The books you listen to

Soul food for Christmas. Godly and ungodly alike will enjoy David Suchet's calm, inspirational reading of The Gospel According to St Luke (Penguin, 3hrs, pounds 8.99). Unabridged from the King James version, itself meant, of course, to be read aloud, it has more familiar quotes per minute than Hamlet.

The Bible must these days rank embarrassingly high on people's "Books I mean to read" list. Do it the easy way, perhaps in the course of commuting to work now that Today has got so cantankerous, with this tasteful selection of the best bits of The Old Testament (Naxos, c 8hrs, pounds 16.99), read brilliantly by a strong and varied cast, again in the authorised version.