Well, I know there's that 'Jump to last unread' link at the top of the page, but last time around we had ~230 messages before starting a new topic to make the topic less cumbersome. So here goes:

What are you listening to now?

Surprise...I am really liking Playing for Pizza by John Grisham....funny football story.

Thanks for making the new thread, bfertig!

I'm around the last 1/4 of No Country for Old Men ~ it got so intense, and I got upset when something happened that I didn't want to have happen, that I had to stop listening for awhile. But I've been thinking about it a lot in the last few days, so I guess I can go back to it now. :)

In some of the previous posts it was mentioned that a bad reader can really ruin a possibly good book. The reverse is true for me too. A good reader can make an average book quite good.

Absolutely xorscape! Lisette Lecate (?) I think that's her name, narrates the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books and does such a lovely job with them, I find listening just magical. Her voice is so melodic it's a joy to listen to.

Thank goodness for the good readers :-)

katy, I'm listening to The Good Husband of Zebra Drive right now! Yes, she has made the series much better. Her reading is perfect for these books.

Great minds... :)

I suspect that The Thirteenth Tale is better for the excellent reading by the two readers.

Message edited by its author, Feb 20, 2008, 1:10am.

Just finished listening to Duma Key by Stephen King and it was a very intense experience. The story starts slow with a lot of background information (as King's books so often do) but ends in a thunderstorm. John Slattery does a good job as Narrator keeping the suspense alive.

I'm listening to another Jon Krakauer book, Into the Wild. I'm really enjoying it. I have such a hard time figuring out when to listen to an audiobook, as it really requires all my attention. This one has definitely captured my attention now, so I will find a way to make the time for it.

Sorry, I posted this to the old thread before I realized there was a new one. Disregard my new post there! I reposted here.

Well, I finished up Ellen Degeneres's The Funny Thing Is... and started Don't Look Down by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. I had high hopes for a humorous, light listen (I had read the book last year sometime) but was so put off by the production I barely got through the first CD before pulling it from the car.

It uses two readers, one for male roles, one for female. The way the male speaker was edited in was distinctly quieter than the female, so much so that I was constantly turning the volume up and down. Renee Raudman did a good job on the female roles but the I did not care for Patrick G. Lawlor for the men. A friend who had listened to it said it got better after the first CD but I wasn't going to waste my time on it so I moved on.

My current listen is Home to Holley Springs by Jan Karon.

Message edited by its author, Mar 1, 2008, 1:20pm.

Just finished All Creatures Great and Small which was wonderful. Now listening to The Silver Chair read by Jeremy Northam. Still trying to get used to his voice. The narrator for Creatures was fun to listen to, changing up the accents, but Northam is more subtle and isn't bad but suffers by comparison.

Yesterday I started listening to Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill and got immediately sucked in. I'm looking forward to my commute this morning. After 2 months of Moby Dick it's a WELCOME change of pace!

Listening to 7th Son: Deceit and the latest Escape Pod story: Edward Bear and the Very Long Walk.

I am listening to Marker by Robin Cook. On Disc 10 of 14. Good thriller.

Yesterday I started The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly and so far LOVING it. ....just plain good entertainment.

I've been listening to J.D. Robb books. Those are the first audiobooks I've ever tried and I love it!
I've made a couple of cross country trips in my car and the time flew by while I listed to a great book! I really enjoyed it.

I got one that was an MP3. That was a mistake. I didn't know you had to be careful what kind of audio it was.

Sheila

I just started Eragon. I hated to pull into the driveway! (But nature was calling...)

Deception Point by Dan Brown

Almost finished with The Appeal by John Grisham and tomorrow will start The Road.

I'm midway through the 3rd of 18 discs of an unabridged reading of Cloud Atlas, with a different reader for each of its sections.

Am on the 4th and final part of John Adams by David McCullough. Interesting, but very, very long. Haven't quite gotten to the Hamilton/Burr duel, but it's imminent & Hamilton is really doing a number on old John during the Presidential re-election campaign.

I'm listening to Inkheart by Cornelia Funke, read by Lynn Redgrave. I'm really enjoying this so far.

Just finished the short story collection Selected Shorts: Lots of Laughs!. It is a live recording and thus you can hear the audience's reaction, which is very nice. On the other hand there were several verbal errors which couldn't be edited out. All in all it was quite enjoyable.

I'm on the 4th of 5 CD's of Brunelleschi's Dome by Ross King. It is entertaining in parts but too technical in others. I thought his Judgement of Paris was superior.

Next in line is The Painter of Battles by Arturo Perez-Reverte.

The March by E.L. Doctorow just started and loving it.

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer as read by the author. He's not much of a narrator and not much of a writer either. He uses phrases that I don't think he really undertands and his delivery is monotoned. Good thing the story is interesting.

Further to my last post (no. 19), I've just got to the "Orison for Somni-451" section of "Cloud Atlas" (the sci-fi bit), which takes the form of an interview/confession with a character known as The Archivist. For this part, a Stephen Hawking style voice box is used. It's sort of appropriate to the story, but might just be the weirdest thing I've ever heard on an audiobook.

Message edited by its author, Mar 11, 2008, 9:36am.

In car: When Madeline was Young by Jane Hamilton which I ADORE. Got recommendation to read Hamilton from LT actually (that function that suggests books and writers based on you library). LT was so right!

Also reading (at home) Love Over Scotland by Alexander McCall Smith. Very, very good. I've read a lot by him, including the prequels to this work, all of which he calls the "44 Scotland Street series" after the first book. I think this is the best of that series.

Recently finished Fear Nothing by Dean Koontz - terrific. Tried to read The Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket another LT rec, but last tape was spooled backwards so couldn't finish. Didn't matter b/c I didn't really like it. Annoying in a bunch of ways. But reader, Tim Curry, whose acting I love in general, was super.

I just finished Tom Jones the 1996 BOT recording by David Case. It was excellent.

Finished up The Book of Lost Things...hated to see it end. Started On Agate Hill yesterday...so far ..ok.

Ok, I admit I had a bit of trouble concentrating on the mid 18th century prose of Tom Jones, even as an audio recording. Is that gonna stop me? Heck, no. I'm now listening to an abridged version of Paradise Lost. It'll serve as an introduction for my tackling of the unabridged, printed word. Masochist.

Hi! I'm new here, but I just had to respond to this. I completely agree that the woman reading the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books is simply amazing. For my money, she and Jim Dale make magic with their voices and could probably read the phone book in an interesting way.

DianeS
owned by Wilma, Angel, and Simba

Again, new here. I've been listening to audiobooks for years now, only unabridged, and I've been downloading from audible for two or three years. Right now I'm listening to Malice Prepense by Kate Wilhelm. In in the middle of the second part. I read a lot of mysteries and I've found that some authors don't benefit from being read aloud, but in my opinion, Kate Wilhelm isn't one of them. That's what's on my Palm Pilot; loaded into my CD magazine in my car is a very old Nero Wolfe book, Too Many Cooks by Rex Stout. I find that Stout's works do well narrated, too, so I'm likely to get a few more of those pretty soon!

DianeS
owned by Wilma, Angel, and Simba

Message edited by its author, Mar 17, 2008, 2:30pm.

just started what becomes of the brokenhearted by e lynn harris. i particularly enjoy biographies and memoirs and this one passed the "first cd test" with flying colors. the person reading the book, richard allen i believe is his name, is very very good.

