Escape the early January doldrums by letting J.R.R. Tolkien read to you.

It’s Reaping Monday, when all the “will get back to you in the new year!” emails we sowed in December are coming due. If you’re trying to get away from your inbox, or the sun setting too early, or dry January, or the resolutions you’re already failing, let J.R.R Tolkien whisk you away to Middle Earth

The great folks at Open Culture have collected a lot of Tolkien reading Tolkien over the years, including this charming 1950s clip from The Hobbit. This is apparently Tolkien’s first encounter with a tape recorder: “Having never seen one before, he asked how it worked and was then delighted to have his voice recorded and hear himself played back for the first time.” He took to it quickly, and dashed off a half hour selection from his first novel in one take—One-Take Tolkien putting marble-mouthed podcast guests like me to shame.

Open Culture has also written up Tolkien reading poetry from Middle Earth, in both English and Elvish, as well as his narration of his own audiobooks. These last selections were first recorded by Caedmon Records, which had an amazing run of recorded books and poetry in addition to a cool, feminist history. They’re credited with recording the first audiobook, a 1952 recording of Dylan Thomas reading “A Child’s Christmas in Wales,” according to their new owners at HarperAudio.

And if after all this Elvish, you really can’t drag yourself back to the real world, here’s my favorite, Ursula K. Le Guin, reading from The Wizard of Earthsea.