Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™

On audiobooks

There are people who don’t believe that listening to an audiobook is reading. I am not one of them. Not everyone can read; not everyone has the time or money (books are expensive!) to read. So if there is an alternative, why not? For me, the answer to that question is a tricky one.

Over the years, I’ve tried to listen to books with mixed results. I tried listening to mysteries and thrillers or other fiction while driving. Invariably, I would suddenly realize that I had no idea what was happening. I was completely tuned out. So that didn’t work for me. Then I tried children’s books. I listened to the first three or four of the Lemony Snicket books, and that worked! Then I got bored of those, they were all pretty much the same so I moved on to the Harry Potter series. Jim Dale, the reader, was phenomenal. In fact, he is cited twice in the Guinness Book of World Records for creating the most character voices in an audiobook (more than 200) and for voicing the first six “Top Ten” selling audiobooks of all time. And he kept my attention.

I read the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, with my daughter. She was in kindergarten when it came out, and I was working for Borders Books & Music. I brought home the book, and we took turns reading a few pages each night. It took us all summer, but we finished the book. I enjoyed it, but I didn’t enjoy reading it that way, a bit at a time. I like to sit down and read a book through with as few breaks as possible. So when the next book came out, I told her she was on her own; she read it herself, and I didn’t bother. Eventually, I turned to the audiobooks and read the entire series that way and loved them.

My BFF knew that I had finally found audiobooks to love, and she suggested listening to Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series on audio. We had both read all the books, but she also listened to them and adored the reader, so I decided to give them a try. They are fabulous! My husband also listened to them and loved them. But then I was done. I couldn’t find anything else that would keep my attention,

With the popularity of streaming audiobooks, I tried again. This time my motives were more personal. Regular readers of this blog are aware that I have been having vision problems for a number of years now. I’ve had several surgeries, and while technically, my vision is 20-20, that’s BS. The doctors make me bob and weave and move my head around until I can read the eye chart. I actually have scar tissue in my right eye that caused a blind spot. I didn’t realize how bad it was until I had to take the vision test for my driver’s license. I put my face in the machine and read all the lines. Then the woman administering the test said, read the rest – but there was no rest, that was all I could see.

I am fine reading on my Kindle or iPad, and even books if I wear reading glasses (which I hate.) I have no trouble with distance, so driving is fine and so is watching TV or a movie. But computers – that is where the trouble lies. If I close my right eye, I can see just fine, but using both gives me weird blurry spots and double vision. It’s annoying. But since my eyes aren’t going to get better, and I have narrow-angle glaucoma which could eventually cause my sight to get much worse, I decided to try audiobooks once again.

This time, I tried using the library app Hoopla and started with a romance. Since I mostly read romance, it seemed like a good idea. I also have often wondered about listening to a romance, especially a steamy one. Would it bother me to hear sex scenes read aloud? Turns out, not so much. I listened to Hearts on Thin Ice by Katie Kennedy and loved it! Unfortunately, that was her first adult book, so I had nowhere to go.

I poked around Hoopla some more and stumbled on an old series by Brenda Novak, the Dundee, Idaho series. I had never read them, but I’d read many of her more recent books and enjoyed them, so I gave it a try. I’m now on the 8th book in that series, and I think that’s it. There’s a novella that finishes up the series, but I’m not sure it’s available on audio or through my library, and I usually hate novellas so I’m not going to stress about it.

Over the years I’ve known people who listen to specific readers, but I’m pretty sure there were different readers for each of the books in the series, and I liked them all. This last one is read by a man, so that’s a bit different, but so far, it’s still holding my attention.

I am feeling a lot better about audiobooks now. I listen in the morning before my daily podcasts show up (I’m usually up around 5:30.) I listen while doing laundry or cooking. And I listen in my car. Sometimes I even listen while my husband and I are watching TV, especially when he starts with YouTube. There are a few things I like on there, but mostly not so much, so listening to a book is good. Or reading one.

Back in 2001, I actually entered a Random House Audio contest called “Where Do You Like to Do It?” and won! It was incredibly ironic since I rarely listened to a book back then. Contestants were invited to write a short essay, poem, or story about their use of audiobooks. This was so long ago that the prize was – get ready for it – a Sony CD Discman and several books on CD (which I never listened to.) I won for this poem:

I like to do it in my car
Peter Mayle takes me far
I like to do it in the bath
David Rakoff makes me laugh
I like to do it while I run
Lemony Snicket makes it fun
I’d like to do it all the time
Then aural pleasure would be mine!

Maybe I was prescient? I’m happy to say, at last that aural pleasure is mine.

Book News

Oklahoma revokes license of teacher who gave class QR code to Brooklyn library in book-ban protest

A former public high school teacher in Oklahoma had her teaching license revoked by the State Board of Education Thursday for providing students a link to a list of banned books posted online two years prior

Book Publishers Sue Florida, Alleging School Library Law Violates First Amendment

The suit challenges a Florida statute that gives parents and residents more say over the vetting of library materials for sexual content

This week in Ron Charles’s Book Review Newsletter in The Washington Post, he discusses Western Illinois University’s decision to fire all the librarians. He said, “I hate to break it to the bean counters, but a university library without academic librarians is called a storage room.” And this: “In an age awash with misinformation, losing these scholars seems like an astonishingly shortsighted cut.” I had read about this in Inside Higher Ed, a daily journal about academia, but it was refreshing to see the story in a mainstream newspaper. Kudos, Ron Charles!

I’m very excited to tell you that you can subscribe to and read The Washington Post Book Review weekly newsletter, written by the very witty Ron Charles. It is my favorite read about books. He said,

“Remember, free features like this either grow or die, so please tell your friends who might enjoy this newsletter that they can read it every week by clicking here.

(No, they don’t have to subscribe to The Washington Post.)”

Food News

It May Not Look Like an Ice Cream Sandwich, but It’s the Best You’ll Ever Eat

Maybe it’s shaped like a cornflake-coated chicken drumstick. Maybe it’s two crisp churros with a scoop of Oaxacan chocolate ice cream between. Forget the standard-issue ice cream sandwich. These are the frozen treats to mail-order now.

Other News

This is fun for us language geeks!

London street cleaner wins dream vacation in a contest made just for him

As always, thanks for reading, and stay safe.

Thanks to The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal for allowing me to “gift” my readers with free access to these articles, a lovely perk for subscribers.