While many people’s kids have gone back to school and they are already mourning the end of summer, there are some who save vacation for the bitter end–those last, often unbearable hot and muggy days of August before the weather turns.  If you still have a summer trip to look forward to, consider passing the hours on the freeway or in the airplane with an audio book.  I think being read to is one of the greatest luxuries.  It’s a lesson or an entertainment when you’re a child, a necessity when you are very very young or very old, but for me, at any time (not just when I face hours of pavement and tail lights) it is a delight.  

One of the greatest audio books of all time in my opinion is E.B. White’s reading of his own Charlotte’s Web.  We had already read the book to our children a number of times when a friend turned us on to White’s recording.  And it is wonderful — full of his intent, sly wit and rolled out in his clipped New York State accent.  I read a bit about his choices when recording and the difficulty he had not crying at the end and I thought of it when recording the audio book of Chanel Bonfire for Tantor.  If you’re looking for a book to listen to, it is available for download and on CD, at bookstores, booksites and the library.