I love books, but I have to be the slowest reader on record. I have to read every word, hear it, at the speed of speech. And my mind wanders while I read the words. It takes a long time to read a page. No skimming. Even text books. No wonder I did so well in school. Actually I did. I guess I remember everything I read at my snail's pace.
And then, some one said, "let there be books on tape." And it was good and I read them like a fiend. It was great to have some one reading to me when I went to bed at night and when I was driving into work. First they were abridged and I bought them. Then I found Books on Tape and I rented them. They came in a heavy cardboard box. Unabridged, 15 tapes, at times, in a box. It was good. And I was able to send them back when done, so I didn't have to find bookshelves to hold them all.
And now I have my Ipod nano with 13 books on it. I'm not sure if Books on Tape still exists. I buy books from Audible.com and download them to the nano, deleting them when done. This is another miracle. I can't listen when I go to sleep anymore, because it keeps playing and it's hard to get back to where I fell asleep. But I can listen when I drive and walk and do the dishes and compute and eat lunch. Heaven.
I used to read mostly mysteries and spy thrillers. I've tried to vary my reading diet, now that it is easier to get beyond page 1. There are great books out there. I found a few good books because of The Times Book Prizes. The short list offers many good choices. So I have read mysteries and histories; novels, which I would never have read before; biographies; science; classics; economics; memoirs; current events; fantasy. Really, everything but science fiction and I guess the fantasy was science fantasy.
So I'm going to add a log of the books I'm reading as I finish them. A log in the middle of the blog. I have less than an hour left of... a spy thriller. Well, I wasn't reading them because I didn't like them, for heaven sakes!
2 comments:
I love hearing about the books you are reading. And I adore books on tape. I go to the library every week and get new ones. But the tapes are harder and harder to find. I get CDs, but they skip, and I always listen to my books while I am walking around the lake, so that makes it hard. I guess I should just bite the bullet and get an iPod and pay for books, since they make me so so happy. But, you know, Kevin working for Sony -- in the digital music player department -- makes it hard for me to go to the dark side and get an apple product... Sigh. So. I listen to skipping to CDs and very very old, unwanted tapes. Random stuff. Whatever is at the library. Sometimes, I must admit, I stumble upon a really good book, a book I NEVER would have chosen, simply because it is one of the few books on tapes I haven't already listed to from the library!
I know what you mean about finding random stuff. I've read some pretty bizarre stuff by looking up a favorite author or book and seeing "other books people who liked this book like." I guess Amazon and Audible put it better than that, but it has made me read some fascinating things.
Fie on Sony! I know it is difficult, but you should start downloading. Can you go to Itunes and download to your computer and listen that way? I guess that isn't as easy without a laptop.
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