Books: The Spoken Word

Some reading is best done with closed eyes. That, at any rate, is the contention of the record industry, which this season has pressed the largest number of disks in history dedicated to " the "books that talk." The spoken word most effectively fires the powder train of the imagination in excerpts from such classics as Shakespeare and the Bible, but confirmed audiles can find plenty of esoteric items, ranging from a cozy chat with a prostitute ("It's no kind of life for anybody") in Cast the First Stone (Dolphin) to the singsong...

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