Books You Listen To

I imagine, dear readers, that, like me, you may, perhaps, have allowed yourself to become too busy to read as much as you used to, or as much as you'd like. I have three books, real books, begun, only one of which has any remotely educational value, as well as being full of historical anecdotes to keep your interest:

The other two are pure fun; Dune, the prequel, because as an adolescent, I LOVED Dune and all things sci-fi, but the Amazon link is puzzling, because it looks like there may be more than one prequel to Dune. As I may offend a fan more die-hard than myself, I will not link to anything. The other; (out of print, but available for $30 or $.01) Always Coming Home, Ursula K. le Guin, is because my book club declared it our February read. It is sort of putting me to sleep, but I bought it and read it I will...in a few minutes, just after I finish my baby sweater,        and the matching hat,      and a blanket for Duncan and a sweater for Charles...in other words, my knitting can get in the way of my reading. As can exercise and excessive driving to jobs on the other side of the river, children's appointments and runs to pick up farm eggs.

The solution? audiobooks...available at your library, or, when your library disappoints you once again with available titles (not that mine does on a regular basis, but you know, it happens); here;
 Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks

A book can be downloaded on any sort of device; phone, i-pod, talking Kindle (someone loaned me a Kindle with audio capacity this past summer for our trip to France). I did not believe I needed a device on which to read books, I like book-books, but it ended up being very nice to be able to have books with me on the trip. For Christmas, I finally broke down and accepted the gift of my own Kindle, but it is the most recent version, with a light, and it doesn't read books. On the old one, I could download audiobooks for the kids. This one, a Terry Pratchett classic, I purchased just because I firmly believed the voices and accents of the:

wee free men, are the magic of the novel and could not ever be reproduced by my pitiful efforts, even if I do render a mean Scottish brogue (according to myself).  I just can't keep it up for an entire novel.
I just finished knitting and driving to:



The link is to the book, which I read a few years ago, but re-listening to it on audio was a treat, and a revelation. I missed so much in this dense work when I read it years ago, and had no inkling of the southerness of the family without the delightful accents of the reader. Fabulous.
Today, my brain break is:

Truly, a waste of time and a laugh-out-loud, snort-up-your coffee sort of listen. I have it on Playaway from the library. I cannot recommend it for anyone under the age of 21, and being a mother would definitely make it more relevant to your life. The narrator alternates between yogi and spiritual reflections on life and the realities of her middle-class, stay-at-home motherhood existence. All I can say is that I can relate on some levels, and it is making me laugh my pants off this rough week of February. I will return to Barbara Kingsolver or Louise Erdrich next, they have been two of my favorite authors for over 20 years, when I was first assigned, in college in France;

and picked up a copy of:



What are you reading? Listening to? What do you prefer to read over listen and vice versa? If you are still wondering what I mean by a Playaway, you can find it in this post, in paragraph 3. You really do not want to live one more minute without knowing about these, free at your local library. Libraries also offer downloadable audiobooks through one or more systems such as https://www.overdrive.com/. If you have not yet accessed this sort of service, inquire at your library, they will walk you through the (very simple) process of checking out titles. No library, no time? Picky about your books? See the offer below or above, for audiobooks from Amazon:

Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks


And, please, give me some ideas for my next read!

*Full disclosure: I long ago signed up for the Amazon affiliate program, by which, with sufficient sales, I should earn a fee from items sold when linked directly from this blog. To date, I have never received a cent from sales, but I continue to provide the links for your convenience and in the hope that some day I will be able to make a living from writing. Guess I'll need a larger audience and a better marketing plan. But feel free to share how much you love this fantastic blog. XXX OOO Angela