Nov 25 2012

Audiobooks for a tragic romance

Published by at 3:25 pm under romeo and juliet

I did a short interview with the fabulous Jenn Dowell at Audiofile magazine, and I’m featured in a very brief spot in the October issue.

In preparation I looked up what audiobooks I listened to for the 14 months I was working on Romeo & Juliet (previously: what I was listening to while drawing The Odyssey). Here they are, in no particular order:

11-22-63 (Stephen King) – good, but WAY too long.
A Wizard of Earthsea (Ursula LeGuin) – still great, but too short.
Out of the Silent Planet (C.S. Lewis) – still fun, but WAY too short.
Apprentice Adept (Piers Anthony) – I’ve long since outgrown his writing, but this series is still fun and I think it’s high time we made “The Game” in real life. Who’s with me?
SEAL team Six (Howard Wasdin) – I don’t quite know what possessed me to read this. It’s not bad, but pretty much just what you’d expect.
Steve Jobs (Walter Isaacson) – good, but repetitive. Needed better editing. The ubiquitous cover photo has caused numerous people to tell me I look like Steve Jobs.
Ready Player One (Ernest Cline, read by Will Wheaton) – fantastic! The perfect audiobook, at least for a child of the ’80s.
Divergent (Veronica Roth) – at times I enjoyed this, but found it ultimately unconvincing, and I have a pretty strong feeling “the intellectuals are the bad guys” is not just a convenient plot device, it’s something she believes.
David Copperfield (Dickens) – couldn’t finish. It was bad enough when the protagonist was a non-character, but when he turned into a debauched twerp I couldn’t take it any more.
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Stieg Larsson) – holy exposition Batman! Couldn’t finish. Tried the film, and still don’t understand why so many people like it. I found it to be a weak mystery with weak writing and chockablock with horrible gratuitous unpleasantness.
Winter’s Tale (Mark Helprin) – pretty interesting, but I couldn’t finish. I think the reader killed it for me.
The Bluest Eye (Tony Morrison) – brilliant, and oh so unpleasant.
The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway) – ditto, but in a different way.
A Farewell to Arms (Hemingway) – even more depressing.
Snuff (Terry Pratchett) – not his best, but quite good.
The Scarlet Letter (Hawthorn) – I enjoyed this way more than I was expecting based on my very vague memories of it.
Soon I Will Be Invincible (Austin Grossman) – I enjoyed this more in print, I think. The readers are mediocre.
The Ring of Solomon (Jonathan Stroud) – Awesome, awesome, awesome.
The Wake of the Lorelei Lee (L.A. Meyer) – as with the rest of the series, highly enjoyable, thanks mostly to the fabulous reading of Katherine Kellgren.
Three Cups of Tea (Greg Mortenson) – good.
Better (Atul Gawande) – Complications was better than Better. I was hoping for more insight on how surgeons stay on the top of their game, especially with the long hours that seem to come with that job.


and of course my favorite audio series, which I constantly revisit, Sherlock Holmes.

4 responses so far

4 Responses to “Audiobooks for a tragic romance”

  1. Andyon 28 Nov 2012 at 3:43 pm

    Ready Player One was a fantastic surprise. The Night Circus, The Magicians, Feed, The Rook and Roots topped out my year in audiobooks. Also the rehearing (relistening?) of The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man’s Fears.

    The performance in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was superb.

    The not so good experiences were The Passage and Zombie Fallout. The best thing about Zombie Fallout was the revelation that Audible gives refunds!

  2. Johanna Nicholson 12 Jan 2013 at 8:55 pm

    “Hindsight” is a perfect name for your blog! Why did I like Stieg Larsson though I don’t like violence? Because he created a strong female character who outsmarts and overcomes the men threatening her life, and he created a male journalist who believed in her. I think Larsson was a feminist. Of course, I was intrigued because of my own Swedish heritage.

  3. L Eatonon 13 Apr 2013 at 11:27 pm

    I never realized you were also an audiobook fan. Why were you interviewing for AF (I actually review for them)?

  4. adminon 25 Apr 2013 at 1:10 pm

    It was just that little photo feature on the back page. Alison and Jenn D go way back.