Audiobooks

I truly adore audiobooks, unabridged and word-for-word to the original type set novel in hardback or large print. I can dock the iPod in the speakers or plug the book into my ears while I walk or sew or clean. Some nights, I lie in bed listening to the book and I fall asleep. The next day I have to dial back to the last remembered scene before I drifted away. I saw the blurb in the paper about the 22 year old woman who rowed across the Atlantic Ocean, solo. She had four iPods and 100 audiobooks to accompany her. Now, that would be the ideal time to listen to the 100 MUST READ classics. Tonight, a young man in the writing class asked the professor about what author was his favorite. And it seemed almost too quickly, the teacher said Faulkner. Is that a predictable answer? Then I thought about who was mine. Zora Neale Hurston is by far my favored and “Their Eyes Were Watching God” my favorite story. Then I realized, I do not necessarily favor an author. I favor the book and its characters. I read a book long ago called The Gospel, the author was Wilton Barnhardt. Loved it! I listened to The Kite Runner. The audiobook excels far beyond my limited American understanding of Pashtoon or whatever dialect is spoken in Afghanistan. I would have stumbled through the phonetics. Then there are the classics I loved: The Prince by Machiavelli. I loved Sartre’s No Exit. And because of Sartre’s plays, I realized I loved Shakespeare. But, like the Kite Runner, Shakespeare is meant to be HEARD not read. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow  Wallpaper is a true study in the madness of post partum women. Another is Little Earthquakes. Jennifer Weiner’s contemporary chick lit is a masterful study of the sleeplessness of new mothers and how a lack of sleep over a long time can make you truly insane. I liked Conrad and while I dislike Jane Austen to read, I loved the BBC adaptations of her many novels. I have downloaded Alice in Wonderland to listen to with my son. We’ll see…or rather, hear.

3 thoughts on “Audiobooks”

  1. GEE, I’m totally “out of it” and haven’t read a single one of those books…and I cannot abide Shakespeare…….. well, still have some time, maybe…

  2. Plenty of time left I am sure.

    I’ve read 30 of 100, which is far less than I would have guessed. I get how the list was derived but it’s missing some really great pieces (Fahrenheit 451 not being on there stands out to me) and over does some authors (imo, 2 books from Ayn Rand? Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged are pretty similar books. Fountainhead is a better book but Atlas Shrugged is more well know… you don’t need to read both I promise.)

    I envy you with being able to read via audiobook. I still haven’t been able to grasp it. Maybe I’ll try Kiterunner next I try since you have a good reasoning behind the audiobook format there.

    P.S.
    No Exit is AWESOME. But sad to think “hell is other people”

  3. oops, clarification…none of the books Lisa mentionedshe had read/loved…. I’ve read 27 of the classics 100

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