Newsarama reports on the soft launch of digital comics on the Marvel Entertainment website, with a Flash-based interface that enables fans to read issues of Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Captain America, and She-Hulk. "It may be a safe assumption that Marvel is again testing the waters with this format," the article observes, "eyeing it as a possible pay model for fans to get their comics." Heidi MacDonald of The Beat has additional details.

And while Penguin UK has been intermittently podcasting some of its audiobook highlights since late October, they're running a very seasonal selection right now: Geoffrey Palmer reading A Christmas Carol. The sound levels could be a little higher, and I don't know that they really needed 100 seconds of introductory promotional blah-blah, but eventually it's worth it to hear Palmer talking about Marley and doornails and all that. The story will run in five installments between now and, presumably, Christmas Day.