I have to admit that I’m a big fan of Neil Gaiman, from back in his Sandman days. Gaiman has done several books for teenagers and younger (Coraline, Graveyard Book) and this new story Hearts, Keys and Puppetry is also targeted towards the same audience. However, even the young at heart can enjoy it.

About Hearts, Keys and Puppetry by Neil Gaiman

“Sam was brushing her hair when the girl in the mirror put down the hairbrush, smiled, and said, “We don’t love you anymore.”

So began the Twitter Audio project, with a dazzling first line penned by New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman. What followed was an epic tale of imaginary lands, magical objects, haunting melodies, plucky sidekicks, menacing villains and much more. From mystical blue roses to enchanted mirrors to pesky puppets, this classic fable was born from the collective creativity of more than one hundred contributors via the social network Twitter.com in a groundbreaking literary experiment.

Together, virtual strangers crafted a rollicking story of a young girl’s journey with love, forgiveness, and acceptance.

Download Hearts, Keys and Puppetry by Neil Gaiman

Take a guess, what’s the biggest university in the world? If we counted virtual, unaccredited universities, then iTunes U would probably qualify. Apple is no stranger to mind-blowing numbers when it comes to downloads — I have lost track of how many billions of songs in iTunes, and how many apps in the App Store. Add another feather to their cap : iTunes U has reached 100 million downloads.

What is iTunes U?

iTunes U is a free component on the iTunes Store, open to anyone with an interest in learning. iTunes U has over 200,000 educational audio and video files from over 175 higher education organizations including Princeton University, UCLA, Harvard University, MIT, NYU Medical School, Oxford, Cambridge, Georgetown, DePaul, Duke, and Yale University.

The range and depth of the content available is really amazing, and sometimes you get these gems like the Zombies! The Living Dead in Literature course.

Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker’s Guide (”A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have”) and a galaxy-full of fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox–the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod’s girlfriend, whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student who is obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he bought over the years.

Where are these pens? Why are we born? Why do we die? Why do we spend so much time between wearing digital watches? For all the answers stick your thumb to the stars. And don’t forget to bring a towel!

The Books

Buy the book set here.

The “trilogy” actually consists of 5 books :
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Life, the Universe, and Everything
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
Mostly Harmless

The BBC TV Series

The six-episode television series first aired on BBC Two in January and February 1981. It was directed and produced by Alan J. W. Bell.

Buy The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (TV series)

The BBC full cast radio dramatization

Buy The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Primary Phase (Original BBC Radio Series)

Around the same time that the GDGT podcasts started, Engadget also revived their own podcast series. Helmed by the “new” Engadget podcast team of Joshua Topolsky, Paul Miller, and Nilay Patel, the Engadget podcast is also an interesting listen, although they do hash out the same current tech news like the TWiT crew.

For example, in the latest episode, you get
- Dicussion sur le foot’ (soccer)
- A new topic: le cyclisme (le velo) et le Tour de France
- A book review and the Musical Breaks

It’s in MP3 format, so you can download it for your iPod, your mobile phone or other mobile devices. Best of all, The French PodClass is free.

Learn French, Podcast