Don't Let the Traffic Grind You Down

Transcend Road Rage With Classic Literature

Warning: Road Rage
Source: http://www.thefishbowl.co.uk

Despite a highly regarded public transportation system, an impressive number of bike lanes, and popular carpooling incentives, the DC metro area is now tied with Chicago for the worst traffic congestion. As if sitting in a parking lot for hours on your way to work wasn't enough, it seems that DC drivers are also increasingly prone to road rage. If you aren't being cut off, honked at, or gestured toward during the daily commute, its likely that your built-up frustrations and added stress are causing unseen internal damage to your heart and mind. But, as they often do in times of crisis, the humanities have come through with a much needed healing salve. Improve your quality of life on the road by enjoying a free audiobook! Literature can save you from mind-numbing boredom or soul-crushing frustration in the gridlock, and it provides both an escape from reality, and a better understanding of the world.

Librivox.org is perhaps the largest project dedicated to creating audiobooks out of public domain literature. Volunteers choose works with expired copyrights, record them, and upload them to the website. The project welcomes volunteers from around the globe, and many of the materials in their catalog are recorded in multiple languages. Because of the loose, Wikipedia-like strategy of Librivox, there are plenty of books to choose from, so you can make your escape from afternoon drive DJs and double parked cars in a variety of ways. Some examples from the catalog include: Mark Twain's “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court”, Geoffery Chaucer's “The Canterbury Tales”, or 8 different versions of Leo Tolstoy's “Anna Karenina.”

If you get a chance to try Librivox, send a comment to let us know what you are reading. If you search their catalog and can't find the public domain book you are looking for, find it here, at Project Gutenberg, and follow the instructions here to introduce it to the Librivox catalog.