Audio Books - what are you listening to??

[farmwifetwo]

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[Jennifer]

Yesterday, picking up my books I got Winter Solstice by Rosamund Pilcher. It's one of those books IMO you can read a million times and never stop enjoying... Jen!!! This is one I do recommend... no sex, no gore, great story/characters, no dark family secrets, nobody hates anyone else... Sheri
Aw shucks, guys. my rep is now up there with "Pat the Bunny." Really, I can take the serious stuff, just not the gratuitous stuff!

As for audio-books, you must request them. They do make so many things so much more fun. I listened to Harry Potter 6 one winter. It's the only thing that got me walking my dog! And LOTR! That was another life saver. I was ashamed I'd only listened to it and hadn't as you describe, "flipped the pages..." but a Tolkien scholar here in Madison said that listening to it would have made Tolkien happy. It would have been as in the old days, when the legends were told in the evening, after the work was done and people gathered around the fire.

Many good books are out there on cd. And other formats. Plus down-loadables from the internet! Non-fiction too. But yes, you can revel in mysteries and thrillers and procedurals. I love the readers. They make the characters come alive. Later when I don't have a million things to do, I can tell you some off-the-beaten-path things I've listened to.
Jen D.

[Meags2387]

I don't know if I could bring myself to listen to non-fiction on tape or CD. It just seems to me that it would be dull because there are no characters whose voices must break up the monotony. The only way I would listen to a non-fiction on tape or CD would be if the narrator was someone whose voice I liked....perhaps Morgan Freeman...but even then it would be hard. Plus I agree with Sheri that I like flipping the pages and being able to go to the last page first (which I do about half the time when I start a new book). So generally I listen to audio books whose book counterparts I have already read, such as the LRKs I'm starting to listen to and the Brian Jacques (SP?), which I absolutely adore. I also recently started listening to "East" on tape. It's not too bad really. -Meags

[Strawberry Curls]

I'm currently listening to LOCK for the umpteenth time. I like to listen to the entire Kanon one after another, and when I finish LOCK I will listen to TAoD, as the "Holmes" manuscript section just flows from LOCK. Clever, clever, Ms. King for dropping little nugget, that echo LOCK, in the manuscript for all the Russell fans to find, savor and enjoy. ;) --Alice

[Jennifer]

I don't know if I could bring myself to listen to non-fiction on tape or CD. It just seems to me that it would be dull because there are no characters whose voices must break up the monotony. -Meags

I love non-fiction and I have so enjoyed listening to it. Doris Kearns Goodwin is a wonderful non-fiction writer who's books I've very much enjoyed listening to. She wrote a memoir "Maybe Next Year" about growing up on Long Island and she reads it. It's so absorbing, listening to her relate her fascination with the Brooklyn Dodgers as a young girl. She was so very smart and so full of ideas and life. So was Mary Higgins Clark. She wrote her memoir "Kitchen Priveleges" about her early years, how her father died when she was nine and her mother's struggle to keep things going. And how she became a famous writer at 40! There's a lot of laughter and tears and you find what a tough gal she is. Anything by Tracy Kidder is wonderful. He wrote a book "Among Schoolchildren" that broke my heart, about an elementary school in Massachusetts. You wouldn't think people's lives would be so interesting but they are. And audio-books do them justice. In many cases, the author narrates and I love that. Frances Mayes, famous for "Under the Tuscan Sun" wrote three quietly wondrous books about living in Tuscany, growing to love it in an almost elemental way. The land and all its bounty, the people, the way of life, it all sings in her books and she read them in such a poignant way. See, I can go on about non-fiction for a while... To each his own, no doubt but non-fiction is wonderful in audio format.
Jen D.

[Jennifer]

Either I can kill a thread (no doubt there!) or we exhausted it in a couple of posts. But I just had to share that I am such an audio-book person that I have gone through 2 each of cassette players and cd players. I have been w/o a cd player for about 3 months and was despairing of getting yet another that would die ultimately. I was at that wonderful bargain store "St. Vincent DePaul" and found a working (I tested it!) cd player for 2 bucks! If it only lasts a month, it was worth it! Hah! Love to find stuff for cheap, even though that rarely happens for me.
Jen D.

[Millie]

I'm keeping an eye out for more audio books after listening to a dramatisation of one of the Falcno books. And I loved (as I've said elsewhere) Harry Potter 2. But that's all I've listened to. My library doesn't seem to have a great selection, but I do have access to all the libraries in the city, so I'll have to check out the catalogue.

Great bargain with the cd player, Jen! I remember when I first moved to England I bought at a car boot sale a hairdryer, possibly a billion years old, for a pound. It dried my hair perfectly for the 18 months I lived there. Gotta love a bargain!