I just finished listening to The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon. Excellent book! The reader was fantastic - Peter Riegert.

Don't have anything to listen to right now - but will get to the Library after I get back from vacation.

I've been listening to Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris, which I've really enjoyed, a light mystery with a bit of a supernatural twist to it. I've enjoyed it so much I got the second in the series Grave Surprise which I'll be starting tonight.

Just finished the radio play of The Brightonomicon by Robert Rankin. It is hilarious. In style it is similar to the Hitchhiker's Guide Radio series and if you liked those, you should also listen to The Brightonomicon.

Sandragon...I also listened to Inkheart and thought the audio was great...currently listening to On Agate Hill by Lee Smith....took awhile to get into it but now I hate to get out of the car.

#35 katylit. You'll love the whole Harper Connelly series. Have you read the Sookie Stackhouse series? It's got more than a bit of supernatural twist and isn't for the squeamish but Harris brings the same "southern" attitude and there's lots of humor.

I recently finished listening to Pompeii by Robert Harris and can't say I highly recommend it. We all know how it ends, after all. The author wasn't able to include any surprises in the twists he did add, and the fluff was tough to bear.

Currently listening to The First King of Shannara by Terry Brooks and am not too thrilled with this, either, though I think I'm just not in the mood for fantasy right now. I might like it better another time.

Listening to The Body in the Bathhouse by Lindsay Davis. Different narrator than the Recorded Books productions & it's taking some getting used to. It just doesn't SOUND like Falco.

> 40 I love Lindsay Davis but have read rather than listened to them all. I can't think what I would expect Falco to sound like.

I'm listening to Silent in the Sanctuary by Deanna Raybourn. It's a historical mystery with humor.

(Touchstone is available but not working.)

Message edited by its author, Mar 24, 2008, 1:41pm.

Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris. A compelling audio about a private school, and an outsider looking in. That's all I'll say about it. Beautifully narrated.

#38, Thanks karenmarie for the recommendation. I saw the Sookie series and wondered if they were worth listening to. I'll give them a try next. I like mysteries with some supernatural mixed in. Daniel Hecht has three that I've enjoyed, but he's slow getting out more in his Cree Black series, so it's great to discover a different series.

#43, I love those Daniel Hecht books, too! I especially loved the one in New Orleans. The most recent one was, I thought, not as good as the first two and not as spooky, either, but it did have its good points. I sure wish he get some more of those out!

I've read most if not all of the Sookie books and I enjoy them, but they are much lighter in tone than Hecht's books. I'm fine with that; I like lightness and humor, but it's not everyone's cup of tea.

DianeS
owned by Wilma, Angel, and Simba
rented out by Fleur, Gizmo, Hedwig, Itsy, and Jaspurr

I'm currently listening to the Universe in a Single Atom by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Its an absolutely fascinating account of His Holiness's scientific studies.

Message edited by its author, Mar 26, 2008, 4:19am.

#44, Yeah! That New Orleans book was definitely my favourite of his too :-)

As for lightness and humour, I like a good mix, some dark, and then some fun - works for me.

I just finished The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, which was huge fun. Now I'm on to the next in Fforde's Thursday Next series, Lost in a Good Book.

Claire
So Many Pages
www.somanypages.blogspot.com

I just finished a Hollywood Theater for the Ear (Blackstone) recording of The Oresteia. It's my first try at Greek tragedy. I found it very easy to understand. Not sure if Euripides or Sophocles are any more difficult.

I started Duma Key this week. It's off to a slow start but I suspect part two will be more exciting.

I'm listening to Moneyball which also started off slow but is totally engrossing now.

I'm now listening to an abridged version of The Ramayana. The cast of characters is well, enormous. I'm sure things will start to get sorted out soon.

I finally got around to History of Love by Nicole Krauss somehow never really interested in it before. Wow! Big mistake to make judgements based on nothing much. I think I mixed it up or with The Historian which might be have been released around the same time. Vampires just hold no interest to me.

The readers of History of Love are so good that I just can't imagine actually reading the words on the printed page. I do have the book and expect to delve into it, as there are so many wonderful lines that I want to remember. For example: "I've always been too late for my life..." (referring to his bad timing) and "...the beginning of the end of childhood..." in discribing first love.

Started Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke yesterday and I have forgotten how well he describes the underworld of New Orleans and south Louisiana....he can have me smelling New Orleans just in his writing.

I've been listening to The Last Battle by CS Lewis. It's read by Patrick Stewart who has a beautiful voice and does a wonderful job. This had always been my least favorite of the Narnian series as a kid and I didn't remember much of it at all. This time though I'm enjoying it much more.

I liked Patrick Stewart's reading of The Last Battle even if I ended up HATING the book.

I just finished listening to Eragon and have started Lucky You by Carl Hiassen.

Finally got in enough travel time to finish Home to Holly Springs by Jan Karon (don't know why the touchstones won't work for this title or author).

It was, as usual, good although the constant flashbacks took getting used to. And it seemed like it had a bit more religion than her other books. But the reader, Scott Sowers, did an excellent job of creating voices for the many different characters. I will definitely look for more read by him.

Now to find my next "book".

I started The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy Sayers this morning. Ian Carmichael is the reader. Apparently he did some of the Wimsey books for the BBC but I'm not particularly enamoured of his reading style. It's hard to differentiate the characters as he reads them, Bunter being the exception because of his lower-class accent.

Thank goodness I've read the book at least 4 or 5 times over the years so I can figure out what he's saying.

After this book will be another from the library - A Blunt Instrument by Georgette Heyer.

I've finished listening to Life, the Universe and Everything and am now listening to Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey - an unabridged version from LibriVox which is very well read.

55, xorscape - The Last Battle was great until the last 4 chapters or so, when Eustace and Jill et al went into the stable. Then it just draaaaagged on. So, like you, I ended up not liking it.

Now I'm trying Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. So far it's keeping me interested.

#58 I started Northanger Abbey from LibriVox and could not get past the first reader. Does it get better? I'll have to try it again.

I tabled The Ramayana and am back to Greek tragedies. I'm listening to the Theban plays by Sophocles. I only have Antigone left. I'm also listening to Teaching Company lectures, Greek Tragedy, by Elizabeth Vandiver. I've listened to several of her courses (Herodotus, etc.) and she is excellent.

Audiobooks make me look forward to my morning and afternoon commute!

Northanger Abbey is far from Austen's best, but it's not her worst, either. (Which one would be her worst varies; to my mind it's Mansfield Park.)

Have you read other Austens?

DianeS
owned by Wilma, Angel, and Simba
rented out by Fleur, Gizmo, Hedwig, Itsy, and Jaspurr

>60, 62

I am probably going against the grain here but Northanger Abbey is so far the most interesting of Austen's work I've read so far. There is actually a plot (and humour)!

In Persuasion, and to a lesser degree Sense and Sensibility, I found myself quite bored after the first few chapters because nothing happens. And yet I'm a big fan of classic authors like Dickens, Trollope, Hardy etc. I just find much of Austen's suff a bit of yawn. I know, I am in the minority :)

I haven't read Emma or Mansfield Park yet.

