Some top Hollywood stars will have a leading role in Audible.com next year, reading great literary works for the audiobook service. Celebrities who’ve signed on for the project include Meg Ryan, Naomi Watts, Colin Firth, Jennifer Connelly, Nicole Kidman, Samuel, L. Jackson, Anne Hathaway and Dustin Hoffman.

Kate Winslet was the first star to record an audiobook for the series, which will be available for download early next year. When asked what it was like to read Therese Raquin by Emile Zola,   Winslet said “You use a different part of your brain and it keeps your creative juices flowing. It is challenging, and it’s a heck of a lot of fun as well.”

Audible.com, which is the Internet’s largest provider of audio information and content, reportedly hopes the celebrity series will lead to a new form of entertainment. The company believes that by combining literature with the feel of theater and film they’ll create a niche for audiobooks in mainstream entertainment.

 It looks like Winslet supports the idea saying: “As a listener, being able to tune out and be taken into another world, an atmosphere, an environment that is being created entirely for you by someone else’s voice is really a wonderful, magical thing.”

Did you know…

In 2010 Kate Winslet founded a non-profit organization aimed at helping people with autism live full and rewarding lives. Known as the Golden Hat Foundation, the charity’s mission is to establish campuses where people with autism have a supportive environment where they can get an education and learn the skills needed to reach their full potential.  For more information go to www.goldenhatfoundation.org

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