My friend Sarah told me over a year ago to read Water for Elephants, a novel set during the Great Depression on a traveling circus. I just finished the book and greatly enjoyed it for both its plot and characters, some of which included the vilest and most annoying antagonists I have ever encountered in my reading.
Anyhow, I listened to most of this book on CD. Unfortunately, many of the ten discs had unpredictable skips and stutters because of poor handling and scratches. The stutters always seemed to come at the most inopportune times. I was left in suspense, my anger building, as I traveled down the road. Not a good combination. Most of the time, however, the discs hummed along nicely, and the narrator performed very well. He had all kinds of voices--including lots of Southern twang, which got very annoying after a while.
I finally got to the tenth and final CD today, and the disc began to skip again. I couldn't take it, so when I was at the library, I got a copy of the book. The librarian commented that I had two copies of the novel, and I assured her that I knew that. I read the final chapters from the actual book and discovered that black-and-white photographs from circuses of the 1930s were peppered throughout the book. Something I would have never known by simply listening to the audio CD. Still, I feel that listening to a book on CD is a good use of time in the car, but I would only recommend it if the CD are unscratched and if you have a long road before you. I always seemed to come to a good part of the book right when it was time to turn off my SUV.
About Me
- Mr. Stephenson
- I was born on Labor Day in Fort Worth, Texas, while his father was attending Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Jason's parents are both Sooner born and bred, though, and they returned to Oklahoma as quickly as possible. Growing up as a preacher's kid and an older brother, Jason always felt that he was being watched and that he should set a good example. He enjoyed grade school, junior high, and high school in Atoka and Holdenville. Living in a small town where his graduating class was around 75 allowed Jason to be active in a wide variety of clubs and activities. He played the cornet in band for eight years, and he also played on the academic team. He also made time for student council and NHS. Jason got a full-tuition scholarship to Oklahoma Baptist University*, and he is very grateful to have had such an outstanding liberal arts education. Now having taught 7th and 8th grade literature at Deer Creek Middle School for two years, I am enjoying the challenges and excitement of teaching high school English. *Not wanting to give up on a chance to qualify for OBU's full tuition scholarship, I took the ACT five times until I got the score I needed.
2 comments:
Russell is loving his books on CD, especially since he has about an hour a day in the car. He did Pride and Prejudice recently--yay!
I have the complete "Lord of the Rings" and "Silmarillion" on cd (60 some hours in total). The first thing I did was put them onto my Ipod and put them back in the box so they stay in the best shape possible.
So now I can listen to the whole thing straight through without changing CDs and do so while riding or in places where carrying such a load would be ridiculous.
PS highly recommend Barry Longyear's "Enemy Papers". In both cases the depth of the writing is such that each extra reading finds new gems you missed in the previous reads, or finds new relevance in things that have happened since the previous read.
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