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Posted by Louie, August 10, 2020

Heard any good books lately?

Today we’re delighted to share brand new audiobook editions of The Dragon in the Library and The Monster in the Lake by Louie Stowell – and to celebrate, Louie has written a post on her favourite audiobooks from childhood.

Unlike Kit in my Dragon in the Library books, I was an avid reader as a child. But it wasn’t until I was much older that I realised that my choice of mediums was unusual – and, to some people who are wrong, shameful.

I liked reading print books, sure, but I also loved audiobooks. Back then, in the ’80s, they were on cassette tapes, and I wore out so many of them. There was the incredible Hound of the Baskervilles recording, with the most dramatic reading of GIGANTIC HOUND that you could imagine. It was like Brian Blessed was in my room shouting at me. (I don’t know who the actual reader was, but they were definitely channelling Blessed in that moment.)

Then there was my dramatised version of the Lord of the Rings. I say mine, because it felt like a world I inhabited alone – along with an all-star cast including Ian Holm as Frodo and Bill Nighy as Sam. Eventually I had to replace those taped-from-the-radio recordings with CDs, because the tapes were as dead as Sean Bean by the end of any given script.

This was after I read the physical books of Lord of the Rings, multiple times. The new medium gave the story a whole new lease of life for me. Plus, the music was excellent. I still know the song of the Fall of Gil-galad off by heart from that recording.

With all this stored in my emotional memory, I am spectacularly excited that The Dragon in the Library and The Monster in the Lake are available NOW as audiobooks. I hope it makes it possible for children who haven’t read them yet to discover them, or those who have to enjoy them again in a new way. They’re read by Rosie Jones, who’s done a brilliant job, and I hope you all enjoy them as much as child-me would have done.

Thank you, Louie! The new audiobook editions of The Dragon in the Library and The Monster in the Lake are on sale now – you can buy the audiobook of The Dragon in the Library here and The Monster in the Lake here, and listen to previews of each below.

Listen the first chapter of The Dragon in the Library:

Buy the audiobook.

Buy the print edition.

Listen the first chapter of The Monster in the Lake:

Buy the audiobook.

Buy the print edition.

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