LibriVox is otherwise pretty normal, but this has me puzzled. The CD (!) case insert says: “Read by Justin Barrett, braindouche, Cow Nose the 50 Pound Cat, Sibella Denton, Esther, and Andrew Lebrun. Total running time: 00:54:13.” Seems insane to me. Why put the whole reading on a CD? Why 5000 digits? Why are there no chapters? What if they made a mistake? Did they double-check the result? Who needs any of that anyway?
My guess is that reading tomes like this is useful as a vocal exercise and can be a way of “getting one’s name out” for aspiring vocal talent. After all, what better way to showcase voice work on a resume than to point to examples online? As for the exact tome, it doesn’t really matter for this purpose but might as well also contribute to the wealth of human media.
The voice actors in this case were NASA employees.
Hmm, maybe this was considered for putting onto the Voyager Golden Record or something like it…?