Book Reading: J.R.R. Tolkien

J.R.R. Tolkien reads from The Hobbit

"When Tolkien visited a friend in August of 1952 to retrieve a manuscript of The Lord of the Rings, he was shown a “tape recorder”. Having never seen one before, he asked how it worked and was then delighted to have his voice recorded and hear himself played back for the first time. His friend then asked him to read from The Hobbit, and Tolkien did so in this one incredible take."

Book Reading: Samuel R. Delany

Samuel R. Delany reads from Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders at St. Marks Bookshop NYC on April 23 2012. Introduction by Brian Evenson, author of "Windeye." 

"Like his legendary Hogg, The Mad Man, and the million-seller Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany’s major new novel Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders—explicit, poetic, philosophical, and, yes, shocking—propels readers into a gay sexual culture unknown to most urban gay men and women, a network of rural gay relations—with the twist that this one is supported by the homophile Kyle Foundation, started in the early 1980s by a black multi-millionaire, Robert Kyle III, to improve the lives of black gay men."

Book Reading: Ursula K. Le Guin Reads from Lavinia

Ursula K. Le Guin reads from her latest novel, Lavinia. The author spoke at Powell’s City of Books in Portland, Oregon, on April 22, 2008.

Fiction: Variation on a Theme of Coleridge

Author Alberto Chimal of Mexico City reads his story "Variation on a Theme of Coleridge" from Three Messages and a Warning: Contemporary Mexican Short Stories of the Fantastic (Small Beer Press, January 2012), an anthology of new Mexican fiction never before translated into English.

Book Reading: Spring Heeled Jack

Lou Anders reading from Philip K Dick Award winner, The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack at the PKD Award Ceremony at Norwescon 34.

Book Reading: Serpent's Storm (NSFW)

Amber Benson and Patrick Rothfuss read a sex scene from Serpent's Storm, Benson's newest novel, with hilarious results. (NSFW)

There are plenty of other related videos taken at the event, but if you're a fan of Rothfuss and Benson, their discussion of the difference between Epic Fantasy and Urban Fantasy is particularly interesting.