Doesn't everyone love audiobooks? Honestly, it's a different experience for me than actually reading a book but it's still BOOKS! And it requires no hands or eyes, which is handy at times. I love audiobooks mostly for the convenience. I can listen to a book while engaging in other activities that are not conducive to actually reading a book, such as driving or knitting or exercising.
I am not new to audiobooks. I have had quite a few over the years, back when they were only on CD, and before that on tape (yes, tape, I really am that old). The growth of Internet technology, devices, and applications, however, has made audiobooks even easier to buy and play. Hello Audible.com! Hello iPods and iPads and iPhones and all the other brands of such devices (OK, I have a few too many i-things...).
All this technology has also made audiobooks much more affordable. I recall how expensive those books on CD were! Audible (an Amazon company) works on a monthly fee ($14.95 if you haven't taken advantage of a really good promotion) for which you get one book to download each month and 30% of any additional books downloaded. Frequent promotions, however, allow things like "Get two books for one credit (one credit is a month's membership) if you choose them from this list" sorts of things (I got lucky with the two for one thing yesterday, in fact, and downloaded two books from this year's reading list). Occasionally free books are offered as well.
Until recently, audiobooks have served a singular purpose in our (meaning mine and Andrew's) lives: Entertainment for long car travel (and, a time or two, air travel). Andrew and I both love spy thrillers and we have listened to just about every Tom Clancy novel in the Jack Ryan (and related) universe, mostly on the roads between Fort Smith and Houston (for his doctor appointments) and between Fort Smith and Alabama (for family visits and vacations) and a few other places. I dare you to do the math on how many hours that means we have driven. We generally buy the unabridged versions, by the way.
My husband Andrew is the indefatigable driver of many Honda Fit cars (we are on our third) innumerable miles (probably something over 100,000 now) as long as he has an audiobook playing (and occasionally meals, plus a chocolate bar and a can of Coca-cola if it's getting to be late night). Seriously, Andrew can drive all day (12 hours!) and all I have to do is keep the audiobook playing (easy peasy), stop and restart it when appropriate (also simple), feed him now and then (he reminds me if I forget), and agree to nature breaks (which we all need). How awesome is that?
That's been the extent, mostly, of our audiobooks use, though - in the car. The only other use has been when I was doing frequent driving around town when he was too ill to drive (or his immune system was too weak to get out in public) and I listened to a couple of audiobooks on my own in the car in small segments that way. One was Without Remorse, my favorite of the older Tom Clancy thrillers (note, this book is not for children nor for the squeamish), and the other was Tolkein's The Fellowship of the Ring which I happened to listen to around the time the first Hobbit movie came out and which made me very angry watching that movie because they incorporated so much info from FOTR that isn't even part of The Hobbit (the book). However, I digress.
[Aside about book listening technology in the car] In the car... let me be clear for those who are not technology-minded and now need to learn such important though simple details: in your car, if it is not ancient, somewhere, is an audio plug to which a simple cable (an 'auxiliary audio cable,' available just about anywhere for $10 or so) will connect whatever device on which you like to play audiobooks or music, such as an iPod, iPhone, iPad, whatever to your car sound system. Why would you want to know this? Why would you want to use this? Because suddenly the whole world of music and books and live-streams events becomes available to you through your car's audio system. Your car has one of these, believe me. It might be hidden somewhere odd (like inside the compartment of the arm rest in Mama's Cadillac, or beside the car charger port behind the center console cup holders in one or more of our Hondas) or it might be part of the sound system bank of buttons and knobs. You do not have to own a fancy vehicle for it to have this feature. We drive Hondas. We drive the cheapest Honda model made, in fact: the Fit. Our cheap little car has this feature. Your vehicle probably does, too, unless, of course, you are driving a vintage Beetle or something old and fun.
[Aside having nothing to do with books, skip if you like] Here's another use for such a little auxiliary audio cable in your car: You can live stream commentary of live athletic events via apps on a phone (or other device). Why would you want to do this? Well, because some interesting events might not be available by radio or you might be traveling too far for radio stations to be easy to find. For example, I recall riding down I-40 one June morning a few years ago listening to live (uninterrupted by commercials!) commentary of Thor Hushovd winning a mountain stage (only cycling folks will know how bizarre that really is) of the Tour de France. The beautiful and eccentric accents of Phil and Paul (famous British cycling commentators) came through in stereo in the car. How awesome is that? Other live events you might want to listen to this way include Auburn football games via the AU Gameday App or whatever other apps exist for sports or events you love.
Ok, so I have digressed from my digression. Sorry about that. Back to books, especially books by women authors.
Audiobooks for 2015
So, yesterday I went looking for audiobooks on Audible that were on my 2015 to-read list or otherwise met my planned criteria and found a lovely two-for-one-credit deal on these two:
- Interpreter of Maladies [1999], a collection of short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri, and Indian American author. She was born in London to Indian immigrant parents from West Bengal, India. Her family moved to the USA when she was a toddler.
