What are we listening to? (audiobooks)

[issybird]

I'm listening to The Charterhouse of Parma, narrated by Edoardo Ballerini, who is new to me. This is part of my classics challenge for 2017 and so far I'm enjoying it immensely.

I'm also listening to The Iowa Baseball Confederacy on Catlady's recommendation of the book, narrated by Grover Gardner. I'm listening to this one in bed, which means I have to do a little backing up when I doze off, but it's delightful just the same.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by issybird

I'm also listening to The Iowa Baseball Confederacy on Catlady's recommendation of the book, narrated by Grover Gardner. I'm listening to this one in bed, which means I have to do a little backing up when I doze off, but it's delightful just the same.

Ah, yes. I know that scenario. Though usually not in bed, but in my lounging chair in the living room. I'll lounge back, put on the headphones, and inside of 10 minutes I'm out cold. Hard to keep track of a book that way, so best with either re-reads or books that you can easily recover back to where you were.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Ah, yes. I know that scenario. Though usually not in bed, but in my lounging chair in the living room. I'll lounge back, put on the headphones, and inside of 10 minutes I'm out cold. Hard to keep track of a book that way, so best with either re-reads or books that you can easily recover back to where you were.

I always set the sleep timer. If the narration goes off, I just start it up again; if I go off, then I know I lost it somewhere in the last half hour and it's not too hard to recover my place. Sigh. I suspect it's the cessation that wakes me up at that.

[CRussel]

I've considered setting the sleep timer, but mostly I wake up in a half hour or 45 minutes. It's just my "weekend nap" mode. And I figure if I doze off for longer, I probably needed the sleep. And given how hard I've been working these last few weeks. I _do_ need it.

IAC, still listening to Blood and Circuses. I really do enjoy these Phryne Fisher books. I've now watched them all as part of the TV series, read them in eBook form, and am now working my way through them in Audible format. This particular one is an example where the TV version was one of my least favourite episodes, but it's working really well as an audio book.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by issybird

I'm listening to this one in bed, which means I have to do a little backing up when I doze off, but it's delightful just the same.

I simply cannot listen to books in bed. Within 5 to 10 minutes I'm fast asleep. I tend to only listen when I'm driving or doing chores.

Currently listening to Dear Amy by Helen Callaghan. An agony aunt for a local newspaper starts receiving letters from a girl supposedly abducted almost 20 years previously. Narrated by three different readers, each from a different character's perspective. Not bad, probably a 3 star read at the moment, though the action is just starting to hot up and may get better.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by orlok

I simply cannot listen to books in bed. Within 5 to 10 minutes I'm fast asleep.

Sometimes, that's the whole point!

Trying to decide what's next on my list. I just finished Blood and Circuses, but I want to take a break from Phryne Fisher for a book or two. OTOH, I don't want to start anything very long, since I know the new Ben Aaronovitch book will be out on Audible by the end of the month.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Sometimes, that's the whole point!

Trouble is, it does nothing for my reading challenge.

[pwalker8]

Just finished Jim Butcher's The Aeronaut's Windlass. A good book and a good narrator. Not quite as good of a cat as Tim Curry in the Aborshen Trilogy, but that's a tough standard to beat.

Next up is Ringo's Monster Hunter Memoirs: Sinners, which is Ringo playing in Larry Correia's Monster Hunter universe. The ebook was quite good and the narration for the first of the series, MHM: Grunge was very good, so I expect to be entertained.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by orlok

Trouble is, it does nothing for my reading challenge.

Ah, but does wonders for my nap challenge.

[Catlady]

I listened to The Witches: Salem 1692, by Stacy Schiff. This was fascinating and detailed; I liked Schiff's style and turns of phrase. The narrator, Eliza Foss, was excellent.

Now I've started Little Deaths, by Emma Flint, narrated by Lauren Fortgang and Graham Halstead. I'd been eagerly awaiting this, as the novel is based on the Alice Crimmins case--Crimmins was suspected of murdering her two young children in a case that was tabloid fodder some fifty years ago.

One quibble--in an early chapter, there's a mention of the mom watching The Fugitive on TV--on CBS. Aaargh! That show ran on ABC, not CBS (the 2000 remake aired on CBS), and it took me about ten seconds to Google it and confirm what I was already sure of. It baffles me that an author would put in a detail like the network--a totally unnecessary detail, at that--without verifying it. And then no one else checked it either. Pre-Google, it might have been time-consuming to verify, but now? Ten seconds.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I listened to The Witches: Salem 1692, by Stacy Schiff. This was fascinating and detailed; I liked Schiff's style and turns of phrase. The narrator, Eliza Foss, was excellent.

I listened to it in November and I liked it, too, for the same reasons. It's not very highly rated at Goodreads, however; too much detail, apparently - which is what made it good.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by issybird

I listened to it in November and I liked it, too, for the same reasons. It's not very highly rated at Goodreads, however; too much detail, apparently - which is what made it good.

I think if I'd been reading it I might have gotten a little bogged down in trying to keep details straight about the various players, but listening, I didn't worry too much and just let it all wash over me.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I think if I'd been reading it I might have gotten a little bogged down in trying to keep details straight about the various players, but listening, I didn't worry too much and just let it all wash over me.

Yes, sometimes very detailed books work well in an audio format, for just that reason. Other times, when I am really trying to catch all the details, it doesn't work. But mostly, since I read more for relaxation than learning these days, I don't care and just enjoy it.

Currently reading Lady Fortescue Steps Out, by M.C. Beaton, narrated by the excellent Davina Porter. VERY light reading, but quite delightful. On tap, and due in two days is the new Ben Aaronovitch book, The Hanging Tree, narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith. And I am also queuing up 1636: The Saxon Uprising by Eric Flint and read by George Guidall.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Yes, sometimes very detailed books work well in an audio format, for just that reason. Other times, when I am really trying to catch all the details, it doesn't work. But mostly, since I read more for relaxation than learning these days, I don't care and just enjoy it

I made my peace with missing bits early on. The two reasons I listen to audiobooks are to pass the time when my eyes and/or hands are otherwise occupied and to get through more content. Both of those are still achieved even if I zone out occasionally. And, after all, I accept that my retention rate is somewhat less with non-fiction ebooks than with paper, but again, the advantages outweigh the drawbacks and nobody is testing me on the material.

read by George Guidall

I recently finished a book read by Guidall and I regret to say that he pronounced the "thorn" as "y". That was painful, to the extent that I'll try to avoid him in the future.

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by issybird

he pronounced the "thorn" as "y".

Say what?? What is a "thorn" in this circumstance?