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.