"They're here already! You're next!"

I've become a pod person.

Despite using the famous last line from the movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers, I'm not referring to that kind of pod.

I mean a iPod and listening to podcasts type of person.

Necropolis gifted me with an iPod Shuffle this holiday season, and I've been using this past week with a frequency bordering on obsession. Music is okay, but the podcasts have become my particular manna. I started with knitting and crafting podcasts. Some are better than others, but I've not really found my niche there. Yknit and StashandBurn seem to be the ones I go back to listen to past podcasts more regularly.

When I started browsing further on iTunes, I discovered some of my Saturday NPR favorites, and I have listened to every available episode of Michael Feldman's What do you know and Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me. Now, one of my personal goals is to have Carl Kassel's voice on my answering machine.

Then, I found my holy grail of podcasts: CraftLit. CraftLit is hosted by Heather, a former High School literature teacher. In her own words, she says:

I wanted to welcome you all to CraftLit, a Podcast for Crafters. I imagine you’re here because you like to work with your hands, but you also like to read. If so, this is the place for you! Our program will follow a similar pattern every week. After some introductory comments, a web, magazine, or book review, and perhaps a song, I will include a chapter or two from a book. We will listen to that book until we’re done with it. And because I’m a former English teacher, I’ll give you some things to listen for in the chapters we hear--just to give you something else to do while you’re knitting, spinning, crocheting, weaving, or sewing. Any painters?

As she was on hiatus during the holidays, I went back and listened to sets of older podcasts/books. Her first selection was Austen's Pride and Prejudice. I knew this was going to be a match made in heaven! I finished that series of podcasts (about 20) in less than 3 days, and now have moved on to the set of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. Oh, and she's also begun her newest set, Robert Lewis Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde. Fun! Fun! Fun! I can listen to great books and knit or spin at the same time!

All CraftLit's books come from Librivox. LibriVox provides free audiobooks from the public domain and has 2000 books in its library. LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and release the audio files back onto the net. Their goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books.

If you have any bit of bibliophile in your soul, I suggest you join us.

You're next.