Audio books, by my troth, are faring well

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Book publishing may be struggling, but there’s one area that seems to be managing fine under the circumstances: audiobooks. There’s a reason for it, as Nicolas Soames of Naxos AudioBooks explains. “People have less time to read but the desire is still there,” he says, “which is why they turn to us.”

That makes sense. With BEA this year in Los Angeles, the kingdom of commuters, it makes even more sense to see Naxos AudioBooks and similar companies here--and that they’re doing reasonably well. As Soames notes, a worthy portion of their customer base, along with public libraries, consists of commuters.

Soames and his associates are publicizing the release in July of an award-winning production of “Othello” featuring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Ewan McGregor, Ian McKellen and many others. We would all like to spend our days reading in quiet, of course, if our lives allowed it. But if you don’t have this time, consider this as a consolation: McGregor as the cunning Iago. By Janus, commuting has just gotten better.

Nick Owchar