Audiobooks


Connie
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I just finished listening to Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling. I tried reading it at first and was about ready to give up. Even though I still wound up not liking it too well, switching to audio really helped. It got me wondering what other books or authors are easier to get through in audio. What are some of your favorite audio books or authors to listen to? I have found Charles Dickens and Louis L’Amour to be authors that are “listenable.

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I listen to quite a few audio books, mostly while commuting to and from work.

I don't know that I have favorites. Orson Scott Card, in commenting on some of his audio books, has commented that his writing style is with the intent that his books would be read aloud. For the most part, I have enjoyed many of his books read aloud.

Frank Herbert's Dune was a good listen.

I have enjoyed several children's books, such as The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and others.

I wrote a post about the audio book version of The African Queen here 5 years ago.

And so on and so forth, some memorable and some not so memorable.

As I have gotten older, I find that I don't like to listen to music as much as I used to. Talk radio can be more interesting, but political talk gets tiresome quickly and sports radio doesn't always hold my attention. I find audio books a nice diversion while driving.

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Guest LiterateParakeet

I would never have made it through Pride and Prejudice if I hadn't been able to listen to it.  Same with Moby Dick.

I love audible and listen to books every day!

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Guest MormonGator
1 hour ago, LiterateParakeet said:

.  Same with Moby Dick.

 

English major joke: 

If you meet someone who says they have read the entire, unedited version of Moby Dick without being bored out of their minds you have met a liar. 

I like audiobooks too. LadyGator and I listen to them on road trips. Usually spy novels, poetry or celebrity biographies. 

Edited by MormonGator
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Guest LiterateParakeet
7 minutes ago, MormonGator said:

English major joke: 

If you meet someone who says they have read the entire, unedited version of Moby Dick without being bored out of their minds you have met a liar. 
 

Lol, yeah I love the beginning, but the long descriptions of whaling almost did me in. 

.Cry the Beloved Country is another one I couldn't have gotten through without listening to it. By the end I loved it though.

Edited by LiterateParakeet
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Guest MormonGator
6 minutes ago, LiterateParakeet said:

Lol, yeah I love the beginning, but the long descriptions of whaling almost did me in. 

I read a heavily edited version in college. It's just such a long book (and what people don't know is the original manuscript is actually much longer than what they are familiar with) that it would take weeks of heavy reading to finish and critically discuss in class. 

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Guest LiterateParakeet
11 minutes ago, MormonGator said:

I read a heavily edited version in college. It's just such a long book (and what people don't know is the original manuscript is actually much longer than what they are familiar with) that it would take weeks of heavy reading to finish and critically discuss in class. 

Much Longer? Holy moly!

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Guest MormonGator
6 minutes ago, LiterateParakeet said:

Much Longer? Holy moly!

Melville apparently sent the original manuscript to Hawthorne who told him he couldn't finish it and to cut it back significantly. 

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Guest MormonGator
7 hours ago, LiterateParakeet said:

Yeah, I just didn't "get" Frankenstein. \

One of my all time favorite books. I love how Victor remains an extremely likable, even noble character though he's arguably responsible for what happens to everyone he cares most about. Granted, we all have individual choice even the monster-but if Victor didn't create the monster than everyone Victor loves would still be alive. 

I could go on for hours about this. 

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Guest LiterateParakeet
56 minutes ago, MormonGator said:

One of my all time favorite books. I love how Victor remains an extremely likable, even noble character though he's arguably responsible for what happens to everyone he cares most about. Granted, we all have individual choice even the monster-but if Victor didn't create the monster than everyone Victor loves would still be alive. 

I could go on for hours about this. 

Ill have to read it again . ..its not that long, and it has been 10 yrs or so. :)  Then we can talk about it.  Anyone want to join us?  

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8 hours ago, MormonGator said:

One of my all time favorite books. I love how Victor remains an extremely likable, even noble character though he's arguably responsible for what happens to everyone he cares most about. Granted, we all have individual choice even the monster-but if Victor didn't create the monster than everyone Victor loves would still be alive. 

I could go on for hours about this. 

I really loved Frankenstein! How Victor loved his sister. His attempt to balance an active conscience and his often conflicting thirst for knowledge and perhaps status as a discoverer. Do you think the choice of the name Victor was ironic? 