I really liked Northanger Abbey. I listened to it on audio and laughed out loud in several places. I had watched a screen production before listening to the book and hadn't enjoyed it very much (lovely to look at, though). So when I listened to the book I found it much different from the adaptation. Once again, I wasn't sure if the screen writer had read more than a synopsis of the book.

The recent Masterpiece theater version was much better than the older one for the tone of the work. The other one did a better job with some of the plot set-up.

edit: I listened to Mansfield Park and thought it very, very, very looooooong. It wasn't one of those that I had to sit in the driveway and listen to just a little longer. :)

Message edited by its author, Apr 6, 2008, 6:57am.

Thanks for the info. I downloaded Northanger Abbery from LibriVox and the reader for the first chapter was horrible. I had to stop it because she was putting me to sleep! I will try again. I have read Austen's other work, most recently Pride and Prejudice. I'm off to Audible to select my audiobook for this week.

>65 Rarcar1

There are two versions of Northanger Abbey available on LibriVox. The one I am listening to is version 2, read as a solo project by Elizabeth Klett, at
http://librivox.org/northanger-abbey-by-...

Today I started One Hit Wonderland, read by its author Tony Hawks. As a Radio 4 regular, he is a natural on the microphone, as well as being a very funny man.

Tomorrow morning on the way to work I will start A Blunt Instrument by Georgette Heyer.

Thanks digfish, I will have to try that version. Tomorrow I will start World Without End by Ken Follett.

Following on from #67, I've managed to crack CD3 so that it is unplayable. Since this is borrowed from my local library, this is going to be a very expensive audiobook. Argh!

Thanks to LT members who raved about Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe, I am being transformed into a totally unexpected world/galaxy/universe/solar system, whatever. Great fun

#71 ~ Ooooh, vivienbrenda ~ I envy you your first experience of the wacky world(s) of Douglas Adams. The Hitchhikers series is toward the top of my TBRRA (to be re read again) list. :)

I'm listening to The Lovely Bones. It's read by the author and I'm really enjoying it, very poignant story.

Still listening to World Without End. This one may take a while since it is 43 hours long.

i'm on the 7th of 8 disks of michelangelo and the popes ceiling by ross king. for some reason i wasn't really into it after the first cd and almost stopped. actually its quite entertaining. all this talk about the holy alliance and pope julius the second is giving me flashbacks to high school history classes.

#75 I got Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling from the library the other day and plan to load it on my iPod this weekend. Glad to know about the slow start and that it gets better so I don't give up early on.

Just started Vanishing Point by Carol Smith today. And no, it has no Dodge 440 Challenger in it.

>76

it may have been just me but the beginning was unnecessarily convoluted. if you like ross king though you'll probably enjoy the cd. overall i did enjoy it.

I'm going back to my childhood and listening to a recording of The Little Princess from librivox.org.

#78 Hi, mejix ~ It will be my first Ross King. I find that some nonfiction is wonderful on audio and some just doesn't work. Mostly when it's intense and laden with facts and figures (i.e., convoluted). I tried to listen to The Mountains of the Pharoahs by Zahi Hawass, which I should have loved, but it contained so much intricate detail that I just wound up confused.

Well, I can only try. Just also picked up Brunelleschi's Dome to load on the iPod. Have you read that one yet?

My swap buddy bought World without End and is going to loan it to me while she is listening to my Pillars of the Earth (I listened to Pillars over the Christmas drives back and forth to relatives).

In the meantime, I am listening to some Amanda Quick abridged books. I've read them all in print so it is more just "comfort" listening. I do like my romances.

edit: I bought Hitchhiker's Guide. I'm going to get it out. Thanks for the reminders!

Message edited by its author, Apr 16, 2008, 5:50am.

Hello:

I have become addicted to audiobooks in the last year. I am on the road at least an hour every day, and some days several hours and feel my quality of life has improved through my listening. I have recently listened to two courses from the Teaching Company, one about Homer's Iliad and the other about The Odyssey. Hugely enlightening as well as entertaining. Last week, for something lighter, I listened to Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson which I enjoyed thoroughly. This week it is Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley. I look forward to sharing listening experiences with this group.

I just finished listening to Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing Traitor to the Nation, Volume 1: The Pox Party. I have read other M. T. Anderson books and liked them and the reviews of the recorded version of Feed were positive, so I expected this book to just as good. A well read reader friend of mine highly recommonded it saying it was a powerful book. So it is with some surprise that I find myself a little ambivilent about this book and not sure if it is becuase I listened to it or not. The book is written in 18th century learned language that really sounds outdated. I don't think that seeing the printed word would have made that much difference to me and am thinking that perhaps hearing it really makes it sound odd. I don't think the narrator was bad. I think it just sounded odd to my ears. It was not a sorry experience but it is possible that this may be one of those books where it would have been better to read the book than to hear it.

reply to message #80

I listen to lots of recorded books and find that for me most non-fiction doesn't work. I did listen to Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis but found it hard to do. There were lots of things that I would hear and wanted to go back to look up and doing that in a recorded version is next to impossible. The more scholarly or technical the work the harder it is to rely totally on listening.

Another problem with non-fiction is that most recorded versions available for purchase at the book stores are abridged. This just doesn't make sense to me. If a book can be abridged why wasn't it edited to make it shorter to start with? Abridging Franklin & Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship by Jon Meacham just ruined that book. I ended up checking out the printed book.

Message edited by its author, Apr 16, 2008, 1:42pm.

Fiction works really well for me in recorded format. I love to listen to mysteries but all fiction just seems to work better than non-fiction. However, there are some exceptions. (see message #83) There may also be some works of fiction that would be hard to translate into a spoken version. A friend listened to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and got along very well. This is a book in which half of the content is in the footnotes. I don't understa nd quite how doing spoken footnotes would work, but she got along with it just fine and liked it as much as I did the written verision.

I just started listening to the recorded version of Possession by A.S. Byatt and already I have had to get a written copy from the library to use to clarify some of what I have heard. This too, may be a book that is better read than heard, but since I am only on the first disk I haven't made a final judgement. Has anybody else listened to this book?

#84 ~ I agree that fiction is best for audio (for me at least), but I listened to three nonfictions last year that were wonderful on audio: Team of Rivals, Devil in the White City, and The Moveable Feast. All three were amazingly good as audios. One reason these three worked so well is, perhaps, because they are all historical or biographical and not highly technical.

I listened to Jonathan Strange too and thought it was wonderful on audio. Somehow, the way the reader did it, the footnotes were perfectly done. I also bought the hardcover and intend to read it again that way, just to see the difference.

I've just started to listen to Beowulf by Seamus Heaney.

>80

storeetllr, i did listen to brunelleschi's dome. i kind of like michelangelo and the pope's ceiling better. the brunelleschi's book involves long descriptions of structures that were hard to visualize. i did enjoy it though, i listened to the whole story. very interesting.

on the whole fiction vs. non fiction on audiobook thing my experience with non fiction has been consistently better. my experience with fiction has been more uneven. having said that, the two works that sold me on audiobooks were fiction works: the brief wondrous life of oscar wao by junot diaz and the plot against america by philip roth. they still are at the top of my personal hall of fame.

