Christian Al-Kadi

5 books read for LibriVox

filter sort genre era audiobooks

Faust: Der Tragödie erster Teil Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Deutsch
Ivanhoe Walter Scott
Fair warning, the prose creaks a bit and Scott loves a long description, but once the tournament at Ashby kicks off it moves, and Rebecca quietly steals the whole book from the hero. If knights and a sly Robin Hood cameo sound fun, settle in.
Julius Caesar William Shakespeare
You get political persuasion at close range: Brutus speaks as if reason can keep a republic clean, while Cassius understands how fear and resentment move people. The funeral speeches are thrilling to read aloud, but the play leaves you with uneasy questions about honor, crowds, and unintended consequences.
The Social Contract Jean-Jacques Rousseau, translated by G. D. H. Cole non-fiction
You get a bracing argument about political freedom, especially in Rousseau’s insistence that obeying laws you help make is different from submitting to a ruler. The prose can feel abstract and combative, but his questions about inequality, citizenship, and the general will keep needling you afterward.
Trilby George du Maurier
You go for the sinister hypnotist Svengali, but what stays with you is bohemian Paris, three British art students, and tone-deaf Trilby herself, warm and doomed. Fair warning, du Maurier rambles and the Svengali caricature is ugly by any modern measure, so read it with eyes open.

5 books read for LibriVox

filter sort genre era audiobooks

Faust: Der Tragödie erster Teil Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Deutsch
Ivanhoe Walter Scott
Fair warning, the prose creaks a bit and Scott loves a long description, but once the tournament at Ashby kicks off it moves, and Rebecca quietly steals the whole book from the hero. If knights and a sly Robin Hood cameo sound fun, settle in.
Julius Caesar William Shakespeare
You get political persuasion at close range: Brutus speaks as if reason can keep a republic clean, while Cassius understands how fear and resentment move people. The funeral speeches are thrilling to read aloud, but the play leaves you with uneasy questions about honor, crowds, and unintended consequences.
The Social Contract Jean-Jacques Rousseau, translated by G. D. H. Cole non-fiction
You get a bracing argument about political freedom, especially in Rousseau’s insistence that obeying laws you help make is different from submitting to a ruler. The prose can feel abstract and combative, but his questions about inequality, citizenship, and the general will keep needling you afterward.
Trilby George du Maurier
You go for the sinister hypnotist Svengali, but what stays with you is bohemian Paris, three British art students, and tone-deaf Trilby herself, warm and doomed. Fair warning, du Maurier rambles and the Svengali caricature is ugly by any modern measure, so read it with eyes open.