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We spend a lot of time reading and collating our audiobook collection for members. Here we list some of our staff top picks if you need some listening inspiration!
January 2, 2025
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Many of you were avid listeners last year, borrowing over 100,000 audiobooks! You listened your way through lockdowns, journeys, sleepless nights and busy days - but what were the titles you favoured the most? Without further ado, we present to you: the Top Ten Downloads of 2021.
January 10, 2022
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Jessica Stone presents Dear Reader for Canterbury's Community and Student Radio. In her spare time, she also volunteers for Listening Books. She tells us why she does reading challenges!
May 8, 2018
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This year, the UK is celebrating Banned Books Week to highlight the history of censorship. One of the most famous examples is Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence. The book was famously banned in the UK because of its explicit content. In 1960, Penguin Books won a court case to publish it due to the 'Obscene Publications Act'. This act said that any book considered obscene but with "redeeming social merit" could be published. After six days, the jury found the book was not obscene. It sold out across the UK on the first day of publication, with 200,000 copies bought. Almost 60 years on, this is considered a landmark case that represented the end of an era.
September 25, 2017
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It can always be difficult to pick your next title to listen to. Whether you've just come off the back of listening to a book you loved or one that you're not sure was quite right for you, or if you've never listened to an audiobook before, how do you pick from the vast range of books out there?
June 5, 2017
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What do ghosts do for fun? They listen to audio-BOO-ks! Okay, so we’re not going to win any prizes for our jokes. What we can do, though, is recommend some fang-tastic books for you to get your teeth into this Halloween! (Sorry, I really will stop with the puns now). Whether you’re looking for scary fiction, frighteningly real crime, or just something to make you laugh, this selection will have a book for you!
October 31, 2016
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Mental Health Day happens once a year, and is a great way of raising awareness of mental health and mental illnesses. It's important, though, that the awareness and the messages present on Mental Health Day don't get lost on the other days of the year. We've picked some tweets that are useful reminders on how we might view our own mental health and that of others - saved here so you can look again whenever is useful.
October 10, 2016
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This week marks a year since we began Listening Books Blog! We've loved every minute of it, and hope you have too! We've written about topics ranging from the history of audiobooks to the joys of volunteering. We've had interviews with Eragon author Christopher Paolini, and travel author Bill Bryson to name but two. And we've put together lots of recommendations for audiobooks of all sorts.
September 28, 2016
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To mark International Women's Day we're celebrating some of Listening Books' favourite women authors. We've not based it on the top sellers, or necessarily the most poignant - but on the most enjoyment and satisfaction we get when listening to or reading their books. So here's to the women we love to read!
March 7, 2016
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The Bible is thought to be the most read title of all time, but what is the second biggest book of all time? It’s believed that the runner up is in fact ‘Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung’, or, as it is better known, the ‘Little Red Book’.
October 1, 2015
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