fiction files redux discussion

I've taken to listening to the stories I haven't the time to read anymore on the tape deck in my car again. The past couple days it has been Murder at the Vicarage read, of course, in a British accent. Tonight I walked into the bookstore, because I had some time to kill in between obligations and what's better than walking through the bookstore looking for sales and new books? I picked up a book and began reading and by the end of the second paragraph I realized I was reading in a British accent.

That's just my story for the day. Anyone else have this problem? Maybe I'm just weird. *walks away quickly*

A few years ago I was given a recording of King Lear, my favorite play, starring Sir John Gielgud, not my favorite actor. But he did a fine job in the title role. Unfortunately, I listen to these things on headphones, and in this case the microphone had been placed so close to Gielgud that I could hear the elderly actor's need to draw in quick breaths to get halfway through a long passage and occasionally swallow his saliva before he got to the finish. It made me feel rather icky, but for the first time I sympathized with Regan & Goneril for wanting to be done with the old man.

Both of these stories are great! I haven't had much luck with audiobooks. I seem to have a hard time focusing. My mind typically wanders off. Though it may have been because I was listening to Thucydides instead of a novel or modern work.

I have a long drive coming in the next few months and am likely going to take David McCullough's 1776 for the ride. Hopefully that will work out better

Ha! I know - it's so weird. A while back, I watched some youtube videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VoZNl... (actually quite boring) about writing and wrote a few things down... weeks later, while looking for something else, I read over the notes again, with an accent. But I'll take an audio book tape over a talk show station any day.

Dan wrote: "I haven't had much luck with audiobooks. I seem to have a hard time focusing. My mind typically wanders off. Though it may have been because I was listening to Thucydides instead of a novel or modern work."

i love that you're listening to a thucydides audiobook! that's hilarious. although one time i drove from los angeles to denver listen to kenneth branagh reading The Diary of Samuel Pepys, so i guess i shouldn't laugh too hard.

I seem to enjoy the mystery genre more when I'm listening. For some reason I have this romantic idea of the old radio dramas that would play out in segments over the course of several weeks back in the "old days." I finished Huckleberry Finn just before the Agatha Christie...I'm just thankful I didn't get to start talking/reading like Huck! Wow...especially considering where I work...

I love it when Americans attempt British accents...so funny.

Esther wrote: "I seem to enjoy the mystery genre more when I'm listening."

me too! rex stout's nero wolfe stories read by michael prichard can't be beat!

Martyn wrote: "I love it when Americans attempt British accents...so funny."

Yeah, kind of like when British people try American accents and it always comes out sounding like JR Ewing.

Shel wrote: "Martyn wrote: "I love it when Americans attempt British accents...so funny."

Yeah, kind of like when British people try American accents and it always comes out sounding like JR Ewing.
"


That's just not true.

Shel wrote: "Martyn wrote: "I love it when Americans attempt British accents...so funny."

Yeah, kind of like when British people try American accents and it always comes out sounding like JR Ewing.

Well, neither is what you said, so we're even... unless of course you're talking about Kevin Costner in that horrible Robin Hood movie.

Back to the topic at hand.

I like mysteries, too -- maybe it's because they're easy to follow in the car. Or maybe because they most resemble old radio shows.

Or not. If they really resembled old radio shows, then superhero stories, westerns, and romances would be just as fun to listen to.

One thing I can't listen to in an audiobook is literary fiction - like Margaret Atwood or Joyce Carol Oates. I just can't follow it as it's read to me.

This could also be because I drive with two children in the back seat most of the time.

Shel wrote: "Shel wrote: "Martyn wrote: "I love it when Americans attempt British accents...so funny."

Yeah, kind of like when British people try American accents and it always comes out sounding like JR Ewing..."


I'm thinking about Dick Van Dyke's Mary Poppins atrocity too.

I like some of the plummy mid-Atlantic accents cultivated by certain opera singers in their interviews. They can be droll and elegant at the same time. Although her singing voice has diminished, Jessye Norman still has a lush, majestic (and slightly comical) speaking voice. She delivers her words just like I imagine the dowager Empress of Atlantis would speak.

My idea of Hell: William S. Burroughs droning at me for eternity.

William S. Burroughs reading in London

i used to order the audio books for the library - sometimes the author will do the reading. i think that's kind of neat. i've also seen some that several voice actors get together to get different voices in the narrative. my brother was once given a card by a scout looking for voices.

i can't listen to audiobooks. i've tried. i just can't lose myself in them like i can while reading.

hugh laurie in tv's house does a good american accent. but then i've got a crush on him so i may just be a bit biased. :)

Open Culture has a number of free classics in audiobook format. http://www.openculture.com/freeaudiob...

Can anyone recommend a good copy of Jane Eyre in audiobook? I want to start listening to them while I'm at work, since I can't read the physical variety.

Juliet Stevenson reads it! But it ain't cheap.

http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_7?...