I second the Rosamund Pilcher recommendation - I love Winter Solstice, and Coming Home is my ultimate comfort read. I'm halfway through watching the dvd, which stars Joanna Lumley, but I have to say I'm disappointed - so much has been changed, and pointlessly, that it's just irritating.

[Pat Floyd]

I love non-fiction and I have so enjoyed listening to it. Doris Kearns Goodwin is a wonderful non-fiction writer who's books I've very much enjoyed listening to. . . . Frances Mayes, famous for "Under the Tuscan Sun" wrote three quietly wondrous books about living in Tuscany, growing to love it in an almost elemental way. The land and all its bounty, the people, the way of life, it all sings in her books and she read them in such a poignant way. See, I can go on about non-fiction for a while... To each his own, no doubt but non-fiction is wonderful in audio format.
Jen D.

I love Doris Kearns Goodwin's books, especially WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR (I'm also a baseball fan) and NO ORDINARY TIME. My father idolized FDR, and I was privileged to hear Mrs. Roosevelt speak. I also enjoy Frances Mayes and am intrigued by the other titles you mention, Jen. Thus far I've done no listening to books, but our library has a good supply of books in various audio formats. You all are inspiring me to try some listening. And I must confess that nothing turns me on like a wonderful male voice.

[Jennifer]

Pat,
There's this whole world of audio-book readers, the stars, the voices you love. I know the women much better than the men, alas. Ms. King's books and many other authors I love have women readers that I know well. But there are many great men out there reading. Do you know Joe Montegna? I don't know if I spelled that name correctly but he's a famous actor who also reads and he has a very wonderful style. At our library, you can search actors by author and that's one way to identify who's reading what. I read a book set in India read by a 2nd generation Indian-American and he did a good job because the book had lots of place names that could have been seriously mangled. It was called "The Hungry Tide" by Amitav Ghosh, about the northeastern part of India/Bangladesh. It was a great story with almost a travelogue side-thingy going on. I loved the story and all the writing about a place I've never been. I love travel writing...
Jen D.

[Pat Floyd]

Pat,
There's this whole world of audio-book readers, the stars, the voices you love. I know the women much better than the men, alas. Jen D.

Thanks for the information, Jen. I do like good women's voices too.
Pat

[tangential1]

I was intrigued by the conversation about Harry Potter in audio format so I ordered it from the library. While I've "sampled" chapters from various books on iTunes to see if I might like audiobooks, this one will be my first real go at trying them out. I'm not sure if I'm going to like them, but I figure Harry Potter's a good place to start!

[Jennifer]

Hi Erin,
Funny you should mention starting with Harry. That's what got me into the whole idea of an audio-book. Long time back, maybe spring of 1999, my daughter came home wanting to read HP because her 1st Grade was reading Soccerer's Stone. I found the audio version at the library and we were hooked. We always read the books first and many times usually, but then at night, it was a fun thing to listen to before bed. I could never do them the way Jim Dale does. He's just got the characters down for me. Stephen Fry goes at it differently, he sort of stays in the same voice and I understand that appeals to a lot of people. I guess I am just more the high drama type. I don't mind men doing women's voices and I don't mind women doing men's voices! Just as long as it's differentiated. So if you can get your hands on both readers of Harry, you might give us a review.
Jen D.
PS Thanks for the yarn tips. I am aware of the acrylic deals. But. I just never thought of E-bay for yarn!

[Jennifer]

Hi SF fans,
I just got a playaway (a dedicated mp3 type device for audio books) of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and Stephen Fry is the reader! I like him very much. He's got a good voice for this book, not fiddly, but full of the crazy irony and sardonic humor of the story. He didn't sound like this for Harry Potter, of course who says he should, but I like this voice very much!
Jen D.

[Bachi]

I'm currently 'reading' George Eliot's "Middlemarch" and since I only listen to books (unless they are not available in audio formats, when I attempt to quite down and sight read them) my comments here and the "what are you currently reading" thread would be very similar.

At first I had a little difficulty with "Middlemarch" because the reader was very familiar to me as somebody else. This is one of the biggest obstacles to audio reading (barring a terrible reader, which can ruin a otherwise very good book). In the case of Middlemarch because it is so long, eventually the prior recognition faded.

The reader is Kate Reading (a marvelous reader) who I identify with Patrica Cornwell's "Kay Scarpetta".

Kate is an amazing reader and "Middlemarch" gives her the opportunity to showcase all her talent. The chapters all begin with quotes from other literature, several of which have been in other languages, and to my ear - she does so flawlessly, regardless of the origin.