What are we listening to? (audiobooks)

[silverraven]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I hope you enjoy it. It's not similar to Girl on the Train in its tone--I don't want you to be misled about that.

I'm trying to decide what to listen to next--I feel like something trashy and familiar: maybe Peyton Place or Flowers in the Attic.

I found Flowers in the Attic very depressing. I keep meaning to read Peyton Place though, suppose to be steamy for it's time.
S

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by silverraven

I found Flowers in the Attic very depressing. I keep meaning to read Peyton Place though, suppose to be steamy for it's time.
S

I've read them both in paper, but really long ago. PP is the better written book, I think--lots more story and interesting characters. The narrators are part of what appeals to me about listening: PP is narrated by Tim O'Connor, who was one of the actors in the TV series back in the day, and Flowers is narrated by the always reliable Donada Peters.

I wish Valley of the Dolls was available as an audiobook (there's only an abridged version); that's another piece of classic trash it would be fun to revisit.

[silverraven]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I wish Valley of the Dolls was available as an audiobook (there's only an abridged version); that's another piece of classic trash it would be fun to revisit.

Oh, yes, it would be! Oh my, does this show our age??
S

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by silverraven

Oh, yes, it would be! Oh my, does this show our age??
S

I'm more concerned over what it says about my taste than about my age!

[Geralt]

The 4th book in the series and the last one that is out.
Book #5 is due October 6th this year. Cant wait.

[Catlady]

I listened to Grace Metalious's Peyton Place. I generally liked Tim O'Connor's narration, though I do wonder why "they" decided on a male narrator, when there are so many female characters and voices in the story--Mia Farrow would have been a fun choice for narrator. But Tim O'Connor was fine; he didn't try to do too much with the voices but it was quite clear who was speaking.

I had read Peyton Place before, but after seeing the movie countless times, I'd forgotten how vastly different the movie version was from the novel, so I was frequently surprised. At the conclusion of the novel, the audiobook includes a commentary (about an hour long) on the book as a social phenomenon in its day. I don't know that I agree with the analysis of what Peyton Place says about patriarchal society and feminism, but it was certainly interesting, and I'm glad I didn't skip it.

Overall, it was quite satisfying. While the subject matter is often lurid, it's rarely graphic, and it's quite well written.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Just finishing this now. A wonderful book in a delightfully quirky series set in the Perigord. Robert Ian Mackenzie's narration of this book is excellent, I've enjoyed it completely. A thoroughly enjoyable book, and I highly recommend the entire series, which starts with Bruno, Chief of Police. (Which is, btw, a WhisperSync special at $4.49. )

Next up, Sharpe's Trafalgar, by Bernard Cornwell. This is #4 in the Richard Sharpe series, and the narrator for this one is Patrick Tull, so I know it will be superbly read. Most of the books are read by "Frederick Davidson" (David Case) so the transition between the two narrators is not an issue. They're both superb and have quite compatible voices.

Finished Sharpe's Trafalgar, an excellent historical novel by Bernard Cornwell, and read by one of the best narrators ever, Patrick Tull. Definitely enjoyed. But now listening to James Clavell's Shogun, read by Ralph Lister. He's a perfectly adequate reader, but it's hard to shine right after Patrick Tull.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Finished Sharpe's Trafalgar, an excellent historical novel by Bernard Cornwell, and read by one of the best narrators ever, Patrick Tull. Definitely enjoyed. But now listening to James Clavell's Shogun, read by Ralph Lister. He's a perfectly adequate reader, but it's hard to shine right after Patrick Tull.

On the other hand, this book is totally sucking me in. And it's huge. 53 hours and 32 minutes! I'm switching back and forth between the Audible version and the eBook version, but there's no WhisperSync so that's a bit of a nuisance. Still I'm enjoying it a lot. (I read this originally many, many, many years ago, but remember almost nothing, so it's all new. )

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by CRussel

...now listening to James Clavell's Shogun, read by Ralph Lister. He's a perfectly adequate reader, but it's hard to shine right after Patrick Tull.

Originally Posted by CRussel

this book is totally sucking me in. And it's huge. 53 hours and 32 minutes! I'm switching back and forth between the Audible version and the eBook version, but there's no WhisperSync so that's a bit of a nuisance. Still I'm enjoying it a lot. (I read this originally many, many, many years ago, but remember almost nothing, so it's all new. )

Finished. My books to read goal is now officially horked, thanks to that 1600 page monster. But enjoyed.

Now, on to something a bit different - CJ Cherryh's Pride of Chanur, narrated by Dina Pearlman. I'm sure I read this in pBook form years and years ago, but don't remember much if any of it, so I'm enjoying it all anew, and liking Ms. Pearlman's narration.

