I just finished listening to "Me Talk Pretty One Day" on the old iPod and let me tell you, hilarious! So I thought, "hey, there might be something to this audio book thing," and I bought two more titles. Those titles were "No Country for Old Men" and "Atonement," both books I've wanted to read, but knew I probably wouldn't get around to anytime soon. My original thinking in getting the David Sedaris book "Me Talk Pretty One Day" was that I would want something light and easily listenable for the subway. When I put my headphones on, and clicked play on "Atonement" I soon realized that my initial thought process was sound.With books like "Atonement" or "No Country For Old Men" you need to process them at your own pace. Occasionally one needs to stop and go back a couple pages if they spaced out while reading or got distracted. With the audio book that's not really possible. "Atonement" immediately lost my attention because of the language used, and the style of writing. I was lost inside of five minutes, and what would normally be a leisurely train ride became a frustrating exercise in concentration.
I brought this up with a friend, and he corroborated my newly discovered feelings about how some audio books work and some just don't. He said audio books are for performances, not literature, which makes absolute perfect sense. David Sedaris has a fantastic voice. His words are his own and he really gets behind them. There are live parts of him performing pieces of his book that really make you feel like you're in the audience. Because of the perspective, and the simple non-fiction narrative, listening to "Me Talk Pretty" was extremely easy.
I have a subscription to an audio book site now that gives me 2 books a month for the next year. I'm looking forward to listening to all the Sedaris-like books I know I'd never read on my own time, and I'll leave "No Country" for the weekend.
2 comments:
It's always good to stick with funny stuff--funny non-fiction is particularly good. I would recommend anything by Bill Bryson or A.J. Jacobs, because if you zone out a little it doesn't matter, but they'll both have you laughing on the subway if you pay attention.
I have a subscription at Audible too (I'm assuming that's the one you have), and it's pretty good. I just got The Golden Compass and the The Subtle Knife and they were fantastic! I don't want to wait until next month to get the third book...
I used to have a 2+ hour commute each way, so I listened to a lot of audiobooks. Cassie's right... Fiction with complicated plots is definitely not the way to go.
David Sedaris's stuff is great on audio because his voice is so distinctive and so funny. His story "You Can't Kill The Rooster" is one of the funniest things I have ever heard.
I know it sounds pretentious but I also loved listening to "The Iliad" on audiobook. After all, it was intended to be heard, not read, right? OK, heard in ancient Greek, but still, the language just flows.
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