Message edited by its author, Apr 16, 2008, 10:30pm.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson surely wouldn't be considered light reading, and listening to it is a mind blower, but when I got to the end, I just started all over again. It's so packed with information and told in such a wonderful airy manner, that I figure whatever I get out of it only makes me that much smarter. I doubt I would ever make my way through the book, since I have so many TBR on my nightstand right now, nonfiction has been forced to take a back seat. But while I'm engaged in mind-numbing stuff, thanks to the wonderful world of audio, knowledge is slowly being wedged into my brain. Count me as one who is hooked on this medium.

Jonathan Strange won an award for best audio book several years ago, so I am sure that the footnotes must have been done really well. It is just that visual cues are really important in reading and sometimes I have a hard time figuring that kind of thing out from just listening. That is why I often check out the printed book as I am listening to a recorded version. I need that visual feedback and cues that come from the printed word. Makes me wonder if listening to a book is really reading. Isn't listening and speaking a book storytelling? Perhaps our modern audio books are really harkening back to Homer? Instead of the wave of the future perhaps they are looking back into the past?

I don't know, benitastrnad ~ I guess everyone has their own ideas on that. To me, both print and audiobooks are valid forms of reading, if by that is meant taking in information and processing it in one's brain, and both are products of the distant past (spoken more distant than printed, of course). Listening works just fine for me most of the time (depending on the intricacy of the subject matter and the reader, oh, mustn't ever forget the reader!), and I like having both options available. But that's just my personal take on it.

Vivien ~ Thanks for the tip. A Short History of Nearly Everything on audio is going right on my wish list.

mejix ~ Ditto to you. The brief wondrous life of oscar wao and the Plot against America on audio are going on my wish list too.

Heh, I forgot to mention that I'm now listening to ~ and loving ~ Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl, which I've seen panned on some of the LT threads. I agree, it gets just the tiniest bit cloying ~ all that dry wit and preciousness, and I think she went a little out of control with the similes and metaphors! ~ but somehow it works for me.

Just before I started this, I tried to listen to Turn of the Screw, which I've been wanting to read for a long time. Unfortunately, the reader's voice made me want to stick an ice pick in my ears, so I had to give it up as a bad job. I'll be reading a print version of that one, I'm afraid.

Edited to say: Hey, where'd the touchstones go? Hope they appear when I submit again. If not, they must be taking a coffee break at the moment.

Message edited by its author, Apr 17, 2008, 5:47pm.

I listen to books during my 66 mile round trip commute each day, so am always looking for new title recommendations. I'm a middle school library media specialist so mainly listen to YA titles sprinkled in with adult choices.

I loved Nancy Farmer's Sea of Trolls. The reader was very expressive without over doing it. A historical fantasy, it is set in about 750AD, and as all Farmer's books, it is meticulously researched for setting and skillfully weaves together the Norse mythology with Saxon tradition. Highly recommend!

And the book before that was Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt.
I have recommended this to every 7th and 8th grade teacher I know! The reader is believable and enhances the story!

I am listening to The Uncommon Reader (darn the touchstones) with Alan Bennet narrating in his wonderful droll and dry tone. Lovely and a perfect companion to a long drive home in the dark.

i am a big fan of myths and folktales. just finished sir gawain and the green knight: a new verse translation, and began the arabian nights: their best known tales.

the case of sir gawain contains six cd's but the translation itself is only three. the last three cd's are the old english version. kind of disappointed that it was so short but its because i did enjoy the story. a giant green knight comes to a christmas party and asks that his head be chopped off? cool!

i had read a selection of tales from the arabian nights eons ago. i had forgotten how kaleidoscopic those stories are. dizzying. will probably mix something in between. good stuff though.

Message edited by its author, Apr 18, 2008, 1:42am.

Storeetilr

I think that the process we use to process the information from the heard (sound) and the processing of information from the visual (printed word) are different. I have been wanting to read the new book Proust was a Neuroscientist by Jonah Lehrer and the This is Your Brain on Music becuase they are both about the way the brain processes sound. I suspect that we are using different parts of our brain when we read then when we hear. This in turn makes us preceive the story differently. To me hearing a book makes it more like a movie, there is just a little less for me to imagine on my own. I am getting more of the input from somebody else.

Don't get me wrong, I love listening to recorded books. It enables me to make use of a large block of time in which I would be doing nothing to be taking in all those wonderful stories that people have to tell.

Message edited by its author, Apr 18, 2008, 10:46am.

#95 - owenre. The Uncommon Reader is on my bookclub list for February of next year, so it's encouraging to hear that you like it. I'll just have to be patient until the beginning of January - if I read things too early I can't discuss the intelligently!

#97 I'm trying to recall how I process written versus audio books. I think I'm a pretty visual reader ~ I see "movies" in my head when I'm reading a printed book as well as when I'm listening to an audiobook. Only difference might be where the reader places emphasis, but that happens when I reread a printed book too ~ I often notice things I missed the first time which makes for a whole different interpretation or deeper level of comprehension.

Anyway, when you've read those books, I'd be interested to know what their take is on the subject.

I've been listening to the third book in the Charlaine Harris series An Ice Cold Grave, almost done now, and will be starting Heart Shaped Box tonight. This is probably not a good thing 'cause my husband is going away for awhile and I probably shouldn't be listening to a scary story while alone in the house ;-) I'll just have to see how scary it really is! hehehe

I rarely give up on audiobooks. (I now have no hesitation about giving up on "regular" books.) But I listened to about half of Song of Solomon , read by the author, and liked nothing about it, including the author's reading tone, all breathless and to me seeming patronizing, and I am not going back to it. Has anyone else had a bad experience, either with a well-received book, or one read by the author? I am now two days into listening to On Beauty by Zadie Smith and am greatly enjoying it.

I've decided to not listen to Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon after about 20 minutes or so and am listening to Notes From a Small Island by Bill Bryson. It's the first of his books that I've listened to read (as opposed to reading) and I'm surprised at how light and high his voice is. I expected this gruff-bear voice based on pictures of him. It's a very enjoyable listening experience. I particularly like his irreverence, as I do in all his books.

Touchstones don't seem to be working.

Message edited by its author, Apr 22, 2008, 1:00pm.

This week I started People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks.

>101

polutropos, i had a similar experience with toni morrison reading beloved. check out the "authors reading their own works" thread. funny you should write about it because i was thinking about starting a "books that i've abandoned" thread. they do seem easier to abandon in audiobook format.

just started listening to bob dylan's chronicles. i had already read the book a couple of years ago but i couldn't resist the temptation of hearing sean penn reading bob dylan. cate blanchett would have been amusing too.

Message edited by its author, Aug 26, 2008, 11:58pm.

Simon Winchester and Bill Bryson are two authors who do a really good job of narrating the books they write, but the best author to read his own work is Philip Pullman. Regardless of what you think of the books, or his ideas, he does a great job of reading his stories. And he is not an actor. Or at least I do not think he is?

I treasure a tape set I have of Douglas Adams reading The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. Sucks because it's tape and not something digital.

WOW! Douglas Adams on tape. That's something! If you have access to a Mac there is a program on it called garage band that will convert tapes to digital so that it can be burned onto CD's.

Started Beka Cooper: Terrier by Tamora Pierce (why don't these touchstones work properly?!). I keep wanting to drive some place just to listen - thank goodness the coming weeks have many road trips for work...

