Download, listen, read, repeat

It's not life's biggest frustration, but it's a frustration nonetheless: being unable to find a particular book that you definitely, definitely own, and which you want to read.  The reason I mention it is because I seem to have misplaced my copy of Life Stories, a collection of profiles from the pages of the New Yorker.  Particularly irritating, as I'm on a bit of a Truman Capote jag at the moment, and wanted to re-read his sprightly 1957 portrait of Marlon Brando, The Duke in His Domain, that's included within its pages.  Oh well.

But this is where the story takes a happier turn.  Of course, in this Age of Availability, you can always just order Life Stories from Amazon – but I wanted an even more immediate solution, so downloaded it in audiobook form from iTunes.  Problem solved.  And I'd certainly recommend that CappCultists do likewise: it may not be the same as the print product, but, as I've discovered, it's a delight to have Life Stories coming out of your headphones when on the Tube.  There's Capote on Brando, of course, as well as Lillian Ross on Hemingway, AJ Liebling on Floyd Patterson, and plenty more besides.  The kind of journalism which bears listening to – because it deserves an audience.  

P.S. Or, if you just want to read the Capote piece, it's on the New Yorker website here.  See what I mean about availability?