I remember listening to audiobooks as a child and there were years where I wouldn't sleep unless I had a tape playing in the background. To a child, silence can be pretty ominous and I suppose there is something comforting in having 'someone else' in the room with you, narrating a story as you fall asleep. Even now, when all I seem to crave is silence, there is still something comforting in putting on a pair of headphones and escaping into a world led by the voice of another.
A while back I recorded Lizzie Crouch reading a series of extracts from popular science books - intended as little audio 'bedtime stories' for scientists. At first we thought about adding in additional sound to enhance the recordings, but upon reflection it was clear that they worked a lot better on their own. There are thousands of great audiobooks out there, but I suppose very few cover popular science - so here's an attempt to bring you just that.
Lizzie is going to be posting a new one each week, you can hear the first one below (an extract from 'Trilobite!' by Richard Fortey), but listen to the rest over at her blog.
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