What are we listening to? (audiobooks)

[CRussel]

No, I think that should cover you for a little while, at least.

The one thing I do NOT like about the Audible app is that it doesn't do playlists. I kind of miss them.

Currently listening to Queen Lucia in the car and Dead in the Water (from Dana Stabenow) in the pool.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by CRussel

and Dead in the Water (from Dana Stabenow) in the pool.

Is that wise? The universe is not mocked.

[CRussel]

ROFLU. You know, I hadn't even thought about how that would read!

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by CRussel

No, I think that should cover you for a little while, at least.

The one thing I do NOT like about the Audible app is that it doesn't do playlists. I kind of miss them.

Currently listening to Queen Lucia in the car and Dead in the Water (from Dana Stabenow) in the pool.

You and me both. Right now, I convert the audible books to mp3 so I can use the Music playlist. It of a pain, but it's the best solution that I've come up with.

With the backlog that I've built up, most of my on going purchases are either cheapies that I get when I buy the ebook (just picked up Stiger's Tigers and The Twenty-Sided Socerss Series books 1-3 that way) or books that fill a niche (Stephen Fry's Sherlock Holmes, which is absolutely great - you must buy it if you are any sort of Sherlock Holmes fan, and a couple of Garth Nix books [frogkisser and Goldenhand) which are good change of pace/lighter books.) I have a couple of pre orders (John Scalzi's The Collapsing Empire read by Wil Wheton and David Gemmell's Legend coming out in June) and some books that I will get when they become available (Rick Riorden's books coming out this Spring and Fall). Hum...I'm starting to see how I built up this big to read list.

[Catlady]

Just finished binge listening to two brand-new books.

A Simple Favor, by Darcey Bell, narrated by Andi Arndt, Xe Sands, and Matthew Waterson, is a decent effort that ultimately falls short. Emily arranges for her son to go home with her friend Stephanie after school, and then vanishes.

Stephanie is a blogger about momhood, and a lot of the story is told through her annoying blog posts. Of course Stephanie has secrets, Emily has secrets, and Emily's husband has secrets. Stephanie's secrets are WAY off the ickiness scale, unnecessarily so--what was the author thinking? The book includes numerous references to novels and films (mostly Patricia Highsmith), which I enjoyed since they were familiar to me, but they also telegraphed some plot developments. The author seemed to be going for the same stylish Hitchcockian-Highsmith vibe as Peter Swanson's The Kind Worth Killing last year, but just didn't get there.

The second book, Find Me, by J.S. Monroe, narrated by Katharine McEwan, Derek Perkins, and Alex Wyndham, was one I wished I had in hardcover so I could throw it across the room. If it hadn't been a library book, I would certainly have asked for a refund.

The premise is that Jar keeps imagining he's seeing Rosa, who apparently committed suicide five years ago. Then a diary surfaces, and that makes him believe she really is still alive. Now, this sounds like it's going to be a fairly normal serving of suspense, not something that's going to dish up horrible scenes of animal abuse, torture, and international espionage, with a side of anti-Americanism (it's a British author). In addition to which, the story was so convoluted that it required a lengthy information dump to make some semblance of sense out of it. Even with that, I wasn't sure how a few things fit it, but I didn't care enough to try to figure them out. I just wanted the book to be done so I could return it.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Just finished binge listening to two brand-new books.

A Simple Favor, by Darcey Bell, narrated by Andi Arndt, Xe Sands, and Matthew Waterson, is a decent effort that ultimately falls short. Emily arranges for her son to go home with her friend Stephanie after school, and then vanishes.

Stephanie is a blogger about momhood, and a lot of the story is told through her annoying blog posts. Of course Stephanie has secrets, Emily has secrets, and Emily's husband has secrets. Stephanie's secrets are WAY off the ickiness scale, unnecessarily so--what was the author thinking? The book includes numerous references to novels and films (mostly Patricia Highsmith), which I enjoyed since they were familiar to me, but they also telegraphed some plot developments. The author seemed to be going for the same stylish Hitchcockian-Highsmith vibe as Peter Swanson's The Kind Worth Killing last year, but just didn't get there.

The second book, Find Me, by J.S. Monroe, narrated by Katharine McEwan, Derek Perkins, and Alex Wyndham, was one I wished I had in hardcover so I could throw it across the room. If it hadn't been a library book, I would certainly have asked for a refund.

The premise is that Jar keeps imagining he's seeing Rosa, who apparently committed suicide five years ago. Then a diary surfaces, and that makes him believe she really is still alive. Now, this sounds like it's going to be a fairly normal serving of suspense, not something that's going to dish up horrible scenes of animal abuse, torture, and international espionage, with a side of anti-Americanism (it's a British author). In addition to which, the story was so convoluted that it required a lengthy information dump to make some semblance of sense out of it. Even with that, I wasn't sure how a few things fit it, but I didn't care enough to try to figure them out. I just wanted the book to be done so I could return it.

I have gotten to the point that I don't stick with a book that I don't like. Of course, the vast majority of audiobooks that I buy are books I've already read, so there aren't many that I don't like, but there have been a couple where I just moved on to the next book and didn't look back.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I have gotten to the point that I don't stick with a book that I don't like. Of course, the vast majority of audiobooks that I buy are books I've already read, so there aren't many that I don't like, but there have been a couple where I just moved on to the next book and didn't look back.

