Simply Audiobooks Inc.

Canada Day is tomorrow and in honour of this glorious country of ours I feel compelled to share with you, as a proud Canadian, the extremely popular original Molson Canadian rant. It’s a few years old now, but it’s still great nonetheless.

And hey, if it inspires you to learn more about what it means to be Canadian, then you need to listen to Growing Up with Hockey Night in Canada. The theme music alone (especially the original music) signals excitement for any true Canadian!

Hey, I’m not a lumberjack, or a fur trader….
I don’t live in an igloo or eat blubber, or own a dogsled….
and I don’t know Jimmy, Sally or Suzy from Canada,
although I’m certain they’re really really nice.

Our name is Simply Audiobooks!
And we are Canadian!!!!

Ok, so we adlibbed the Simply Audiobooks part at the end, but, you get the idea.

Happy Birthday Canada!

Today, the machine better known as James Patterson, releases the 4th of 9 books set to come out this year. Swimsuit,the story of a beautiful supermodel who disappears on a photo shoot in Hawaii, promises to be a heart-pounding story of fear and desire, a veritable “hell of unspeakable horrors”.

A must listen for all Patterson fans.

See all James Patterson titles available for rent, download, and purchase from Simply Audiobooks.

Sadly, at ULCA Medical Centre in California, Ed McMahon, game show host, announcer and television personality has passed away. Our thoughts go out to his family.Here’s Johnny. The book serves as a touching tribute to nearly half a century of friendship, The Tonight Show, and Johnny himself.

Considered one of the greatest t.v. sidekicks, Ed was beside Johnny Carson throughout the majority of his run on The Tonight Show– and has chronicled his days with Carson in the book,

Complete with a CD-Rom of pictures from Johnny and Ed’s personal library, this book is one that is not to be missed.

Joyceans rejoice! It’s Bloomsday.

Bloomsday celebrates the day on which most of  James Joyce’s novel Ulysses takes place – June 16, 1904.  It’s also believed to be the day Joyce first went out with his future wife, Nora Barnacle.

The novel follows the life and thoughts of Leopold Bloom from 8am on 16 June through to the early hours of the following morning. Bloomsday is named for Leopold.

Joyce began prep work for Ulysses in 1902 when he was just twenty, gathering his epiphanies and arranging them into notes. After A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was published, Joyce earnestly dug in to work on Ulysses in 1914, finally publishing it in 1922.

Ulysses was banned in various countries for years, including the United States and Great Britain, being labeled ‘obscene’ for Joyce’s use of curse words and ‘radical’ techniques like  stream-of-consciousness narrative. Early publishers were tried under obscenity provisions in the U.S. Postal Code, found guilty, and ordered to cease publication. Publicity from the trial, and it’s designation as a banned book, only served to generate more interest around Ulysses.

During the ban, the book was frequently smuggled into the States from Paris, where an American expat had begun publishing it in 1922. It was not published legally in an english-speaking country until Random House won a 4-year court battle against obscenity charges in 1934.

Today, Ulysses is considered one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.

Celebrate Bloomsday by testing your James Joyce knowledge, or by starting a listening marathon of the classic on audio book.  (I might suggest listening to the audio book first, because I must admit, I got a shameful 3 out of 16 on the quiz.)

You can also check out #bloomsday on twitter to see how others are celebrating. (Hint: it frequently involves pints, dirty talk, and kidney, which Bloom eats for breakfast in the novel. ) Think I’ll stick to the book, and the quiz. We’ll see about the pints and dirty talk when lunch rolls around.

Love audio books but miss that ‘new book’ scent? Well now you can have your cake and eat it too, so to speak with this audio book aerosol enhancer. (I know it says ‘E-books’ in the header, but pffft!)

However, if you love to read but miss the smell of audio books… I’m sure they’re working on it. In fact, we may just have to suggest it. I mean, Simply Audiobooks mailers, gasoline, and a hint of eau de slightly sweaty mailman is a special scent in itself. And, it has to be more popular than “Eau, You Have Cats.”

Just a quick post to let you know the movie version of Jodi Picoult‘s My Sisters Keeper is coming out in just over two weeks and to give you links to watch the trailer (which, actually looks kind of good).

HOWEVER, (yes, I yelled it, you know, for emphasis), the movie version has a different ending from the one Picoult penned in the actual novel.  Which seems odd, considering that the ending Picoult DID write has “one of the great shocker endings of recent fiction” (USA Today).

Picoult said “Having the ending changed would certainly not have been my choice. I wrote the ending very intentionally because I wanted to leave the reader with a certain message. And changing that ending changes that message. However, I am excited to see the movie and to judge it on its strengths.”

Picoult recently posted on her site that she has since seen the movie. “I had the chance to see the movie when I was on tour in LA. Yes – it ends differently from the book. And yes, you’re still going to like it.The acting is phenomenal; the movie is beautifully shot; and I highly recommend investing in Kleenex before you go”

So, though Picoult is giving the movie the proverbial thumbs up,  you need to read the book too. 1) Because it’s good. 2) To pay homage to the author and the real story as she wrote it. 3) I said so.  And really, reason #3 is reason enough.

James Patterson, dubbed “the man who can’t miss” by Time magazine,  received the Guinness World Record for the Most Entries on The New York Times Best-Seller LIst at BookExpo America last weekend.

Patterson has had 45 of his titles on the list, including 31 titles that hit number one, and that number is only likely to grow. In 2009 alone Patterson will be releasing 9 new titles, with a new one released every month from now until the end of the year (with the sole exception of October).

See Patterson’s small mountain of audiobooks available from Simply Audiobooks.

For the hardcore vampire lovers out there who thought your favorite fiends were dying a slow sucky death at the hands of romance, at last, we might have a saviour.

Guillermo del Toro, famed director of Pan’s Labyrinth, Blade II and the Hellboy series, alongside author Chuck Hogan, has just released The Strain, the first in what is set to be a trilogy of vampire novels.

Guillermo and Hogan present vampirism as a virus, about to destroy the world. “They have always been here. Vampires. In secret and in darkness. Waiting. Now their time has come.  In one week, Manhattan will be gone. In one month, the country. In two months—the world”

Watch this clip for an idea of what kind of vampire you can expect from del Toro.

Finally vampires are monsters again. Unleash the bloodsucking plague.

(*note – language in video clip may not be suitable for work)

UK’s TechCrunch.com is reporting that the Chinese government has blocked a number of widely popular websites, like Twitter, Flickr, Hotmail, etc. in preparation for the Tianamen Anniversary.

I can’t say I’m surprised. I mean, it’s no secret that China has always been closely monitoring what its citizens are looking at online. However, I was surprised to find that there are a number of audio books about the generally private country.

I must admit, the history of the 5000 year-old culture is fascinating. To learn more about China yourself, I recommend Simon Winchester’s The Man Who Loved China. In fact, Simon loved China so much, he produced 17 immense volumes about the country making him the greatest one-man encyclopaedist ever!

And hey, if you’re not in China, follow Simply Audiobooks on Twitter, or join our Facebook group!

Don’t forget to check out Madonna of the Future, Simply Audiobooks’ Free Download of the Month. You’ll find yourself on a wonderful journey through the creative mind of an artist.

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