Message edited by its author, Apr 27, 2008, 6:27am.

I am continuing to listen to On Beauty by Zadie Smith, unabridged, and am loving it. I had not cared for either White Teeth or Autograph Man that much, but this one is for some reason really resonating with me. I am very much aware of E.M. Forster nodding approvingly as On Beauty unfolds.

I'm listening to a Blackstone Recording of The Voyage of the Beagle. It's a "library edition". Is that a euphamism for abridged? Anyway, anything by Charles Darwin is fascinating, but his 19th century English prose, is well, boring. Too bad Krakauer or Cahill didn't write these books for him. They would probably have been bestsellers for another century, had that been the case.

to persist with a previously raised topic ... I have often wondered how much of the experience of listening to a book depends on the ability of the reader. When I read a book the only voice I hear is my own, just as the pictures in my head are my own. When I listen to a recorded book there is no doubt in my mind that part of the experience of the book is the way that I hear it from the reader. This puts another filter between me and the author that is not there when I read a book.

In contrast to this, when I read poetry I often find that I like to hear the author read their own work. It helps me to interpret the poem from their point-of-view. Poetry, while descriptive, is stripped down prose - ideas cut to their bare essence, and having the extra interpretation of intonation and phrasing from the audio helps with the interpretation.

All of this is why if I don't like the reader of a recorded book it makes it really easy to stop listening to a book while I find it really difficult to simply stop reading a book. I will give a book I am reading much more of a chance than I would a recorded book that I didn't like. Even if that dislike is simply the sound of the readers voice.

My return to work :( audiobook this week is Boiling A Frog by Christopher Brookmyre, one of his Jack Parlabane novels.

#113 To continue your discussion, I'd like to add that listening sometimes highlights some pretty bad or boring writing. Case in point: All the Kings Men, which was intriguing, yet at times drove me crazy with dialogue that repeated itself. An example, although not verbatum because I don't actually remember how it went, but it was something like this. "That's terrible." "Yes, it was terrible." She repeated, "That's terrible." "Yes." "Just terrible."
I think this repeated for half a page because I wanted to scream. In a book, I would probably just skim over the parts that bored me, but listening does not give me that option unless I want to stop the entire story, skip over something, then hope I pick up in the right place.

Some pulp novelists who are fun to read are painful to listen to. On the other hand, some books that I might have struggled to read for one reason or another, enchants me. I recently listened to The Warden by Anthony Trollope, that wa so pleasurable, I will now look for his other books. If I can't find them on audio, I wll read them. I don't think I would have discovered Trollope on my own through books.

I know this is a long response, but I think the discussion is a good one. It explains in a way why some of us are hoooooked on audio.

I just finished Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson. I enjoyed his bitchiness. I'm not sure I'll listen to any more of his books, though - think I'll just read them. His voice didn't match my image of him.

Anyway, I've started Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers read by Ian Carmichael. I didn't like him too much as reader of The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club but I've listened to several readers since then and discover he's better than some of them. Maybe I just had to get used to his voice.

>114
I also enjoyed Notes from a Small Island and several others. I read it rather than listened. He is quite the curmudgeon. I did listen to A short history of nearly everything and it actually worked well as audio.

Just started listening to The Good Guy, my first Dean Koontz.

I just want to follow up on my previous post about The Voyage of the Beagle. It was actually unabridged. Some parts were a bit tedious. But can you imagine the opportunity of a young man like Darwin to accompany Captain Fitzroy on a 5-year around the world? Darwin's writing style was a bit boring but the subject matter was fascinating.

after dylan's chronicles i went to michael tolliver lives by armistead maupin, read by the author himself. completely breezy literature, which is just fine. and yes, finally an author that reads his own work well. after that i have started and stopped a everything is illuminated. not sure if it is the character or if it is the reader but i find this narrator very annoying. like one of those eastern european characters in saturday night live. may give it another shot this weekend. in the meantime its been a colleciton of fairytales by hans christian andersen. interesting how much he took from the arabian nights.

Message edited by its author, May 6, 2008, 12:03am.

Hans Christian Andersen was a very interesting person. There was a good biography of him published a few years ago. Hans Christian Andersen: Life of a Storyteller It was in depth but not so lengthy and exhausting as muddling through a tome on his life.

A Time of Changes by Robert Silverberg. Have a set of his novelas at home, but have never read them. Decided to try an audio first for some inexplicable reason. It is in the non-action camp for sure. The tale of a man overcoming the strictures of his society and things fall apart pretty rapidly for him. At least that's the sense I get as the narration is from the perspective of him on the run and trying to hide. More of a philosophical novel using science fiction as a vehicle for the message Silverberg wants to impart. Not bad.

#115 Sandydog1. I loved Brief History. Read it twice. Have you read or listened to Shakespeare: The World as Stage? It's short and sweet and soooooo Bryson-ish. On consideration, I think that I prefer his non-travelogue books, although In a Sunburned Country was hilarious.

Wow, no I've read 4 or 5 of Bryson's titles but haven't read that one. I'll have to look for it, thanks.

>119

thanks benita. i will check it out next time i'm at the library.

#122 Sandydog1. You're welcome. Hope you like it.

I finished Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers, read by Ian Carmichael. I've changed my mind about his reading style after having heard several other readers after The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club. I think he does all the voices very well and once you get used to his accent and cadence it's actually quite a pleasure to listen to him.

One of my mothers-in-law loaned me The Mermaid Chair and I've resisted reading it for ... oh, 2 years now... but she keeps asking me if I've read it yet. I found it in audio at the library the other day and started it yesterday afternoon. So far it's iffy because I'm really coming to the conclusion that I don't like women readers. We'll see.

I'm listening to Tricky Business. Dave Barry narrates it as well & he does a great job. I just gave up on Behold, Here's Poison because the pace of the narrator, Hugh Dickson, was really really getting on my nerves. It was just too slow and 'significant' if you know what I mean. Took all the wit right out of it.

#106 I have the Hitchhikers set and the Dirk Gently books, narrated by Adams on tape too. I have them on CD as well. Have they had them redone with another narrator since his death?

I'm not sure, but am HUGELY jealous of your CDs. If you can find it in your heart to copy them for me, I'd cover the cost. Seriously.

I have Salmon of Doubt on tape with Stephen Fry narrating and I love it. He's the only one I would trust with the job since he & Adams were friends.

# 126

Stephen Fry reading pretty much anything is generally a good idea.

Just finished Saturday by Ian McEwan. It was the first audio book I've listened to in about 6 months. I forgot how pleasant it makes my 25 mile drive to work. I loaded the book on to my iPod and tried to listen to it on a recent vacation in Jamaica. It was just taking way too much concentration so I re-started the book on our return . . . on second thought, maybe it was the Blue Oceans that made listening so tough. Anyway, I enjoyed the book.

Hmmmm. I am about to give up on another audiobook, the second time recently. Isabel Allende, Portrait in Sepia. Just not doing it for me. Anyone a fan of hers?

I'm not listening to it, but I am just crazy about her The House of the Spirits, which I'm about halfway into. I've definitely turned into a fan with that one. I was just wondering what it would have been like to listen to it on audio. :)

I am listening to How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman. The material is interesting, but it feels like he could have used an editor. Perhaps it was that some of the material had been published in the New Yorker and so were somewhat self contained and tended to restate the premise.

