Wednesday, March 4, 2009

A new adventure

I am finally getting to the point in Windflower where I am eager to pick it up. It was slow going at first. I still have quite a ways to go, but I plan to finish it up by Friday. Review to come this weekend. I promise! (I’m so sorry I am holding up the tour!)

In the meantime I thought I would share a new experience with you all. I have listening to an audio book for the first time. I know, I know, I am late to the game, as always. Living in Chicago means driving in Chicago. For those of you unfamiliar with this experience, it is a frustrating experience. There is no rhyme or reason to the congestion. You can leave at the same time every day, traveling the same pathway, and have a commute that last anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours. I have been sick of the local radio stations (hello! There are more than 20 songs out there!) so I decided to take the plunge into audio books.

I checked out my local library and saw that I had two options. I could get a book on CD, but my car is just old enough that I came with a tape player. Instead, I picked up a Playaway book. This is a preloaded mp3 device that is loaded with one audio book. Most of the Playaway selections for adults fall into the more serious “literature” genre. I could listen to Shakespeare or Jane Austen, but I wanted something a little more fluffy for my first foray into audio books. I decided to peek into the children’s section of the library and, huzzah! For the past week or two I have been listening to Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce. It is one of her many books that take place in her world, Tortall. I am keeping my series OCD in check by reminding myself that it is the first of her Immortals series. It just happens to share the same world as her previous Lioness series. (So far that justification has been working.)

Something that I am enjoying about this recording is that they have used different people to voice the characters. I know this is not the case in “adult” novels. It brings the characters to life in a different way. While the author does a fabulous job with narration, I just can’t imagine her voice being effective for Sarge (a large black man in charge of training the new recruits, very military.) The male characters are all voiced by men, the female by women.

The story is interesting. I had to get used to Ms. Pierce’s writing and reading voice in the beginning, but I am now eager to get in my car for the daily trek home. I have even chosen to listen to it in the morning instead of my favorite AM radio show!

I still have quite a ways to go with the book, but my commute is certainly not going to disappear. And these days, that commute is a whole lot more fun!

4 comments:

Stacy~ said...

I know I'm missing out by not listening to audio books, especially in the car. My thing is that I need to focus on the story and I can't do that while driving. Audio books are good when you're doing something else where you don't need to think - like when I did data entry. Put the headphones on and just enjoy.

You're singing to the choir on the driving in Chicago thing. I'm just soooo happy I live like 5 minutes from work.

Tracy said...

I still have not gotten into audio books. With a short commute (15 minutes or so) and the kids in the car with me 1/2 that time I just can't do it. I'm glad you're enjoying your first foray into it!

Shaymless Aymless said...

I like audiobooks. They good for whenever you need two hands to do something (for me that's knitting) but want a book too.

But am also a book junkie so I usually end up with a paper copy as well.

Sarai said...

You know I haven't had the chance to try one. Not sure where to even begin. I'm more of a music girl so I have the cd's burned from the ipod... Might give it a go though