[pwalker8]

Just finished off "The Bishop's Heir" the first of the Histories of King Kelson by Katherine Kurtz. I sure wish that she and her publishers would get around to releasing all the Deryni books in ebooks. It's been a long, long time since I read this series and I totally forgot what happened. There is a lot of tragedy in the Deryni series, but been one of my favorites since I read the first one back in the 80's. So far, I've found all the audiobooks in the series worth listening to. A good reader and a good story.

I also finished off Freehold by Michael Williamson. It's probably not everyone's cup of tea and it's a bit long (21+ hours) but I enjoyed it.

Just started The Pellinor series by Alison Croggon. This series of youth books has been out for a while, but I just found them a few weeks ago. They were mentioned in a Tor news letter, sounded interesting to me, so I thought I would try them. I've got all four in both ebook and audiobook (If you buy the ebook, you can buy the audio books for $5 a piece). I've read the first three ebooks and should finish the last one this weekend. Just started the first audio book last night. So far it's pretty good. I like the reader.

Sigh, on my car audiobook list I have audiobooks stacked up for 37.6 days. on my work list, I've got 23.5 days worth. That's a lot of listening. I guess I'm a bit of an odd ball, but I really wish that I had a listening app that allowed me to sync between devices (I like to leave my iTouch in my car and use my iPhone for work listening), and arrange audiobooks in playlists so I don't have to mess with the device while driving or figure out what's the next book to be listened to. iTunes does playlists, but only if you don't use music match for a specific device. The Audible app doesn't do playlists. Not sure why.

[CRussel]

The Audible app does sync between various other Audible app devices. So if the Touch can use the Audible app, you're good for syncing. As for playlists -- no, it doesn't. But if you have the next one loaded on the device it isn't too onerous to change to it. I always keep a couple of books on iPhone and on my Kindle Fire. Wherever I left off on my Fire gets picked up by the iPhone when I get in the car for a drive.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by CRussel

The Audible app does sync between various other Audible app devices. So if the Touch can use the Audible app, you're good for syncing. As for playlists -- no, it doesn't. But if you have the next one loaded on the device it isn't too onerous to change to it. I always keep a couple of books on iPhone and on my Kindle Fire. Wherever I left off on my Fire gets picked up by the iPhone when I get in the car for a drive.

I've not had success in getting the audible app to sync properly. It could be that it has an issue with audible books loaded into iTunes verse downloaded directly from audible. The audible books will sync in iTunes, but you have to sync via iTunes and your computer which doesn't do a lot of good for me. In theory, I could just keep everything on my iPhone and not need to sync at all, but I like being able to just start the car and go, especially in the morning. Sure, we are only talking a couple of minutes, but a few minutes here and a few minutes there tend to add up. As Napoleon once said, ask anything of me but time.

Playlist are a big deal for me. In the car, I really don't want to be fiddling around with my iTouch while I'm driving. I don't want my tombstone to say that "he was looking for a new book rather than looking at the road"! Using playlists, when one book ends, the next one starts up automatically.

When I'm not in the car, I use playlists to keep tract of what I haven't listened too yet (i.e. to be read list) as well as organize books in series order. In addition, it allows me to arrange books in an order that helps me to avoid getting too burned out on a given author or book type.

[CRussel]

You're right, the Audible app will ONLY sync to other audible apps. It won't sync to iTunes. But it will sync very well to other Audible Apps, and your eBooks if they're WhisperSync for Voice enabled.

Not sure a play list matters all that much when books are 8 to 50 hours long. I'm bound to have to take at least a short break by then. Playlists were huge for me when I listened to music. Now, not so much.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by CRussel

You're right, the Audible app will ONLY sync to other audible apps. It won't sync to iTunes. But it will sync very well to other Audible Apps, and your eBooks if they're WhisperSync for Voice enabled.

Not sure a play list matters all that much when books are 8 to 50 hours long. I'm bound to have to take at least a short break by then. Playlists were huge for me when I listened to music. Now, not so much.

I generally go through about a book a week on the road. Once again, the issue is that there is no guarantee that the book is going to end just as I'm pulling into the driveway. The texting laws where I live are such that I could get a ticket for fiddling with my phone when I'm sitting at a traffic light.

I could get by with a playlist of two, but I tend to think in lists. I like to arrange my books in a specific order. Different strokes for different folks as they say. Heck, the way I use to decide what to read next, in the good old days before ebooks was to sort through my to be read pile (which actually was a big stack of books ) pulling out books that sparked my interest at that time and then decided which to read between the 4 or 5 books that I pulled out.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by CRussel

You're right, the Audible app will ONLY sync to other audible apps. It won't sync to iTunes. But it will sync very well to other Audible Apps, and your eBooks if they're WhisperSync for Voice enabled.

Not sure a play list matters all that much when books are 8 to 50 hours long. I'm bound to have to take at least a short break by then. Playlists were huge for me when I listened to music. Now, not so much.

BTW, the audible app on iOS will work with audible books in your iTunes library. That's what I'm talking about as opposed to audible books you manually download from your audible library on the audible.com server. I download books as soon as I buy them.