I love Bill Bryson, btw.

Re the Bill Bryson books: The only one of his that I have listened to is "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir" which is about growing up in the mid-1950s. Since it mirrored a lot of how things were when I and my brothers were growing up, I enjoyed it immensely.

Recently finished Tamora Pierce's "Beka Cooper: Terrier" (reader did a good job with the many characters) and am wending my way through Second Sight by Amanda Quick. Not wild about the reader and the story is a bit lame. Even though I have also read the book in hardcopy and am aware of its failings, the audio makes them more noticable.

Next up will be A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny.

I just finished listening to The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith. I am disappointed in the series. It seems to me that the author has "dumbed up" the stories. Leslie Lecat still does a wonderful job narrating.

Message edited by its author, May 15, 2008, 7:47am.

#29 polutropos - It been a few years, but I actually listened to Portrait in Sepia on CD and I really enjoyed it. I don't remember much about the reader, which I guess means it wasn't an issue for me, ymmv

Now I'm listening to The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, which is fantastic. The woman reading it is making the book even more wonderful, her voice is so pure, I'm sure she could read anything. I'm also listening the The Black Echo by Michael Connelly.

I listened to The Closers by Michael Connelly and liked it. I doubt I would have read the book but listening to it in the car while on a long trip was a nice experience.

I listened to both Portrait in Sepia and Daughter of Fortune and liked them. The books have some elements of magical realism in them, especially Portrait in Sepia and that may be one reason why that book isn't working as well for some people. I think if you know that some parts of the book have those elements of magical realism it would make it a little easier to understand. A listener wouldn't be as likely to wonder what the heck is going on.

I recently purchased Zorro and Ines of my soul to listen to, so you can tell I am a fan of listening to these books. I recently heard a wonderful interview on an NPR program out of San Francisco that featured Allende and that was very interesting. I don't know the name of the radio program so if somebody else out there heard this interview please respond. Listening to the interview might help a reader to better understand some of Allende's writing.

Earlier this year, I listened to the entire Harry Potter series. After reading H.P. and the Deathly Hallows and seeing how she wrapped up many, many threads, I wanted to experience the series one right after the other, but I didn't have the patience to re-read them all. Listening was a great experience and I gained an appreciation of how cleverly Rowling had plotted the entire series from start to finish.

Now, I'm taking True Justice by Robert K. Tanenbaum out of the library. I like the series, but haven't listened to any yet. I'll let you know how it goes.

Generally, I listen to fiction, but I also enjoy the Great Courses lectures.

My new audiobook is The Love Secrets of Don Juan by Tim Lott. I'm halfway through the first disc and, so far, it is less racy than the title might suggest.

#136 madlibn - I did that too - listened to all the HPs in a row. I absolutely adore Jim Dale's reading of them and he spoiled me. There are a lot of readers who can't compare to his wonderful voice characterizations. I will probably listen to them all again in the fall or winter.

I just finished The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd. Blech. I've confirmed in my mind that I don't like women readers because they can't do men's voices at all (don't jump me - I'm sure there's a fabulous woman reader out there somewhere!). I also don't think I liked the story, but am mulling it over before I write a review.

Just started Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon again. It wasn't the right time to listen to it in late April for some reason, but I think I'm going to enjoy it this time.

#137 Grammath -

I had a copy of love secrets of don juan but didn't get around to reading it. Somehow it just didn't seem interesting at the time. Since I joined Librarything I keep seeing the title cropping up and think that perhaps I made a mistake in giving my copy away. You will have to let us know how you liked it as well as if it was a "good listen."

it takes me a while to get used to some readers. or maybe some days im crankier than others. last wednesday i picked up robert fagles' translation of the aeneid and blood meridian by cormac mccarthy. i listened to the beginining of both and found them a bit over the top, specially the reader for the aeneid. i stuck with cormac mccarthy and am actually enjoying it very much. looking forward to getting back to it later today.

Message edited by its author, May 17, 2008, 11:36am.

#136 & 138 -- Me, too. Before the last one was published, I listened to the previous six. After I listened to the first one the first time, my family bought all the rest on CDs. Jim Dale is amazing! In fact, I just downloaded Peter Pan read by him and I'm looking forward to hearing it!

I was also impressed by how many loose ends Rowling created in the first few books that she tied up at the end. In fact, there were very few that were not tied up, which is very unusual in my experience. Very impressive.

#141

If you like Jim Dale he's also the narrator of Around the World in 80 Days. Even though it's dated, and not very P.C. by today's standards, I really enjoyed it.

I recently finished Stephen King's Duma Key read by John Slattery. The book and the reader were both excellent. This was the first I've heard of John Slattery, but he will be selling point for me in the future.

Currently I'm alternating between The Adventure of English by Melvyn Bragg (kinda dry and slow going), and The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien - which is also a tough listen, but not at all slow going.

I thought wrong (my#138). I thought I'd like Gentlemen of the Road the second time around, but it still didn't grab me. So, i turned it in to the library and got 3 different audiobooks.

The winner is.... A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. I have no clue as to why this is in my player right now, but so far I'm enjoying it. Some of it is already a stretch, but that's okay. The reader has a British accent and sonorous tones, so I'm enjoying that in addition to the actual content.

In looking for mysteries in the style of Agatha Christie, I joined the mysteries site. Several ideas were presented, but most people agreed she is in a class by herself. Since it had been decades since I read her books, I figured I'd listen to one on audio to see how it played in my mind.

Volila! While I've quite forgotten "who did it?", and even some of the settings, the fun of Christie is enjoying her all over again. So whatever CDs the library has or can get for me, I'm ordering and listening to. How wonderful to rediscover a favorite author.

i#145 vivienbrenda I just read Agatha Christie An Autobiography and it has inspired me to read all her books again, in order of publication. I've re-read the first two and am taking a break so I don't burn out. Plus, since she was so prolific, it will take me a year or two to get through everything. I even re-organized my shelves to put them in order of publication!

Just like you, I don't remember the details of some of the books so look forward to rediscovering her and enjoying her books all over again.

I've been thinking also of reading her biography. I looked her up on Wikpedia, and still felt there was so much more to learn about her wicked mind. I did read that she claimed to decide at the end of of her books which character seemed the most unlkely to commit the crime, then would go back to fit the clue to make that person guilty. It sounds like something she'd do. As the song goes: "nobody does it better..."

Audible.com is having a sale. Anything less than the price of a credit is fair game for me so I picked up a few. Have a cross-country flight coming up, so I'm sure to knock off at least one for that.

I'm just getting back in to audiobooks. Just had a new CD player installed in the car. This afternoon, I finished The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I never read the book and it always seems to show up on "Top" sci-fi lists. I thought it was pretty good. It was Monty Python in space.

I am now listening to True Justice and keep making up excuses to spend more time in the car to keep listening. Yesterday, I ate lunch in the car so that I could listen while I ate. I had a little trouble getting used to the narrator--he was short and staccato, but that might have been the writing. I'll have to check the printed book. I just love Marlene and Butch.

