The Brilliancy of Audiobooks

Hullo!
I actually have three exciting new books this week

1. Sandry and Tris's Books by Tamora Pierce
Tris's book is the book that made me want to write. There is just something about this series that I've always loved.

2. The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson (Paperback)
I love this series. This isn't quite as creepy as the first (The Name of the Star) but Johnson sucker punches us all at the end.

3. The Diviners by Libba Bray (Paperback)
This tome is massive but it is so worth the read. It's another that's pretty creepy. Plus 1920's New York is an awesome setting.

It's only been in the last couple of years that I've developed an appreciation for audiobooks. I blame my 8th grade English teacher for thinking that listening to random chapters of the audiobook was a substitution for reading them. An idea that might have been okay if it hadn't been an awkward, read a couple, listen to a couple, read a couple pattern that really only resulted in my going home and rereading the chapters anyway, even if I hated the book.

For a long time I associated audiobooks with being yelled at for reading ahead of the tape (yes, cassette tape) in class. They just read so slow!

But in college someone told me to listen to the audio version of Max Brooks' World War Z. I was skeptical but decided to check it out. I put it on as I was packing to leave for the summer. I was startled to find myself just standing in the middle of the room and listening. Even, abridged (they've since released an unabridged version) it was amazing.

I didn't try any others though. They couldn't all be that good. I mean, World War Z is perfectly suited for an audiobook and it's full cast is amazing.

Then, at an old job, I started making caramel. It was two and a half hours of standing in the same place stirring in a figure eight. Also known as the most boring two and a half hours of my week (and sometimes I had to do it more than once). Suddenly audiobooks started looking really good.

The first ones in my new audiobook foray that caught my attention were The Wolves of Mercy Falls by Maggie Stiefvater. They took me about an hour to adjust to the voices but I fell rapidly in love with them. I started listening to them in the car on the way to and back from work too. I tried others (the Beautiful Creatures one left me thinking in a southern accent for days) and I found that I came to really enjoy them.

When I moved to Boston audiobooks became even more important when I started walking or taking public transit. I had all of this spare time and am not coordinated enough to read and walk at the same time and the bus makes me a little motion sick sometimes so I couldn't really read. So I started back up with my audiobooks.

The tricks for me are to 1: give it some time. The voices almost never sound quite like I thought and that's an adjustment, and 2: only listen to books I've already read. I know that second one sounds ridiculous but it works wonderfully for me. I get the chance to essentially "reread" books I've been meaning to and when the bus gets loud or someone starts talking to me I'm usually less angry because I already know what's going on. Also, I prefer to interpret the book myself before someone else does it for me.

Sure they're not all good. I've tried some really bad ones (nothing is worse than when a noticeably  older person is reading as a teenager and really exaggerating the drama) but there are some really awesome ones.

Emma Galvin does a really awesome job reading the Divergent trilogy (and coincidentally is also one of the voices on the last two Mercy Falls books). I never would have picked Will Patton to read the Raven Cycle but I loved them. Jesse Eisenberg reading The Curse Workers is fantastic. Alan Cumming reads Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan trilogy and does so wondrously.

Penguin Audio released a brilliant new set of Roald Dahl audio books this year too. Dan Stevens (from Downton Abbey fame) reads Boy, Kate Winslet reads Matilda, Hugh Laurie reads The Giraffe, and the Pelly and Me, Stephen Fry reads The Enormous Crocodile, Andrew Scott (Moriarty from Sherlock) reads The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar. And there are a whole bunch more. It's such an amazing collection and these readers do such an awesome job. These classics are in safe hands.

One of my favorite things about audiobooks is just hearing how the reader interprets moments differently. More than once I've been listening and thought 'But that's supposed to be sarcastic!' But sometimes you hit these moments that suddenly have more of an impact on you because of the way that the reader reads it. A character's reply could slow down a little and sound a bit more threatening or and exchange could sound more charged between characters than you thought. Certain scenes stand out to me more after having listened to them.

Since it's Christmas season I should probably tie this back. Audiobooks are brilliant gifts. Everyone has a little bit of travel time that might need occupying or some time when they're cooking and might need to hear Dan Stevens' dulcet tones. Well, we have an awesome selection and they're definitely worth checking out.

Don't let school ruin them for you.

-Amy

Literary Mad Lib CONTEST!

I've been finally making it through War and Peace by Tolstoy. It's my New Year's Resolution. My trick is to listen to the audiobook while I walk to work from Allston. Not only am I making record progress, but it's also a great book to listen through this mega snowy winter. It keeps me from complaining as I walk through blizzard-like snows when the troops I'm listening about are marching for weeks with no boots. SOOOO I thought I'd pick this scene.

Chase away the snowstorm blahs with this fun lil game from your humble basement dwellers in the UBC!

Send in your completed Mad Lib, and whichever we judge the funniest will get a free used book (priced under $10. Or 10 $1 books. Or 20 .50 cent books)!