I'm with you on this. My time is more valuable than anything else associated with that bad book, and the best solution is to abandon it. I've had a couple recently. In one case, just not a book I wanted to read. In another, a reader I just didn't want to listen to. There's still weeks worth of continuous, 24 hour a day reading in my library, so if a bad one comes along? I delete it and move on. If it's an Audible book, I get a refund. If it's a library book? I stop reading it.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I have gotten to the point that I don't stick with a book that I don't like. Of course, the vast majority of audiobooks that I buy are books I've already read, so there aren't many that I don't like, but there have been a couple where I just moved on to the next book and didn't look back.

Originally Posted by CRussel

I'm with you on this. My time is more valuable than anything else associated with that bad book, and the best solution is to abandon it. I've had a couple recently. In one case, just not a book I wanted to read. In another, a reader I just didn't want to listen to. There's still weeks worth of continuous, 24 hour a day reading in my library, so if a bad one comes along? I delete it and move on. If it's an Audible book, I get a refund. If it's a library book? I stop reading it.

Can't do it. I especially can't do it with an audiobook. And with anything in the mystery/suspense/thriller category, I willingly go along with for the ride and suspend disbelief in the hope that eventually all will be satisfactorily resolved. Usually, it is.

With Find Me, the initial premise and the unfolding of the plot were interesting enough that I wanted to see where the author was going (multiple POV--the maybe-or-maybe-not-dead Rosa's diary, the grieving boyfriend's hallucinations/sightings/search). It wasn't until the last part of the book, when the third of the three narrators took a prominent part, that I began to actively hate the book. By that time, I was too invested to stop (plus I had nothing else unread on my mp3 player!)

And now I know that I definitely gave this author (J.S. Monroe, aka Jon Stock) a chance and I will not be sucked in by his next book, no matter how tempting it may sound. So maybe I wasted a few extra hours now, but I am saving myself from wasting time later.

[CRussel]

We're all different, of course. But I suspect part of my opinion on this is a huge library of both new and 'lightly read' favourites. I always have something worth listening to. I've been an Audible member since the 90's, and my wife has her own account, so between us, there's always something to read.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by CRussel

We're all different, of course. But I suspect part of my opinion on this is a huge library of both new and 'lightly read' favourites. I always have something worth listening to. I've been an Audible member since the 90's, and my wife has her own account, so between us, there's always something to read.

I have a lot of waiting-to-be-read audiobooks on my computer, but I only load books onto my mp3 player as I read them--no future reads. In addition to my disinclination to ever abandon a book, with Find Me I was out and about, with no other listening options.

Maybe it's easier with other genres, but with mystery and suspense, I don't know how people can give up on a book--assuming an interesting premise and a basic level of writing competence (which I assess before buying or borrowing). Seeming oddities might turn out to be hidden clues to the resolution, rather than mistakes, with a nice little payoff later. But you have to stick with it to get to that payoff.

[badgoodDeb]

With print books it's easier ..... I've had, yes, mysteries, that were so bad that I fast skimmed to the end, to see who dunnit before I quit.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

With print books it's easier ..... I've had, yes, mysteries, that were so bad that I fast skimmed to the end, to see who dunnit before I quit.

Thanks to the Internet, it's easy with movies and TV, too. Sometimes I'll watch something with a clever idea, but that is so poorly executed it's unwatchable, so I'll just read spoilers for the end. Save a lot of time. ("Oh, the bad guy lives and they never find their home planet...glad I didn't watch the whole season....")

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I have a lot of waiting-to-be-read audiobooks on my computer, but I only load books onto my mp3 player as I read them--no future reads. In addition to my disinclination to ever abandon a book, with Find Me I was out and about, with no other listening options.

Maybe it's easier with other genres, but with mystery and suspense, I don't know how people can give up on a book--assuming an interesting premise and a basic level of writing competence (which I assess before buying or borrowing). Seeming oddities might turn out to be hidden clues to the resolution, rather than mistakes, with a nice little payoff later. But you have to stick with it to get to that payoff.

Well, that's a difference. I have 30 books on my car iPhone (sans sim card, so it's really an iTouch) and have a a lot more on my regular iPhone (yea, there is a reason I have a 256 GB iPhone). I'm a firm believer in Napoleon's maxim "ask anything of me but time". That's the only thing in the world that I can't get more of. As I mentioned, the vast majority of audiobooks that I buy, I've already read the ebook, so I know how it turns out.

I suspect that most people are like you and that's why Audible and Apple don't support playlists for audiobooks natively.

[CRussel]

Heck, I only have 11 or 12 on my iPhone at the moment. But I do have a healthy data plan and can download any I might not have pre-loaded.

Sent from my Amazon Fire with Tapatalk. Blame autocorrect for the spelling.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Heck, I only have 11 or 12 on my iPhone at the moment. But I do have a healthy data plan and can download any I might not have pre-loaded.

Sent from my Amazon Fire with Tapatalk. Blame autocorrect for the spelling.

The re-emergence of unlimited data plans is a bit of a game changer in that regard.