I'm listening to the New International Version - The Bible on Cassette, so I'll not have anything new to post for some time. Maybe I'll take a break between the Old and the New Testaments. So far I'm not impressed with the author's writing style. So dry, redundant and boring. Where was the editor? Anyway, I'm continuing on because I've heard it just might have influenced some subsequent authors :)

I pick up Number 1 ladies detective agency and have not been able to get enought of this series

Am into the second half of The House of Mondavi and it is fascinating. I had no idea of his influence or family shenanigans or that the TV show Falcon Crest was based on the family and winery. I know the tale won't end well, but it's compelling.

to #153

Robert Mondavi just died last week. He was 90 something. This is a book I have been wanting to read, but just haven't gotten around to it. With your recommendation I will have to move it up on my list.

Thanks to Storeetllr for introducting me to this group! I just finished listening to Ines of My Soul by Isabel Allende, read by Blair Brown. It is my first audiobook, and an experiment to see if I had the attention span. I have a long commute, and NPR is finally just on my last nerve. I had listened to a number of Teaching Company lectures, but honestly, they are rather expensive! So to the library I went. I picked Ines becasue the CD books are arranged alphabetically by author - may as well start with the As!

I enjoyed it so much that I'm now listening to Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya, an author I've never read of until now. Yet another A.

I'm only picking books that are unabridged - even author-approved abridgments bother me.

I look forward to reading more of what others have to say, especially about the differences between listening and reading, the role of the reader, and that kind of thing.

#155 RcCarol - abridgements bother me too. I won't listen to them either.

I finished A Brief History of Time on the way home Friday.

I started A Right to Die by Rex Stout this morning on the way to work this morning.

Hi, RcCarol ~ Glad you made it! Welcome!

Ditto on the abridgements. If it's worth reading, it's worth reading the whole thing the way the author wrote it in the first place.

I started listening to The Picture of Dorian Gray yesterday and am enjoying it so far. The reader (don't remember his name) isn't all that great, but at least I don't want to stick an ice pick in my ear like some readers have made me consider doing. (j/k ~ when a reader is that bad, I just stop listening and delete the audiobook from my iPod and get the printed book)

Message edited by its author, May 27, 2008, 8:04pm.

Well, I've been on the road a minimum of three days a week since mid-April and the only thing keeping me from tearing my hair out over the escalating gas prices is the fact I am tearing through audiobooks.

Postponed A Fatal Grace in lieu of Second Sight and Lie By Moonlight by Amanda Quick aka Jayne Ann Krentz and am now doing Krentz's White Lies. I thought the reader for Lie By Moonlight did a better job than the one for Second Sight. And White Lies is done by two readers which is a little disconcerting; we'll see if I can adapt...

Coming up are the first two "Death on Demand" mysteries by Carolyn G. Hart.

I abhor abridgements. If the book can be abridged then it should have been abridged to begin with. If a book can be abridged then what it really needed was a good editor. The same is true for listening. Especially don't listen to an abridged non-fiction. I happened to get an abridged version of the Franklin and Winston book and all of a sudden there were parts of it that were in a totally different year and a different subject was being discussed. This left me wondering what? or how? Don't recommend that. Only get unabridged versions. What I want to know is why would a publisher sell an abridged version? isn't selling an abridged version like telling the world that they did a bad job of editing?

I am now listening to All Over but the Shoutin' by Rick Bragg, read by the inestimable Frank Muller. I don't know how he is able to sound like Bragg and family from northern Alabama, but it is wonderful.

The book is Bragg's autobiography of his youth growing up poor in northern Alabama and how his mother's sacrifices allowed him and his brothers to succeed.

listening to The Brass Dolphin by Joanna Trallop set in Malta during WWII

I'm listening to The Dante Club, by Matthew Pearl

With regard to abridgments, I shake my head every time I'm at the library looking for another audio book. I get excited for the book, I take it off the shelf and see "abridged" on the front and then put it back on the shelf. I would truly like to meet someone who is happy to listen to an abridged story. Would these people read an abridged book? I alway mean to ask the librarian why? They should at least have two copies one abridged and one unabridged. Also, I won't take cassettes anymore either. Needs to CD/DVD. I've had too many problems in the past with cassettes that don't play properly.

# 157 Storeetllr - I've finished The picture of Dorian Gray recently and liked it a lot. I've listened to a version by Simon Vance and he did a terrific job!

#162 sydamy - I haven't had problems with cassettes, but right now I'm listening to CD skips on A Right to Die by Rex Stout. Frustrating. I don't know what people do to these CDs - scratches, dirty. I had this idea that library patrons would take care of CDs, but I guess not.

The only irritating thing about cassettes to me is when I get one that I have to rewind. Minor, I know.

just finished listening to Jubal Sackett by louis L'Amour and started Billy Budd by Herman Melville

I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one to prefer the unabridged versions. The only abridged book I've ever read was Les Miserables, and that is because we had to for English class. Okay, maybe I read other abridged books for English classes. But in my own life, I prefer to finish the whole thing.

I finished Bless Me, Ultima, which was read by Robert Rodriguez. I highly enjoyed it. I had difficulty selecting my next book. A CD of Zorro by Isabel Allende was available, but it was read by Blair Brown just like Ines of My Soul. I think it is too soon. I would feel like Inez Suarez was reading Zorro to me. Therefore, I picked up The Wonder Spot, read by its author, Melissa Bank. I'm not sure what I think of the book or the fact that the author is reading it.

I finishedA Right to Die by Rex Stout and really enjoyed it. I'm going to have to re-read some more of his books.

I just started listening to A Presumption of Death, a "new" Dorothy Sayers. Jill Paton Walsh has been authorized by Sayers' estate to use Sayers' notes and ideas to write more Peter Wimsey.

We'll see.

I am listening to Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet. No idea how this one escaped me for two decades, but it did and I'm entranced. Will get the follow up as well.

I am thoroughly enjoying A Very Long Engagement by Sebastien Japrisot. I had no expectations, and picked it up purely by serendipity, but it is excellent on many counts.

I am currently listening to Three Shirt Deal by Stephen J Cannell. So far, not too bad.

Started Jane Eyre, as read by Juliet Stevenson, on the way to work this morning.

Too early to pass judgement, but it seems a good marriage of novel and reader.

I'm currently listening to Year of Fog. I am absolutely hooked, but also terrified. If this book has a bad ending I may never recover!

Almost done with Catherine Coulter - The Edge. It is the first one of her FBI series that I have had, pretty good with its combination of action, drama and comedy.

edited to correct wrong touchstone..

Message edited by its author, Jun 10, 2008, 1:49am.

Currently listening to Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. This is way outside my typical fare, and I didn't expect to like it much. I am thrilled to be wrong.

#174 Lonesome Dove is just brilliant, isn't it! It was the same with me ~ I thought I'd hate it but it ended up one of my all-time desert-island favorites! Hmm, I haven't listened to it on audiobook, though. I take it the reader is good?

The reader is great - his voice and accent (twang) are exactly what you'd expect from a "cowboy" book. Augustus always kind of half-yells whatever he says - so funny! My son commutes with me in the mornings and usually dozes, but I caught him giving up an involuntary laugh the other day. I definitely recommend the audiobook.

Finished Death on Demand. Starting Design for Murder.

Finished A Presumption of Death - absolutely loved it.

I've started Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier and although I don't particularly like female readers, this one HAS to be female because the narrator is a 16 year old girl. It's interesting so far.

