Listen to James Franco Read Our 2014 Fiction Issue

Photo by Adarsha Benjamin

Our roots are in print journalism, so a few years ago, when everyone started losing their shit over the whole “death of print” thing, we were presented with two options: We could either (a) kill the print version entirely and go full-blown digital, or (b) hunker down and insist our readers keep gripping funny pieces of dried cellulose in their grubby little dick beaters. Eventually we decided to play both sides of the game by keeping the print version of VICE and developing a flashy iPad edition chock-full of fun bells and whistles you can’t get anywhere else. If you happen to own one of those smooth, flat, touch-based tablets from Star Trek: The Next Generation, you should do yourself a favor and subscribe.

Case in point: For this summer's fiction issue—which is themed around Hollywood and written by Hollywood writers—we asked our good pal and VICE columnist James Franco to pick a few of his favorite stories and read excerpts from them. Then we packaged the audio with the stories on our iPad so you can Franco while you fiction.

If you want a tiny taste of the goodness contained therein, here's a sample reading from James's story contribution to the issue, "Bungalow 89." (You know, the one that has all those not-so-veiled references to Lindsay Lohan.)

These excerpts are available exclusively for the iPad, so be sure to blow your rent money on one. When you subscribe to our digital edition, you’ll be treated to unpublished videos, MP3s, and exclusive photo galleries. You can find VICE at iTunes’ Newsstand.