I have a new theory: my new-found enjoyment of audio books is in direct correlation with my new enjoyment of talk radio. It started like this: I love Rachel Maddow, but sometimes I miss her shows. Thus, I began downloading her podcasts. Thus, I was listening to something that wasn’t music but was still pleasant and enjoyable. So, I thought, perhaps I will try this mystical “book on CD” thing and see how it works.
The first audio book I ever tried to listen to was The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman (about whom I will not speak badly in case she attacks me on Twitter); however, despite it being about a librarian who gets struck by lightening (sounds awesome!), it was, in fact, not awesome. Annoying background piano music played throughout. I stopped listening around disc two.
Luckily for me, this did not affect my desire to find an enjoyable audio book. My first great success was The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff. Despite a ridiculously boring first chapter, it ended up being one of my favorite books this year. I kept finding excuses to listen to it and giggled like a creeper whenever I listened (which was particularly fun when I was walking around, you know, in public).
And thus my love of audio books was born. Here’s a list of the books I’ve listened to so far and my brief thoughts on them:
- Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris: I am really, really glad I listened to this one and not the third book in the series with all the gross SPOILERkind of incestuousSPOILER sex. I gave this one an A, so even if I don’t really remember it–I read it in May–I must have liked it. (I have a bad habit of purposely trying to forget Charlaine Harris books.)
- The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff: This one really deserves its own post. So, so good, but you do miss out on some graphics, like family trees and photographs.
- Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris: I think the audio made it a little more fun. Also, I had to get the audio book because I couldn’t bear to wait for it in hard copy at the library.
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling: I liked this so much it really did get its own post. Love the McGonnagal and Uncle Vernon voices, kind of makes up for Hermoine’s squeal.
- Girls Most Likely by Sheila Williams: The book is narrated by four different people, which works really well with the book format.
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling: My favorite of the series, and I love Jim Dale’s Lupin voice almost as much as the actor from the movies.
- Step on a Crack by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge: The library branch I go to has a really bad selection of audio books. This one has all sorts of background noises and I had to stop it after the first track. I guess I’ll never read anything by James Patterson. Good thing the rest of America reads enough to make up for it.
Do you have any suggestions for audio books? Anything you really loved? I hate blindly picking them out, so any recommendations would be welcome!
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