- Americanah [2013], a novel by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie about a Nigerian woman who emigrates to the USA for higher education and work. This work was well received by critics in 2013 and won several prestigious awards.
Why these books? Well, both of these authors were already on my radar, although not necessarily for these particular works. Both have published other works, as well. In addition to being authors whose work I have not read, they were both born outside of the USA and write from their own cultural perspective which is, presumably, quite different from my own. I have a tendency, which I am trying to change, to read mostly American and British authors' works. Plus, it was two-for-one-credit day and they were both on the (short) list of qualifying books.
I also spent a further credit on the book below. The thing about credits is this: one is generated each month and if you let too many pile up, you lose some which is a waste of money already spent, and I am not going to let that happen, although I like to always have at least one credit available in case something suddenly pops up that needs to be downloaded for whatever reason, such as sudden travel.
- If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O [1990], by Sharyn McCrumb, a southern American author (North Carolina). This particular novel is the first in a series set in the Appalachian mountains and won a prize or two when it was originally published.
So this author is American and even Southern, which already makes me interested, but I have never read her work. This is the first in a series which means if I enjoy it there are many more already written and waiting for me to read (in 2016 or later...). Does it get any better than that?
Of course, I'm not that likely to listen to lots of audiobooks very quickly, so these might end up on the back burner for a while, or not. Who knows? Of course, if I can talk my husband into helping me with my focus on women authors, perhaps we can listen to some of these while traveling in the car, but I hate to force my strange tastes in books on him when he's a sitting duck as the driver and he is used to the action and thrills of Tom Clancy to help the miles pass more easily, but we shall see. Perhaps I should look for spy thrillers written by women. There's an idea for another day [<Makes a note to ask my goodreads Orion group friends and librarian friend Jason about this!>].
Currently Reading (or Listening)
So, I purchased these three audiobooks yesterday and downloaded a couple of them to my iPad. I decided to start with Interpreter of Maladies since it is a collection of short stories and might be easier to enjoy in segments in between the other books I am reading and whilst knitting. So this is book three started for 2015. Here are the books I'm reading or listening too so far and some thoughts about them. I will get in the habit of listing in this fashion the books that are currently being read.
1. Among Others [2011] by Jo Walton is being read on my Kindle (paperwhite). I'm one-third of the way through and this book is delightful, set in England and Wales in the 1970s with a dose of magic. Why have I never read this author's work before? Who can I blame this on? I'm thinking perhaps on Margaret S. or Erin K., who both admitted their love for Jo Walton to me yesterday. I would love to sit down and read it right through to the end, but I'm trying to savor it a bit more slowly.
2. Knitting for Beginners [2014] by Susan Wilters is also being read on my Kindle (paperwhite). It's useful and interesting to me, a beginning knitter, but why on earth did she wait until chapter 4 (of 6) to first explain the knit and purl stitches? I have no idea. I think this book was probably written to promote knitting for a particular yarn manufacturer whose yarn and patterns appear on all the examples. I'm reading a chapter or so a day. While the order of chapters seems odd to me (a real beginner working on only my second simple knitting project), the book is informative and it was FREE. Did I mention it was free?
3. Interpreter of Maladies [1999], a collection of short stories by Indian American author Jhumpa Lahiri [audiobook]. I listened to part of the first short story last night. It's beautifully written (and nicely read by the narrator whose name I will look up eventually) and concerns the angst and emotional difficulty of a young Indian American couple after losing their first child (stillborn?). Strangely, I assumed I was only halfway through the story because the audible app showed that I was about half way through the chapter. I stupidly assumed a chapter in the audiobook would be a story in the regular book (or a chapter in most other books I have read both in audio and hard copy). But no. I sat down to listen to the rest of the story this morning and found only a minute or two was left. Then, the second story started right up (after a read of the story title) even though the app shows it's still playing chapter 1. So, I then researched the book a bit and found it has nine short stories, total, but the audiobook is organized in six chapters. Seriously? I find that very confusing. It's certainly not the fault of the author or the book or even the editor, but of whomever organized the audiobook version. Nine short stories should be nine chapters in an audiobook, of course, so the listener can choose to start at the beginning of any of the stories. Humph!
Another book to read, another format, another device...
In keeping with the technology theme of today's blog post, I downloaded yet another book using yet another sort of technology and yet another app. I downloaded
- the life-changing magic of tidying up: the Japanese art of decluttering and organizing [2014] by Marie KondÅ [Seriously, the title is in all lower case letters], translated from the Japanese by Cathy Hirano. This is one of those 'how to declutter and organize' books that is supposed to be quite different because of its Japanese sensibility or perhaps because of the author's personality. I don't know which, yet.
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