Through the Magic Door

I care not how humble your bookshelf may be, nor how lowly the room which it adorns. Close the door of that room behind you, shut off with it all the cares of the outer world, plunge back into the soothing company of the great dead, and then you are through the magic portal into that fair land whither worry and vexation can follow you no more. You have left all that is vulgar and all that is sordid behind you. There stand your noble, silent comrades, waiting in their ranks. Pass your eye down their files. Choose your man. And then you have but to hold up your hand to him and away you go together into dreamland. Surely there would be something eerie about a line of books were it not that familiarity has deadened our sense of it. Each is a mummified soul embalmed in cere-cloth and natron of leather and printer's ink. Each cover of a true book enfolds the concentrated essence of a man. The personalities of the writers have faded into the thinnest shadows, as their bodies into impalpable dust, yet here are their very spirits at your command (Chapter I).
In this volume, Arthur Conan Doyle invites us into his library and discusses his favourite literature with the listener. (4 hr 49 min)

Chapters

Chapter I	21:16	Read by Gail Nelson
Chapter II	27:16	Read by SamanthaBraswell
Chapter III	20:36	Read by Pamela Nagami
Chapter IV	25:35	Read by Gail Nelson
Chapter V	23:37	Read by Gail Nelson
Chapter VI	22:54	Read by TRUEBRIT
Chapter VII	31:47	Read by mpvoice
Chapter VIII	34:35	Read by Deon Gines
Chapter IX	19:21	Read by Peter John Keeble
Chapter X	17:16	Read by Jack Albert
Chapter XI	18:08	Read by Kristin G.
Chapter XII	27:05	Read by Jack Albert

Reviews

3 stars

(3 stars)

Timothy Ferguson

Arthur Conan Doyle gives a guided tour of the favorite books in his personal collection. An excellent way of finding new authors, if you are into classics

AMBROSIA FOR THE SERIOUS READER

(5 stars)

Avid Listener

Not for everyine,but, for the reader who hearkens back to a time when reading was a serious and learning pastime (not reading fluff during the lull between television shows or when the internet is down), it is treasure. ACD gives us a concise, opinionated history of English literature, along with some mini history lessond. The surmise of the book is perhaps not promising, but ACD, the master wordsmith, carries it off brilliantly.