Listening to Audio Books
I spend a lot of time in the car. It was a few years ago, while commuting from Sunnyvale to Daly City, that I discovered audio books. I quickly learned to disdain abridged books, finding that I would have to go reread the book, because I always knew I was missing something. I have listened to a lot of books. I go through so many audio books these days that I just pay a monthly fee to Audible and get two books per month. I prefer their formats and I like the website. However, I have found audio books on iTunes and eMusic as well as Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I stick with Audible because it maintains an online library for me that I can download in case something happens to my downloaded copy. That saved my bacon when I got to the last section of Roots.
- My favorite audio book has to be Lamentation: The Psalms of Isaak. It is a fantasy novel with a distinct science fiction flair. I love audio books that use multiple voices and this production does it beautifully. I enjoyed the story and got so swept up in it that I would sometimes drive around the block when I got home in order to finish a section. This book is also broken up into short sections, so it is perfect for starting and stopping. Two of my favorite readers, Scott Brick and Stephen Rudnicky are part of the cast. (Yes, I have favorite readers.)
- My favorite book for my son, who did a lot of commuting with me, is The Amulet of Samarkand: The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 1. I can best describe it as a modern day Mary Poppins, with all the snarky English wit and incredibly clever story telling. The reader is fabulous, with differing voices for each character and getting just the right amount of smarmy charm out of the narrator. My son and I both really enjoyed it.
- My favorite book read by the author has to be Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. Gaiman is one of the few authors whom I think does a better job reading his own books than a professional could. I have enjoyed a number of his audio productions, but Neverwhere is, in my opinion, his best.
- Favorite book I have read a thousand times but enjoyed even more in audio form has got to be Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card. Card's books lend themselves well to being read like teleplays and most of his major books have been done this way. However, Ender's Game is his classic and Boyo, Pumpkin and I got a lot out of listening to, even though we had read it a number of times already.
- My favorite book that I felt like I should read, but have never wanted to slog through was Roots, by Alex Haley. It is long, at 30 hours, the longest single audio book I have listened to. I interspersed it with other books, because it would get tiring. However Avery Brooks (best known as Hawk on Spencer for Hire and Captain Sisko on DS9) does a wonderful job of making the cast of characters come alive. Roots is part of an oral tradition and I can't suggest a better way to experience it than to have someone read it to you.
- Boyo and I are currently working on Dune by Frank Hebert. Boyo doesn't seem to mind the political intrigue or the detail, but then again, he has seen the mini-series, so he has a grasp for the overall story. The production is good, but for some reason some chapters are done like teleplays and others are just read by a single guy, who is good, but not quite as good as the teleplay format.