12.01.2011

Audiobook mania

I love audiobooks. Forrest and I went through a lengthy period where we would both listen to an audiobook as we went to sleep, which was always fun because you might fall asleep at one part and wake up at an entirely different one. My favorites (almost to the exclusion of all else) were a recording of Little Women read by Kate Reading, the whole of the Harry Potter series (obviously the American version, which, like the cover art, is obviously superior), and the dramatic reading of The Chronicles of Narnia. Little Women with Kate Reading is by far my favorite. I got it as a birthday present a few years ago and it is an obvious must for all long car rides. Kate isn't, I guess, the best I've heard, but I have grown quite attached to her, and thusly will not listen to another version of Little Women. If only she had done Little Men, too....

Quite recently I rediscovered Librivox.org and oh my. So many audiobooks, you can't even imagine! And all for free! Of course, I have discovered the depths of my audiobook snobbery. For instance, I really will not consider any book not read in an English accent. Unfortunately, they are very hard to find, but I have found one woman who has read so many of my favorite books and so I have bookmarked a lot of her catalog. I am about two chapters away from finishing her version of Pride and Prejudice, and intend to start next on Anne's House of Dreams, or perhaps (finally and at last!) and decent version of The Secret Garden, which, I assure you with all the snobbishness of my snobbery, is very difficult to find indeed (do not even get me started on the Focus on the Family version). But beyond that, I have found a version of Little Men in an English accent (Kate Reading does not, in fact, have an accent, and Little Men is an American book bred and born, so I am not sure why I insist on it here. No matter). I cannot seem to find an English-accented version of any Anne book except for House of Dreams, but my day may yet come!

Audio books are so wonderful, though, as you can do all manner of things while listening to them. Just yesterday I made a whole batch of coffee chocolate and two batches of cookies while listening to Pride and Prejudice. Another advantage (or perhaps, disadvantage) is I start speaking like the books. If I am listening to Jane Austen, for instance, my text messages get quite long and use many more words in a quite un-American style. But that's okay. I'm not really upset at all.

Moral of post: Listen to more audiobooks, and do so at Librivox for free.

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