Book Logging - Audiobooks
May. 5th, 2017 09:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckMy book logging entry got too long, so I'm splitting it into three parts.
Audiobooks read:
Aiken, Joan. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase - Audiobook read by Lizza Aiken. I was surprised by how straightforward this was. I hadn’t read it in about thirty years, and, in my memory, it was more complicated. I’d recommend this version for people looking for short audiobooks as it’s just shy of five hours long.
Angelou, Maya. Black Pearls: the Poetry of Maya Angelou - This was a CD with poems read by (I think) the author and musical interludes. I got this from the library, and the pamphlet looks damaged enough that I was afraid to touch it. The tracklist and credits that I would expect as inserts are either missing completely or somewhere inside that pamphlet, so I wasn’t able to get the information I wanted about who was doing what. The reader has a strong voice with clear enunciation, so I was able to follow pretty well. Mostly. I’m not sure that audio is the right way for me to get poetry, not when I’m surrounded by distractions. Most audiobooks, I can figure out what I missed if I lose focus for ten seconds or so, but with this, ten seconds is a fairly large chunk of any given track, and the words are building something beyond denotations. Missing bits is kind of like looking at a painting with holes in it.
Daily, James & Ryan Davidson. The Law of Superheroes - Audiobook read by Eric G. Dove. This sometimes got too far into technical legal stuff to hold my interest, but I liked the underlying idea-- Laws would apply to superheroes. Those laws might end up stretching a lot, but that’s what law does. The book doesn’t include some of the more recent material from the authors’ blog.
Estes, Eleanor. Miranda the Great - Audiobook read by Lyssa Brown. I think this is the last Estes book that our library has that I hadn’t tried. I think the audiobook approach was right for this one because I suspect it wouldn’t have held my attention if I tried to read it. The title character is a cat in Rome who ends up collecting lost kittens when the city is attacked by barbarians and partially burned.
Hoffman, Joel M. The Bible Doesn’t Say That - Audiobook read by Jonathan Todd Ross. The book focuses on translation issues, language drift issues, and poetic/stylistic techniques as they affect interpretation of specific passages of the Bible. It deals with the Christian Bible, both Old and New Testaments, but doesn’t assert the Ultimate Truth (or Untruth) of the Bible and/or Christianity. I think that Scott’s parents would actually find this very interesting.
Leyner, Mark and Billy Goldberg. Why Do Men Have Nipples: Hundreds of Questions You’d Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini - Abridged audiobook read by Mark Leyner. This abridged version is very abridged, only one CD amounting to about an hour and a half and maybe twenty to thirty questions. The paper version appears to be much longer, so this is not so much abridged as excerpted. It was light and more or less amusing, but my attention wandered. I’m not sure if I’ll pick up the paper version or not. The library has it, so I could.
Murphy, Jill. The Worst Witch All at Sea - Audiobook read by Miriam Margolyes. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how old the main character here is. Most of her choices only seem plausible if she’s eight or nine years old. I wonder if this is the wrong place to start the series. There was some information given about the previous book (books?), but the characters seemed to exist mostly without context.
Smith, Chris & Jon Stewart. The Daily Show - Audiobook with multiple readers. Scott and I were already watching The Daily Show sporadically when Jon Stewart came on board, so we actually remember some of the events discussed. This is oral history, and I found listening to the words in unfamiliar voices kind of disconcerting. I know what these people sound like, and the folks reading the text aren’t them. It was interesting to see what bits of history different people agreed on and didn’t and what Scott and I remembered actually watching.
Started but not finished:
Clements, Andrew. We the Children - Audiobook read by Keith Nobbs. Drat. I thought this would be a complete story, and it’s not. I had wondered how the mystery/quest plot could be wrapped up by the end of the audiobook, and, well, it wasn’t. I ended up not finishing the book not because I wasn’t enjoying it but because the entire last chapter was a boat race that described the water in loving detail. I’m phobic about that and really, really couldn’t finish. It’s kind of astonishing that I got through the first two tracks of the chapter, but I couldn’t face another four. I will pick up the next book from the library eventually.
LeGuin, Ursula K. The Lathe of Heaven - Audiobook read by George Guidall. I made it through about seven chapters before I concluded that life is too short. I was bored. The reader’s voice was pleasant enough, but I really wasn’t hooked by the story or characters.
Noah, Trevor. Born a Crime - Audiobook read by author. I got this from the library and planned to listen to it, but the parts I heard while Scott was listening to it were painful in ways that told me that I would never, ever be able to get through the book. It was all funny, but the pain was very definitely there and came through in ways that hit my embarrassment squick hard.
