Welcome

Hello, and thank you for visiting my blog! Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Hannah Grace Garrett, but for a long and boring list of reasons, I go by Grace. I live in downtown Portland Oregon, and attend Riverdale High School.

I am a...

reader of audiobooks for librivox

theatergoer

occasional sewer

amateur knitter

avid reader

bible believer

walker

learner of languages

curious cook

violinist

life long learner

traveler

watcher of BBC shows

gardening enthusiast

(in no particular order)

The primary purpose of this blog will be to post my recordings for librivox, but I may write about some of my other adventures, hobbies, or interests as the mood strikes.

Back to that first one.

When I was thirteen, I stumbled across a website called librivox. On librivox, volunteers record themselves reading books, short stories, poems, or parts in plays in the public domain, and then put them online for anyone to download for free. The first book I listened to was a volunteer named Karen Savage's wonderful recording of "Pride and Prejudice". When I was done with that, I found an absolutely excellent version of Jane Eyre, read by Elizabeth Klett. Soon I began to use librivox to do homework. For example, when I was assigned to read Frankenstein, I found a version by a volunteer named Cori Samuel that I loved. These are just a few examples of the thousands of works on librivox.

         

 From the very start, I knew I wanted to volunteer on librivox and record audio books myself. I thought I would enjoy it very much, and wanted to contribute to a community of volunteers that had given me so much. For about four years I waited, feeling that I was too young or too busy with school to have time to volunteer. Then finally I signed up last fall. I downloaded a recording program called audacity, ordered a microphone online, and was ready to go! Now that I have a few recordings done, I have decided to start this blog. 

So here is what I have done so far...

Works that are complete and ready to download:

• French History for English Children by Caroline Emelia Stephen. I read chapter 47, about King Louis XVI. 
• A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. I was so lucky to get a part in this. I was nervous to sign up for anything so all the parts were taken before I got up the courage to ask for one. Then someone dropped out so I got to read the part of Tom Snout/Wall. I played Titania when we did this play in my drama class, so I'm very fond of it. 
• Pericles by William Shakespeare. This is one of Shakespeare's lesser known works. I play a princess named Thaisa, who is married to the main character Pericles.

Works that I have finished, but are not yet complete:

• "The Lion and the Cat" from The Brown Fairy Book, by Andrew Lang. This is a kind of strange fairy tale about a lion and a cat who are brothers.
• A Little Princess by Frances Hodgsen Burnett. This is a dramatic reading in which I play Nora.
• Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw. I play Jenny Hill, a girl working at the salvation army. My dad also has a part! I talked him into reading Peter Shirley, a poor man who comes to the salvation army and has a cockney accent. It was his first recording.
• The Well at the World's End by William Morris. I read chapters 20-23. This book and it's author were very influential to C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. It's the story of a prince named Ralph, who goes off on a quest and has many adventures. It's written in Old English...I had fun with that! This one should be ready to download any day now.

Right now I'm working on a few more projects... check back for updates!

For more information about how librivox works, click here.