Six months, 34 (almost 35) books
From January 1 to June 1 2009 I "read" 34 books. I would have made 35 (should've been "Candide") but Friday was crazy and didn't go as I planned. Now it'll be my first book for the second half of 2009.
Below is the title of the book, the author, the narrator then my score of the book and the narration.
Diary - Chuck Palahniuk
- Read by Martha Plimpton - 6, 8
In Cold Blood - Truman Capote - Read
by Scott Brick - 6, 7
Live and Let Die - Ian Fleming -
Read by Robert Whitfield - 7, 6
Year of Living Biblically - AJ
Jacobs - Ready by AJ Jacobs - 6, 5
The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen - Ready by Dylan Baker - 4, 7
Moonraker - Ian Fleming - Read by
Robert Whitfield 8, 8
The Stranger - Albert Camus - Read
by Jonathan Davis - 7, 6
Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
- Read by - Matilda Novak - 10, 8
Deacartes' Bones - Russell Shorto - Read by Paul Hecht - 7, 5
Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson -
Read by Ralph Coshman - 10, 8
The Astonishing Life of Octavian
Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves - MT
Anderson - Read by Peter
Francis James - 6, 8
Moll Flanders - Daniel Defoe - Read by
Virginia Leishman - 7, 7
All The Pretty Horses - Cormac
McCarthy - Read by Frank Muller - 10, 10
Diamonds are Forever - Ian Fleming -
Read by Robert Whitfield - 7, 8
Manhunt - James
L. Swanson - Read by Jonathan
Davis - 7, 6
The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas - Read by John Lee - 9, 7
The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri - Read by
Sarita Choudhury - 10, 9
From Russia With Love - Ian Fleming
- Read by Robert Whitfield - 7, 8
Cities of the Plain - Cormac
McCarthy - Read by Alexander Adams - 7, 5
The Crossing - Cormac McCarthy - Read
by Alexander Adams - 7, 5
Unaccustomed Earth - Jhumpa Lahiri -
Read by Sarita Choudhury and Ajay Naidu - 9, 8
Morality In Our Age - Human & Civil Rights
- Read by Robert Guillaume - 7, 4
Morality In Our Age - War & Terrorism
- Read by Robert Guillaume - 6, 4
Morality In Our Age - Civility & Community
- Read by Robert Guillaume - 6, 4
Founding Brothers - Joseph J. Ellis - Read by Nelson Runger - 4, 2
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand - Read by Christopher Hurt - 7, 4
Dr. No - Ian Fleming - Read by
Robert Whitfield - 7, 8
Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy - Read
by Richard Poe - 5, 8
Botany of desire - Michael Pollan –
Read by Scott Brick - 7, 7
Shadow of the wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafón - Read by Jonathan Davis - 7, 6
Coraline - Neil
Gaiman - Read by Neil Gaiman - 9, 7
Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole - Read by Barrett Whitener - 7, 4
On the Road - Jack Kerouac - Read by Matt Dillon - 6, 8
Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Paterson - Read by Tom Stechschulte - 10, 10
Obviously Frank Muller & Tom Stechschulte are two of my favorite narrators.
Muller
& Stechschulte have these deep, manly voices that are best when
paired with characters with southern accents. Yet their voices
are...supple...enough to do fair depictions of women and children. I
would listen to them read anything, including the clichéd phonebook.
I've
been listening to audiobooks on a regular basis for about a year now
and I've noticed that then they need a black voice the go-to guy is
Peter Francis James. He has a great voice. Even and mellow. I think the
best book I've heard him narrate is "Invisible Man" which I listened to
late last year.
Sarita Choudhury has a great
English/American/Indian accent that is perfect for her work reading
Jhumpa Lahiri. Lahiri writes with so much sadness, alienation and
displacment; Choudhury converts that from the page to spoken word so
well.
Nelson Runger's reading of "Founding Brothers" was among
the most boring things I've ever listened to. I mean I had to force
myself through it. I didn't care for the book either but a good
narrator can make a boring book a little more exciting but pairing a
boring book with a boring narrator; ZzzZzzZzzZzz....It's a shame
because the founding fathers were very interesting and you can get a
good sense of that in this book but it's just so dry. When I finished
it and found out that it won a Pulitzer I was shocked.
The narration of Alexander Adams just bores me. His voice bothers me; high and nasaly. Blah.
The
Cristopher Hurt reading of "Atlas Shrugged" was off. I couldn't put my
finger on what exactly was wrong with it. His voice work was good
overall but it just didn't move me. The production quality of the
recording wasn't very good so that didn't help the already weak
narration. Later this month I'll listen to his "The Fountainhead" and
see how that goes.
I listened to "On the Road" because I felt I
needed to. I started it in high school and it bored me then and it
mostly bored me now. I kind of like how Kerouac writes, I dig that free
style but I just don't care for the beat lifestyle and the people in
the book; they people just bothered me, careless fools. I did groove on
the narration by Matt Dillion though. I was a little nervous going into
it, I don't really get down with him as an actor but I think his voice
was perfect for the New York / New Jersey-Italian narrator of the book.
I
read "Coraline" because I saw the movie and loved it. I saw it twice. I
really liked the book and movie. It's a near perfect fairy tale.
Magical.
"Bridge to Terabithia". Another one where I saw and
loved the movie and had to read the book. Saddest book ever. I knew
what was going to happen in the end and that didn't lessen the sadness.
According to the American Library Association it's in the top ten of
the most challenged books. I feel like I understand why but those
people can suck it. This book is great. It's awesome. It's one of my
favorite books. This book makes me want to have kids so they can read
this book, fall in love and have their hearts broke.
In the next six months I hope to finish all of the James Bond books.
I
will get through all of the "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" series
(which I've read about half of) in time for the release of the new
book. I'll get through a few more of Time's 100 best English language
novels since 1923; I've already read 16 of them (I want to re-read
about 5 of that number) and have another 15 or 16 waiting for me to
make time for them.
I'm also going to be refocusing my efforts
on the "classics". I've got a huge stack of them that I feel like I've
let fall by the way side recently; "Moby Dick", "Don Quixote",
"Robinson Crusoe". Books where you can almost smell the dust when you
read the title.
Comments
I read the first two books and got a little ways into the third and somehow stopped reading. I really need to go back and start over; I've forgotten so much, but I LOVED them. Couldn't even finish the movie version though.