of a Reader by Italo Calvino
Ch.3 Notes to my Biographer by Adam Haslett
Ch. 4 The Man Who Liked Dickens by Evelyn Waugh
Ch. 5 The Writer's Model by Molly Giles
Ch. 6 Exchange by Ray Bradbury
Ch. 7 The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger

The collection, I found to be quite enjoyable and like most good short stories stick with you longer than it took to read or listen to the story. There are some wonderful narrators too - Tony Roberts, Leonard Nemoy, Christina Pickles, Blair Brown, John Shea and Isaiah Sheffer.