Winter is slowly creeping in -
- and with it a sniffly muzzle-headed cold, as well. I'm still in the early stages but I'm quite lethargic. Yoga should be happening in 15 minutes but it's not. I'm still here, at home, with a cup of tea and a rather brilliant audiobook to keep me company so it's not all bad.
Speaking of said audiobook, I'm quite new to Twitter (you can find me @amaranthinegirl) but within 20 of my first tweets I got re-tweeted by Neil himself, Mr. Neil Gaiman, which made my night! The tweet was mentioning the new Audible Neil Gaiman Presents collection where Neil picks up some of his favorite books to be made in audio. One of them is a childhood favorite of mine - Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint. I've been listening to it on and off for a day now and while I don't generally tend to like audiobooks this one is rather well produced, well made, well cast, and in general all-around fantastic. I love the fact that Ellen herself is the narrator but we also have a fantastic supporting cast and lots of background noise to complement the text.
My only issue I'm finding is that I can't just... listen... to something. Life, things, shiny objects, e-mail, gets in the way. So I'll be listening with only half an ear and then pause thinking, 'wait, what just happened? Did I miss something?! so I find I need to keep a copy of the text nearby if I want to actually follow the storyline. Some books, if I've recently read them or know them so well, don't have that issue but if it is a new book then I think I'll need to get a paper copy of the book as well. For instance, I was listening to Catherynne Valente's The Habitation of the Blessed and just couldn't figure out what the heck was going on so I had to buy a paperback copy to accompany me. Ok, that book starts off a bit confusing anyway so maybe not the best example. As for Swordspoint, it's been so long since I've read the book that I need a paper guide to pop into every now and again to make sure I'm not drifting off into something else and losing the story.
But for now I'm definitely enjoying the experience and I think I'll spend most of today huddled around a cup of hot tea listening to Swordspoint. Tonight is E-schock up in Baltimore which I'm still going to but I think I'll be bundling up in warm clothes and making a bar stool my home for the evening rather than the dance floor like I usually try to. Right, back off to my audiobook!
Speaking of said audiobook, I'm quite new to Twitter (you can find me @amaranthinegirl) but within 20 of my first tweets I got re-tweeted by Neil himself, Mr. Neil Gaiman, which made my night! The tweet was mentioning the new Audible Neil Gaiman Presents collection where Neil picks up some of his favorite books to be made in audio. One of them is a childhood favorite of mine - Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint. I've been listening to it on and off for a day now and while I don't generally tend to like audiobooks this one is rather well produced, well made, well cast, and in general all-around fantastic. I love the fact that Ellen herself is the narrator but we also have a fantastic supporting cast and lots of background noise to complement the text.
My only issue I'm finding is that I can't just... listen... to something. Life, things, shiny objects, e-mail, gets in the way. So I'll be listening with only half an ear and then pause thinking, 'wait, what just happened? Did I miss something?! so I find I need to keep a copy of the text nearby if I want to actually follow the storyline. Some books, if I've recently read them or know them so well, don't have that issue but if it is a new book then I think I'll need to get a paper copy of the book as well. For instance, I was listening to Catherynne Valente's The Habitation of the Blessed and just couldn't figure out what the heck was going on so I had to buy a paperback copy to accompany me. Ok, that book starts off a bit confusing anyway so maybe not the best example. As for Swordspoint, it's been so long since I've read the book that I need a paper guide to pop into every now and again to make sure I'm not drifting off into something else and losing the story.
But for now I'm definitely enjoying the experience and I think I'll spend most of today huddled around a cup of hot tea listening to Swordspoint. Tonight is E-schock up in Baltimore which I'm still going to but I think I'll be bundling up in warm clothes and making a bar stool my home for the evening rather than the dance floor like I usually try to. Right, back off to my audiobook!