by Anura Guruge
on October 26, 2022
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Full Year 2022.
No secret. I LOVE ‘Audible‘. Couldn’t live without it. Listen to it each & every day WHEN I am at home & ambling. The keywords there being: ‘when at home‘.
When I am ambling AWAY from home I do NOT listen to Audible or anything else. Just nature & maybe traffic. Hence, why the longest stretch is 49 days. WOW. I stayed home for 49 days on a stretch. I never realized.
by Anura Guruge
on June 25, 2022
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I have yet to read ‘Moby-Dick‘. I doubt that I ever will. Some of the print versions run to 760(+) pages! That is long. Yes, I have read books of that length, but they tended to be rather more gripping & compelling.
But, I am listening to it — as we ‘speak’ (so to say). As you can see from the 2nd image (above) it is nearly 25-hours long in audio form. I listen to ‘Audible‘ at 0.95% playback rate (to compensate for my many distractions). That means it will take me 26-hours to listen to the whole thing — & that is without the constant rewinds I have to do!
I still have some 8 hours left.
Have I enjoyed it? Kind of. Not great. I have listened to better. I listened to ‘Middlemarch’ last September. That was even longer at 32.5-hours. But, that was GOOD. Gripping. Compelling. I didn’t want it to STOP.
Not so with Moby-Dick. There is so much inane ‘fluff’. Lot of boring stuff. Plus, we all know what the ending is going to be like. I am not sure of the exact details, BUT I am pretty sure it involves them harpooning the white whale.
As an author myself I can’t help thinking what would happen IF Herman Melville tried to get it published today. Would any major publishing house touch it.
This book was written, in such prodigious length, at a time when there was no that many forms of domestic entertainment open to folks. No TV. No radio. No Tik-Tok. No Facebook. No Internet. No phones …
Will people today have the patience to wade through it? I doubt it.
It is not doing that well in the Amazon rankings. People aren’t buying it.
This is something that keeps on crossing my mind as I listen to it. Would it ever be considered a classic if it came out now?
I will be interested in what YOU think. Thanks.
by Anura Guruge
on January 23, 2022
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‘Full Production’ means that they add sound effects to the narration. So, rather than just reading the book they try to make it into an audio ‘play’. So, in the case of this book, they add truck noises, doors closing, people sighing, etc. to the narration. So, they make it more into a soundtrack. I DO NOT LIKE IT. To I, it adds no value. Just a distraction.
With an audio book I want to listen to the book being read.
Let the AUTHOR paint the picture and scene. I don’t think you need to augment the author’s words with any added sound effects. Kind of an INSULT to the good author.
This book, by Wendy Walker, is very, very well written. I am really enjoying her WORDS, style & panache. We don’t need to have truck noises. A distraction.
Luckily, this so called ‘Full Production’ is LIMITED to certain chapters. So, far I have only encountered two.
Appears that ‘Audible’ that created this audio version thinks it has to ADD value. No, you don’t. A good author stands ALONE.
I have no problem with multiple narrators. Yes, that is good & fun. No problem. I also have no issues with introductory music and some music as interludes. What I do NOT want is artificial sound effects.
OK?
One of the books I really enjoyed on Audible was ‘Midnight Son’ by James Dommek Jr. It had sound effects, BUT it was NOT ‘full production’. Maybe we can draw the line at that.
by Anura Guruge
on January 9, 2022
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Kind of sobering. 682 hours of listening to books. That equates to 28.4 days! Wow. 365 days in the year & I spent 28.4 (7.8%) of those listening to books.
I THINK that that is BRILLIANT.
I am delighted.
This happens to be the 2 hours a day, each day (without fail) that I walk.
So, as I love to do, I am multitasking — walking, listening, enjoying, getting educated. It does not get any better.
‘Audible‘, as I have said before, has changed my life for the better — & walking 2 hours a day, every day, hasn’t done my life much harm either. SMILE.
To me they now go hand in hand. Walking & Audible — together, synergistically.
I, of course, like Audible. I like everything to do with Amazon. SMILE. Yes, I am a very happy & content Amazon shareholder.