Audiobooks read:
Aiken, Joan. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase - Audiobook read by Lizza Aiken. I was surprised by how straightforward this was. I hadn’t read it in about thirty years, and, in my memory, it was more complicated. I’d recommend this version for people looking for short audiobooks as it’s just shy of five hours long.
Angelou, Maya. Black Pearls: the Poetry of Maya Angelou - This was a CD with poems read by (I think) the author and musical interludes. I got this from the library, and the pamphlet looks damaged enough that I was afraid to touch it. The tracklist and credits that I would expect as inserts are either missing completely or somewhere inside that pamphlet, so I wasn’t able to get the information I wanted about who was doing what. The reader has a strong voice with clear enunciation, so I was able to follow pretty well. Mostly. I’m not sure that audio is the right way for me to get poetry, not when I’m surrounded by distractions. Most audiobooks, I can figure out what I missed if I lose focus for ten seconds or so, but with this, ten seconds is a fairly large chunk of any given track, and the words are building something beyond denotations. Missing bits is kind of like looking at a painting with holes in it.
Daily, James & Ryan Davidson. The Law of Superheroes - Audiobook read by Eric G. Dove. This sometimes got too far into technical legal stuff to hold my interest, but I liked the underlying idea-- Laws would apply to superheroes. Those laws might end up stretching a lot, but that’s what law does. The book doesn’t include some of the more recent material from the authors’ blog.
Estes, Eleanor. Miranda the Great - Audiobook read by Lyssa Brown. I think this is the last Estes book that our library has that I hadn’t tried. I think the audiobook approach was right for this one because I suspect it wouldn’t have held my attention if I tried to read it. The title character is a cat in Rome who ends up collecting lost kittens when the city is attacked by barbarians and partially burned.
Hoffman, Joel M. The Bible Doesn’t Say That - Audiobook read by Jonathan Todd Ross. The book focuses on translation issues, language drift issues, and poetic/stylistic techniques as they affect interpretation of specific passages of the Bible. It deals with the Christian Bible, both Old and New Testaments, but doesn’t assert the Ultimate Truth (or Untruth) of the Bible and/or Christianity. I think that Scott’s parents would actually find this very interesting.
Leyner, Mark and Billy Goldberg. Why Do Men Have Nipples: Hundreds of Questions You’d Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini - Abridged audiobook read by Mark Leyner. This abridged version is very abridged, only one CD amounting to about an hour and a half and maybe twenty to thirty questions. The paper version appears to be much longer, so this is not so much abridged as excerpted. It was light and more or less amusing, but my attention wandered. I’m not sure if I’ll pick up the paper version or not. The library has it, so I could.
Murphy, Jill. The Worst Witch All at Sea - Audiobook read by Miriam Margolyes. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how old the main character here is. Most of her choices only seem plausible if she’s eight or nine years old. I wonder if this is the wrong place to start the series. There was some information given about the previous book (books?), but the characters seemed to exist mostly without context.
Smith, Chris & Jon Stewart. The Daily Show - Audiobook with multiple readers. Scott and I were already watching The Daily Show sporadically when Jon Stewart came on board, so we actually remember some of the events discussed. This is oral history, and I found listening to the words in unfamiliar voices kind of disconcerting. I know what these people sound like, and the folks reading the text aren’t them. It was interesting to see what bits of history different people agreed on and didn’t and what Scott and I remembered actually watching.
Started but not finished:
Clements, Andrew. We the Children - Audiobook read by Keith Nobbs. Drat. I thought this would be a complete story, and it’s not. I had wondered how the mystery/quest plot could be wrapped up by the end of the audiobook, and, well, it wasn’t. I ended up not finishing the book not because I wasn’t enjoying it but because the entire last chapter was a boat race that described the water in loving detail. I’m phobic about that and really, really couldn’t finish. It’s kind of astonishing that I got through the first two tracks of the chapter, but I couldn’t face another four. I will pick up the next book from the library eventually.
LeGuin, Ursula K. The Lathe of Heaven - Audiobook read by George Guidall. I made it through about seven chapters before I concluded that life is too short. I was bored. The reader’s voice was pleasant enough, but I really wasn’t hooked by the story or characters.
Noah, Trevor. Born a Crime - Audiobook read by author. I got this from the library and planned to listen to it, but the parts I heard while Scott was listening to it were painful in ways that told me that I would never, ever be able to get through the book. It was all funny, but the pain was very definitely there and came through in ways that hit my embarrassment squick hard.
