It’s a quiet week in the news department at the Raven so I thought I’d share something Poe-related. As the proprietor, I feel obligated to be well versed in Poe’s works (one must understand the product to market it well, after all). The works that I am familiar with I haven’t read since high school, but in today’s digital age I found a couple of great media vehicles to get my Poe on.
As the mother of a busy 3-year old I rarely get time to sit down with a good book. Even though we have an entire section devoted to Edgar Allan Poe at the Raven, I don’t have the leisure time to peruse it. These days I’m a big fan of audio books so I can multitask. I listen to them in the car, while getting ready in the morning, working, cleaning… you get the idea. Poe’s works are public domain, so a website called Open Culture whose mission it is to create a centralized source for high quality cultural and educational media has made his works available to anyone at no charge.
Being a visual learner, I also recently purchased the Poe app collection by iClassics, who specialize in combining classic literature with interactive art and cutting edge technologies. Thus far I’ve consumed the Tell-Tale Heart, The Oval Portrait, Hop Frog, Annabel Lee and, of course, The Raven. It’s creepy, interactive, illustrative and just plain engaging. I highly recommend it and, in addition to Poe’s works, they have Charles Dickens and H.P. Lovecraft (Sadaat approves the latter).