Simply Audiobooks Inc.

This is a warning for all those listening to funny audio books in their cars:

Put down the coffee.

Pick your listening material with care.

And bring an extra shirt.

Flying down the highway on my way to work, I was listening to Bill Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods”, and consuming my morning caffeine fix. About 20 minutes into the book, I was finding Bryson’s description of preparing for a year-long trek of the Appalachian Trail captivating and hysterical. I was most particularily tickled by Bryson’s description of his fear of bears (black bears, brown bears, grizzly bears, teddy bears..).

Then danger struck… Bryson vividly and succinctly described what effect coming face-to-face with a bear would have on his digestive system. I believe the phrase “excrement would fly like streamers” was the epicenter of my disaster, as I laughed, inhaled a hot mouthful of Tim Horton’s finest brew, then instinctively shot said brew all over my steering wheel, dashboard, and crisp cotton shirt.

For several blurry, disjointed milliseconds as I drifted towards the ditch I thought “Well, at least I’m going to die laughing.” Fortunately, I got control just in time to avoid being a witty headline in the local newspaper, but not before learning my lesson.

There was no surprise ending, but there were a number of unexpected twists in McCullough’s non-fiction account of the American Revolution. I have a decent grasp of US history, but McCullough went into far more detail than I’d previously been aware of.

The book relied heavily on characterizations of historical figures, sometimes truly humanizing them (as in the case of British General Howe), and sometimes giving a glimpse of how national mythology is born (as with Washington). Perhaps because it was the abridged edition, there was a sense at times of ricocheting between character sketches and battle scenes.

It’s eminently listenable, even for those less inclined toward history. McCullough’s narration sounds like a favorite university professor–confidant and convinced of the importance of his subject. In fact, I his performance so soothing that I had to stop listening in the car.  

I’m not much of a podcast person, but I’m surprised to see the extremes of opinion when it comes to the subject. Guy Kawasaki created an audio version of a chapter of one of his books, and the comments range from something like “I hate you for making me listen instead of read”, to “I hate people who listen while they drive”, to “I hate people who hate podcasts”… you get the idea. Fact is, podcasts are here to stay. We’ve even started putting audiobook reviews on podcasts. I’m pretty sure people who like audiobooks will like podcasts, but who knows? Our own research shows that people who love books are the WORST in terms of audiobook consumption – it seems that they prefer the purity of licking fingers and turning pages. Give me an iPod and an audio-in jack in my car any day. I hate licking my fingers.

Why is it that there’s a plethora of audio books available in an abridged version, but it’s extremely rare to find a paper book in an abridged version?

Obviously, the publishers believe that there is a market for abridged audio books, and they are correct. While most people prefer unabridged fiction, many publishers have found that the majority of people prefer abridged versions when it comes to non-fiction books on subjects such as business and politics for example. So you’d think that publishers would try to reach those people with the paper books too.

I, for one, prefer unabridged versions of most of the time. But, I know I would really appreciate abridged paper versions of very long, wordy novels. Charles Dickens and J. R. R. Tolkien come to mind… (I can’t be the only one who feels that The Lord of the Rings was too wordy…can I? ) I realize that my sentiments about these authors are not shared by everyone, but I do believe I am representative of a good part of the population who would be interested in abridged paper books.

I long resisted jumping on the Dan Brown bandwagon, but curiosity got the best of me. I decided to postpone The Da Vinci Code, and start Robert Langdon’s adventures from their chronological beginning with Angels & Demons.

Although mass-hype tends to spoil my enthusiasm for anything, I found myself quickly pulled into Brown’s world of religious intrigue and scientific fanaticism. In the tradition of Indiana Jones, the combination of archeological and academic themes, with action and adventure is a recipe for success. Although the novel wasn’t always able to suspend my disbelief, overall, I was impressed with the inventiveness and originality of the story. The major gripe that I had with Angels & Demons was that the protagonist, Langdon, was allowed to pursue an investigation in Vatican City at all, with his sole qualification being his profession as “symbologist”, an expert in ancient symbols and runes. Somehow, it all seemed a little too convenient. The matters at hand seemed way out of his league, at times.

Overall, I recommend Angels & Demons for the Indiana Jones fan in everyone. Richard Poe, the narrator on this one, is fantastic, and adds a lot to the narrative. He seemed very comfortable with portraying several different accents, and delivered the Italian phrases nicely. His tone was perfect for the ominous and foreboding material in the book. I was sufficiently impressed with this book to make The Da Vinci Code my next listen.

(As a side note, check out John Langdon’s site, who was the inspiration for the main character’s name, and created the ambigrams for Angels & Demons – an ambigram is a graphic that reads the same upside-down and rightside-up – it’s a very cool site!)

1. Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke
2. Foundation by Isaac Asimov
3. Dune by Frank Herbert
4. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
5. Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
6. Valis by Philip K. Dick
7. Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
8. Gateway by Frederik Pol
9. Space Merchants by Frederik Pol
10. Earth Abides by George R. Stewart

(List picked by Keith Olexa for Phobos Entertainment. See all “Top 100″ List)

I just don’t think I can agree with this list–all I can do is marvel at how fondly sci fi writers cherish their middle initials (Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley is particularly guilty, since she not only hogs an awful lot of characters, but also creates confusion between herself and her [alsofamouswriter] mother).

Since I’ve only read about half the books on this list, I think it might be time to check out Frederik Pohl, who, according to Wikipedia “was expelled from the Communist Party because more senior members of the Communist Party thought that his science fiction fandom risked corrupting youth.� How weird is that?

Hi, I’m Rachel and I work in Operations at Simply Audiobooks. You may be wondering what we do here in Operations? Well, sometimes when the little audio books get sick, we have to anesthetize them and use our little tweezers to remove the funny bone, and if we touch the sides of the disc, they light up and buzz. …OK…not really.

Operations is the department that, among other things, keeps the new books coming and does its best to make sure that all the book information you see on the website is correct and up to date. Many of you will also be very happy to know that I’m currently in the middle of working on updating our genres. Soon there will be many more specific genres to make it easier to find the books you like! Look for that in the coming weeks.

That’s all for now, but until my next post, remember, an apple a day keeps the doctor away…if you have good aim.

I’ve started on a long-time “must listen”– 1776 by popular historian and biographer David McCullough. Should be interesting to hear where the shades of bias fall… there’s no such thing as absolute objectivism, and that was a such a complicated time, which is all too often reduced to a really basic good/evil battle.

One disc into the abridged version, and I’m enjoying McCullough’s sympathetic writing tone and his soothing speaking voice. He sounds so trustworthy– I probably will be a softer judge on the work because of it.