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Guest MormonGator
7 minutes ago, Sunday21 said:

. Do you think the choice of the name Victor was ironic? 

No. That's reading way too much into it. Like we all know Shelly wrote it in a very brief time period. 

The love Victor had for his family cause his own demise too. He obviously has so much guilt at their outcome that he forces himself into what he knows is a suicide mission. 

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Guest MormonGator
6 minutes ago, LiterateParakeet said:

OH man @Sunday21 now I really have to read it or I will miss the fun discussion! ;)  

His friendship with Clerval is the most interesting. In 2016 we read a homosexual angle into it because our concept of sexuality is so vastly different than it was at the time period Shelly wrote it. To me I would argue that it's the most interesting relationship in the book aside from Victor and the monster. 

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Guest MormonGator
6 minutes ago, Sunday21 said:

Do you think this powerful feeling of friendship is something that modern society has deemphasized?

Yes, gravely and sadly so. We tend to sexualize all of our relationships in todays society.  Looking at letters two good friends of the same gender would write to each in the 1700's-1800's would raise eyebrows today with the language. It's very sad. 

Society really needs to reevaluate friendship. I had a male roommate and people who make stupid comments and gay jokes about us. What they were too stupid to know is that we had um, a lot of girlfriends that we would spend time with. We used to joke "They can call us gay all they want. We'll be meeting with their girlfriends while they make stupid comments." We did. Ha ha ha. They can call us whatever they want. He's still a very dear friend to me.

Now, people sexualize male-female friendships too. One of my best friends is female and it'll be over my dead body that someone tells us not to text each other and hang out. The beautiful LadyGator knows how close my friend and I are and she doesn't care. Her long term boyfriend also knows and guess what? He doesn't care either. I am 100% confident that people make snide comments about the friendship we share, but we don't care about that either. 

You can love someone "as a friend". In fact, some of my friends I love much, much more than members of my family. You choose your friends-people enjoy spending time with you without being forced too. In families, sometimes you spend time with someone because you feel obligated too. 

So yes. Sorry for the rant. 

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Guest MormonGator
15 minutes ago, Sunday21 said:

@MormonGator Cool Beans! Could not agree more. What is life without strong friendships? Some people just have their minds in the gutter.

Totally agree @Sunday21. The real reason Victor shows such emotion after the death of his friend is because he loved Clerval like a brother and the loss was so devastating to him. That and it's the final great loss in his life, so at that point in the story he truly has nothing left to lose. In fact after that, he becomes increasingly fatalistic and uncaring about his own safety. Let's be honest. For all of Victors positive qualities (and he has many)  he puts himself in grave danger (creating the monster, climbing the mountain after it's creation) several times. So he already has a subconscious death wish. 

@Sunday21, do you think Clerval's fatal flaw was his inability to stop Victor from self destruction? Like Faustus Victors fatal flaw is his love of knowledge and his desire to put that before anything. Including morality and love. 

Edited by MormonGator
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Ahhh a subconscious death wish. I was wondering about your take on Victor's career. Myself I thought that he was driven to dangerous acts through excessive ambition. I see the novel as a contrast between a persons ability to love, to me Victor has a well developed ability to love his sister and his friend, in contrast wilth his need to love himself. This self love through his ambition destroys the things that he loves. What is your take! What is the root of Victor path to destruction?

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Guest MormonGator
9 minutes ago, Sunday21 said:

Ahhh a subconscious death wish. I was wondering about your take on Victor's career. Myself I thought that he was driven to dangerous acts through excessive ambition. I see the novel as a contrast between a persons ability to love, to me Victor has a well developed ability to love his sister and his friend, in contrast wilth his need to love himself. This self love through his ambition destroys the things that he loves. What is your take! What is the root of Victor path to destruction?

Ambition surely plays a part in his demise, no doubt whatsoever. I've always thought that as well. To break it down further I believe his obsession for knowledge uber alles was the actual cause of his demise-which is of course, part of ambition. His path to destruction is like Doctor Faustus or that of Rappichini in the Hawthorne short story.  Sadly though, Victors obsession with knowledge and his own ambition leads to the demise of innocent people. At least in Faustus it just leads to his own personal destruction and not his loved ones. 

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