Even when I can't read, I read

When I was in either middle school or high school, my mom decided to try something new (not an unusual occurrence). This wasn't the time she cooked a roast of lamb rather than one of beef for Sunday lunch. Nor was it the time she decided to stencil the border around the bonus room. Nor was it the summer she attempted to limit my brother and I to 30 minutes of TV a day. This was the family vacation she decided we would listen to a book on tape rather than the radio during the car ride. She ordered a Mrs. Pollifax book (by Dorothy Gilman ... I don't remember who it was read by) from Recorded Books and introduced us to the world of audiobooks.

A world I enjoyed, but have largely ignored since then.

Until about a year ago when I saw the audible.com website mentioned in several articles within the space of a couple of weeks. Being behind the times, this was the first I'd heard about it. I eventually visited the website, began browsing through their selection to choose my two free trial listens, and knew I was sunk. By the end of the hour, I had a 54 item wishlist. I signed up for the Premium Listener plan (now called the AudibleListener Platinum plan) and started working my way through my list at the rate of two downloads per month. Since they keep adding great books to their site and I keep adding them to my wish list, after 8 months with audible.com, I now have a 73 item wishlist.

Problems I've run into:

1. Deciding whether to download books I've never read or getting as many old favorites as I can.
2. If you download one book in the series, should you go ahead and get the others?
3. Not being able to skip to the end to see how everything turns out. I freely admit to doing this all the time with printed books. I want to know if the characters I like are going to die. I try not to with mysteries since it ruins the story, but I usually end up reading the solution about one-third of the way through the book.

Good things I've discovered:

1. Not being able to skip to the end of the book.
2. Not being able to skip descriptions. I hate descriptions. In Junior English, no one could understand why I liked The Grapes of Wrath until I explained that I skipped whole chapters of nothing but descriptions. It's much more difficult to skip them in an audiobook, so I have to listen to the WHOLE book. This leads me to ...
3. I have to pay attention when someone else is talking. I say the words, "I'm sorry, I got lost. Could you repeat that?" too many times in conversations. My mind tends to wander. I tell myself that the audible.com subscription is helping me become a better listener. Does that qualify as a tax write-off?

Out of all the books I've listened to, my favorites so far are

Stephen Briggs does an amazing job narrating these two books. Sure, the story is great "with witty dialogue and a wacky cast of characters....A funny and thought-provoking fantasy, with powerfully visual scenes and characters that remain with readers. A glorious read." (School Library Journal) blah, blah, blah. I picked up the paperback version at McKay's and flipped through looking for my favorite scenes. They just didn't have the same punch. The Nac Mac Feegle's "Wailey! Wailey! Wailey!"s, Wentworth's "I want sweeties!", and Granny Aching's advice about The Chalk should be heard, and Stephen Briggs does an amazing job. I downloaded The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents because it had the same narrator. I'll start that one next week.

I also enjoyed listening to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. The story is what caught my attention. I haven't heard of any other novels told from the perspective of an autistic fifteen-year old boy. The narrator did a great job, but I would think the story would have just as much impact if you read the book. Although, I did learn how to pronounce "Siobhan."


I chose this book out of all the other fantasy on my wishlist not just because I enjoyed reading The Thief Lord and Inkheart, but because Brendan Fraser is the narrator. A fact which should give a small hint as to the decade in which I spent the majority of my formative years. He can make his voice incredibly squeaky. He does a fabulous job doing the different characters voices.


This one mom told me about. She and Dad listened to all three of his novels and really enjoyed them. I did, too. Set mainly in South Carolina, Jay moves to town from Dallas and is advised by his real estate agent as to the best place to meet women: church singles groups. So he heads to church. The book is funny without being mean.


I don't even know why I picked this book. I can't remember. I'm glad I did. I've listened to it twice so far and will probably listen again. Loved it. I still don't understand how teenage guys come up with so many stupid ideas that they think are smart.