On the evening of the last day's _VERB_ an order had been received that the commander in chief would _VERB_ the regiment on the march. Though the words of the order were not _ADJECTIVE_ to the regimental commander, and the question arose whether the troops were to be in _VERB_ order or not, it was decided at a consultation between the battalion commanders to present the regiment in _NOUN_ order, on the principle that it is always better to "bow too low than not bow low enough." So the soldiers, after a twenty-mile march, were kept _VERB_ and _VERB_ all night long without closing their eyes, while the adjutants and company commanders _VERB_ and _VERB_, and by morning the regiment instead of the straggling, disorderly crowd it had been on its last march the day before presented a well-ordered array of two thousand men each of whom knew his _NOUN_ and his _NOUN_, had every _NOUN_ and every _NOUN_ in place, and shone with cleanliness. And not only externally was all in order, but had it pleased the commander in chief to look under the uniforms he would have found on every man a clean _NOUN_, and in every knapsack the appointed number of articles, "_NOUN (1)_, _NOUN (2)_, and _NOUN (rhymes with 1)_," as the soldiers say. There was only one circumstance concerning which no one could be at ease. It was the state of the soldiers' _NOUN_. More than half the men's _NOUN_ were in _NOUN_. But this defect was not due to any fault of the regimental commander, for in spite of repeated demands _NOUN_ had not been _VERB_ by the Austrian _NOUN_, and the regiment had _NOUN_ some seven hundred miles. 

E-mail your submissions to ubc@brooklinebooksmith.com! Winner announced next Friday!

accio audio

I can't imagine how I am ever going to follow up a blog post like Zoe's. (See below -- it is 1) epic and 2) ridiculous, much like the woman herself.) I think I probably have to resign myself to the fact that I'm just not as funny as Ms. Z, and you should probably resign yourself to that too. Of course, if you're reading in backwards chronological order, my post will come before Zoe's, and you will read my semi-nerdy post and maybe smile a tiny bit, and then you will read Zoe's magnum opus and in your gales of laughter you will fall out of your chair, or off of your couch, or out of your seat on the T. Oh well. So it goes.

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Audiobooks are not really my thing, unless they're read by the author, who in my opinion is the only one who really knows how to read the writing. But I have one exception to this, and that is the brilliance that is Jim Dale reading the Harry Potter series.

Major nerd confession -- I listen to Harry Potter on audio every night as I fall asleep. I started about three years ago, when a certain person with whom I was sharing my sleeping space introduced me to the joys of Jim Dale, and I've never looked back. Of course, by now I've listened to all the books multiple times, and I have my favorite parts of each one. I don't go in chronological order; rather, I just pick what I'm in the mood for -- a Quidditch game? Action and adventure? Quiet times at the Burrow? (Man, I just nerded all over myself.) My default if I can't think of anything else is usually Chapter 22, Book 4, in which Harry asks Cho to the Yule Ball. He's so gawky and awkward and I can identify. (I asked out my date to the senior prom by passing him a note in precalculus. COME ON.)

So anyway, Jim Dale is pretty much a genius. His voices are absolutely perfect for the characters, and it's sometimes surprising to remember that it really is only one guy doing all the voices. Take his high-pitched, feathery Dolores Umbridge voice, for example, and compare it to his gravelly, rough Hagrid voice -- they sound nothing alike. But I suppose that's why Jim Dale's been winning Grammys for all of these albums, pretty much -- because they are absolute vocal brilliance. AND he's British, which earns him ten bonus points (at least in my book).

So the main side effect of having listened to Harry Potter on audio as I fall asleep every night for the past three-and-a-bit years is that I am the biggest Harry Potter trivia nerd ever. I mean ever. I can't recite passages, but you can ask me the tiniest detail about the most trivial scene, and I can tell you. It must be a subconscious thing, because I'm never really paying attention to the audio as I fall asleep.

I'm not really sure where this post is going...I suppose I should just conclude with a general recommendation of Harry Potter audiobooks, mostly because Jim Dale is an absolutely wonderful voice actor and I guarantee that if you like Harry Potter you will like the audiobooks. (And maybe you'll join in on the listening-to-Harry-at-night bandwagon -- let's start a trend, people!)

audio books, stepmothers, Pennsylvania

I'm about to go on a rather long car ride to somewhere in Pennsylvania. I am doing this because I have grown fond of a fella, and that is where his family lives...I'm looking forward to 3 days of careful self- censorship as I try and remember not to swear, burp or make any crass religious jokes.

I tend to get very nauseous whilst driving, so I think we are going to try an audio book---which I haven't experienced since I was 12 in the backseat of my 3rd stepmother's van, being carted off to her home in ALABAMA where I was paid $50 to pack up her things and move her to Rhode Island. The book we listened to was Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver http://www.brooklinebooksmith-shop.com/book/9780060922535

I loved the book and it really was quite successful in helping me dissociate from the saccharine drawl of a woman who put many wonderful books in my hand, and ulcers in my stomach.I think I'll probably go with one of our many language books and try and learn Italian...that way I can continue to swear --mostly undetected.

Audio rocks!

Audiobooks are not just for the road anymore. They are also great to use when you’re just not feeling well for whatever reason. Let’s face it, the TV can only do so much when your head is spinning and your eyes are too tired to stare at the colorful, talking box all day. Instead, put on an audiobook of your favorite book, sit back, and rest your eyes. Don’t worry, there are no alterations in the script – unlike the movies “loosely” based off of a terrific novel.

You can find some great excerpts here (scroll down to the Jukebox). And as always, we’d be glad to order any for you here at the store (with no shipping charges!). Here are some of my own favorites:

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
What can be better that reading E.B. White’s classics? Listening to him to read his work, of course!


Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Wrinkle in Time is almost more magical when read aloud by the author.


House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne (read by Jim Broadbent)
Tigger attacking Pooh’s tablecloth is one of the most hilarious things I’ve heard read aloud.

Audiobooks have gotten bad rap over these years because you’re not really reading the book. But, what about hearing your favorites? Especially when, God forbid, you can't read. Audio is great!