Audio Books

I am a huge audio books fan, make them unabridged, please. It is the tradition of listening to a wandering minstrel, listening to the story teller syndrome.

“Deep reading really demands the inner ear as well as the outer ear,” said Harold Bloom, the literary critic. “You need the whole cognitive process, that part of you which is open to wisdom. You need the text in front of you.”

Very true, I do smell, touch, wipe off the dust and read the book. Then I listen to the audio version except for John Grisham. I do not read him. I listen to him when I jog, having run the same route 10 times I stop listening to the birds and the bees and to switch John G.

When it comes to readers I prefer experienced trained voices. One has to be careful about writers reading their own work. With the exception of a few writers most tend to drone on a bit. Why spoil a good book just because the author thinks he or she can read.

Listen to Patrick Suskind’s Perfume read by Sean Barrett. Jeremy Irons is brilliant with his rendition of “Lolita”. You don’t have to worry about trying to pronounce those wonderful Russian names in “Crime and Punishment”. Let someone else read to you.

Writers who can write well and read to you with an inner passion are rare. Amongst those who can do this is Toni Morrison. She reads her work with passion and colour, so beautifully African-American. Listen to John le Carre read his “The Tailor of Panama”; so Latin- American, so English, and so Scottish. You can’t but be transported to his places and intrigues.
I fell in love again with Wales and the Welsh with Dylan Thomas’ reading of his “A Child’s Christmas in Wales”.

Don’t listen to Dean Koontz’s “Intensity” when you are alone at night. You just might end up with cardiac arrest when a mosquito buzzes by, the merest disturbance will make you jump out of your skin.

It is indeed relaxing to listen to audio books when going to bed. I listen to Sogyal Rinpoche’s “The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying” in bed. Not only am I relaxed, but I am also ready in case I wake up the next morning and find I am dead.

Now I am off to buy that Ipod. I hear there are some free downloads of audio books. Right now it is a little cumbersome changing the batteries of that CD walkman strapped to my hips. Those dish washing rubber gloves get in the way.

PS: I am a frequent visitor to the HK Central Library and it gives me much pleasure to see young children walking out loaded with audio books. Years ago I used to read and tape stories for my daughter when I could not be with her at bed times.

From Jane Cooper:

My four children regularly listen to books while they are playing with Lego or dolls, or painting. I think that hearing complex words rather than just seeing them on the page is wonderful, and have noticed enrichment in their vocabularies as they incorporate these new words and concepts into their everyday lives. They read massively as well, besides the additional opportunity for them to gain exposure to story telling.

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