Just finished Eat Pray Love read by the author Elizabeth Gilbert. She does a great job and made my drive home from the beach wonderful. Just started The Wednesday Letters and will finish it but so far just too sweet for my taste.

Just finished listening to Possession by A. S. Byatt and loved it. However, I did have a copy of the book that allowed me to read some of the poems found in the book. I found that I needed to study some of the poems in order to better understand them. Like others I am blown away by the fact that the author wrote an outstanding novel and all those intertwined short stories and poems. This is going to be a novel that I will ponder for a long time to come.

Message edited by its author, Jun 23, 2008, 1:28pm.

I am STILL listening to The Bible and am DEFINITELY taking a break after I finish the Old T.

I just started an Agatha Christie called Murder in Three Acts. I've read it several times over the years and just wanted some "comfort listening." Things are a tad stressful right now.

#152, Ross.Farnsworth, I can understand you getting hooked on The #1 Ladies Detective Agency. Both the series and the narrator of the audio books are a delight. I just finished listening the latest one The Miracle at Speedy Motors. McCall Smith doesn't disappoint.

Just started listening to The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue, read by Andy Paris and Jeff Woodman. Excellent so far.

i've been listening to lots of Agatha Christie lately. I read all her books years and years ago, but forgot the plots and of couse the murderers. Don't apologize. They're fun. If reading can't be fun, why bother? There are lots of so-called "serious books" that are also fun, and some garbage that is not even fun.

Right this minute I'm listening to Roma by Steven Saylor. This work of fiction, reminiscent of James Michener, captures the history of the Roman Empire through tales that invents fictional characters who interact with real people. It's quite enjoyable. Is is serious? Probably not, but I'm learning quite a bit about Roman history. So there!

Nearly finished with Leviathan: the history of whaling in America today -- its worth the read, particularly for any Melville fans out there.

About half way through David Sedaris new one, When you are Engulfed in Flames. Hard to beat his earlier works, but still made me laugh out loud in places.

started The Senator's Wife by Sue Miller today.

#186 I really dislike the cover of David Sedaris' new book - it's very off-putting. I'm sure I'll eventually read it (or perhaps listen to it) someday,though.

I just started A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. I read it years ago and am enjoying listening to it. As I mentioned in another thread when I was listening to another of his books, his voice just doesn't match my image of him. It's great stuff, though.

I am still working on The Three Musketeers, but I am finally nearing the end!

I just finished Icebound by Dean Koontz. It was OK but had a predictable plot. His description of the extreme artic weather was very good. I am glad I was listening to it in July!

started listening to American Gods by Neil Gaiman. It is good so far. I can tell a man wrote it for men, especially young men. I am not sure about the narrator. He sounds too much like an old man. I wonder if that is on purpose?

Finished A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson - it is very amusing and informative. Anybody who hasn't read Bill Bryson should check him out. Everything I've read by him is good, although In a Sunburned Country, Shakespeare: The World as Stage, and Mother Tongue are my favorites.

I'm now listening to The Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland. Just begun, but interesting.

This morning I finished Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer and started Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen.

The Crusie-Mayer book is their second collaboration and I liked it much better than the first one (Don't Look Down). And the audio version was far superior to the first one on audio. Sandra Burr does an excellent job as reader (but then, most of the readers from Brilliance are very good).

I have also read Garden Spells in print (as well as the author's Sugar Queen) and am so far enjoying the audio.

My new audiobook is This Book Will Save Your Life by A.M.Homes.

I have been listening to a Nora Roberts series. The O'Hurleys, it is one of her older series. I am on the third book now, Skin Deep.

Message edited by its author, Jul 11, 2008, 1:59pm.

I'm listening to AND loving To America: Personal Reflections of an Historian by Stephen E. Ambrose. His writing is elegant, organized, strong, and beautiful to listen to.

Message edited by its author, Jul 16, 2008, 8:12am.

My favorite audio books:

Q & A: A Novel by Vikas Swarup - the Indian accent (and other accents too) really make this better as an audio book.


Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, delivered by the NY Chef himself

Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris, narrated by the author, had me laughing out loud many times!

p.s. I'm new to this... how do I make links to the books?

Message edited by its author, Jul 18, 2008, 1:38am.

I'm listening to the Ministry of Special Cases. At first, I was a bit put off by the accent put on Spanish words and place names, but the story's good enough that I was able to get past that. Now, I'm finding it really engrossing.

Bookmarque, I listened to Pillars of the Earth over my Christmas driving back and forth to family and loved it! I just started the sequel, World without End, and so far, so good.

Just a comment on abridgements. Normally I won't listen to them because they just leave out too much, but I do have one I really liked. I still think Where the Heart Is is excellent in the abridgement.

I just finished Twenty Wishes by Debbie Macomber and Sundays at Tiffany's by James Patterson. Both nice reads.

I also just started listening to a Susan Cooper series, The Dark is Rising. (This one is in the house. World without End is in the car.)

I am listening to Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier...liking it but also love the reader...he does a great job with audio books.

I am listening to Cathedral of the Sea by Ildefonso Falcones. It is similar to Pillars of the Earth in that it has to do with the building of a cathedral in Barcelona, Spain. So far, I am enjoying it.

I tried Camel Club by David Baldacci and just couldn't get into it. There was too much explication and not enough action. Probably ok to read, but not to listen to.

finished marcel proust by edmund white earlier this week and am half way through the gnostic gospels by elaine pagels. the proust book was breezy but very enjoyable. the gnostic book is fascinating.

I really enjoyed The Stolen Child and am in the middle of a wealth of Wooster and Jeeves, having already listened to The Inimitable Jeeves and currently listening to The Code of the Woosters, next up will be Very Good Jeeves. They're all read by Jonathan Cecil and I think he does an excellent job (although I find myself picturing Hugh Laurie!). Light hearted fun, just what I need right now.

#197, SuzyQsBooks, you just have to put square brackets around the title of the book and it will make a touchstone (usually, if LT is being cooperative).

Message edited by its author, Jul 20, 2008, 10:36pm.

xorscape - Pillars was good, but I just gave up on World Without End. Just couldn't make myself listen to more grinding and endless misery. It was part 5 of the download, but I don't care. Enough.

So I'm onto Heartsick by Chelsea Cain. Why does a killer worse than Hannibal Lecter make me laugh?

I just started another comfort book - I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America after 20 Years Away by Bill Bryson. He is so much fun to listen to.

Well, Garden Spells was very good and the reader did an excellent job.

Have now started Jasper Fforde's The Fourth Bear. This is my first Fforde book in any format so I have no idea what to expect.

you will love Jasper Fforde and don't forget to get a book and take a look at the illustrations. that is my only grippe about audio books. no pictures and the pictures in the Fforde books are as much fun as the written words. they are visual puns. one of the good things about the Fforde books is you don't have to read them in order, but the Nursery Crimes series are built on previously mentioned things in other Fforde books, so if you want to get the full picture of Fforde go back and read or listen to some of his other books.

I thought this thread was getting a little long, so I started Part 4 thread here: http://www.librarything.com/talktopic.ph...

The URL was truncated somehow, here's the correct link to Part 4:
http://www.librarything.com/talktopic.ph...

LOVE LOVE LOVE Thirteen Moons byCharles Frazier on audio...being read to is so wonderful.