Free Audio: Alice In Wonderland Read by Cory Doctorow

Many of us came across our favorite book serendip­i­tous­ly. No sur­prise: it’s eas­i­est to be com­plete­ly blown away by a work of art or lit­er­a­ture when you approach it with­out any pre-exist­ing expec­ta­tions. For Boing­Bo­ing’s Cory Doc­torow, that book was Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Won­der­land. Doc­torow, now a promi­nent author, jour­nal­ist, and tech­nol­o­gy activist, first came across Carroll’s tale of a young girl who falls down a rab­bit hole in 1978:

“In 1978, I walked into my Crestview Pub­lic School grade two class­room in Wil­low­dale, a sub­urb of Toron­to, and, on the spur of the moment, took Alice in Won­der­land off the shelf. My teacher was Bev Pan­nikkar, who had the amaz­ing empa­thy and good sense to let me be after I hun­kered down behind the low book­shelf and start­ed read­ing. I spent the entire day back there, read­ing. I nev­er stopped.

Today, I am mar­ried to a woman named Alice.”

Below, we’ve includ­ed Doctorow’s lov­ing ren­di­tion of one of his most beloved books, which he ded­i­cates to “his Alice.” Being a staunch oppo­nent of copy­right laws that so often sti­fle inno­va­tion, Doc­torow has made the record­ing, which took place in his office, avail­able for free. You can stream it below, or down­load it at Archive.org.

If you’re look­ing for a ver­sion with a few more bells and whis­tles with regards to pro­duc­tion val­ue, we’ve includ­ed a 1996 audio ver­sion of the book, below. This one is nar­rat­ed by Susan Jame­son and James Sax­on, two actors and vet­er­an audio­book read­ers, who do a won­der­ful job of inject­ing the story’s tongue-in-cheek humor into the record­ing.

Ver­sions of Alice in Won­der­land can be found in our Free Audio Books and Free eBooks col­lec­tions.

Ilia Blin­d­er­man is a Mon­tre­al-based cul­ture and sci­ence writer. Fol­low him at @iliablinderman, or read more of his writ­ing at the Huff­in­g­ton Post.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

See Sal­vador Dali’s Illus­tra­tions for the 1969 Edi­tion of Alice’s Adven­tures in Won­der­land

See The Orig­i­nal Alice In Won­der­land Man­u­script, Hand­writ­ten & Illus­trat­ed By Lewis Car­roll (1864)

Alice in Won­der­land: The Orig­i­nal 1903 Film Adap­ta­tion