I’ve a treat in store this week. I’m taking part in a BBC radio programme where three confirmed bookworms discuss audiobooks.
In fact the treat has already begun, because each of us was asked to review something we regard as a “comfort read”, and each of us was expected to read the others’ choices too. So I’ve experienced the delight of having three good novels read to me, while assuring myself and everyone else that I’m working.
My choice is set in West Germany just after World War 2, a Bernie Gunther novel by Philip Kerr. The other two bookworms chose respectively an Albert Campion golden oldie by Margery Allingham, and a Finn McLeod Hebridean mystery by Peter May. All cracking good stories, superbly read by top-class actors.
I think most people enjoy audiobooks. There’s nothing better for whiling away a long journey or for entertainment during a sleepless night…or just for sitting comfortably by the fire after a busy day, being whisked away to another world.
And for me, there’s a special nostalgia attached to hearing a book read aloud. It takes me back to my childhood when my mother used to read to me, something we both enjoyed long after I could, and did, read for myself. She was good at it, and made the books come alive for me. I recall a bout of chicken-pox which kept me off school when I was about nine, when she read me Kipling’s Jungle Book. Magic…I’ve been a fan of Kipling ever since. And later, when I was at University studying history, she was interested in the set texts I had to get through in the vacations, and read me some of those too – I remember her almost declaiming the rolling cadences of Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France.
But no Mowgli or Marie Antoinette on this week’s radio programme. It’ll very definitely be mystery time. It’s odd that all three of us have quite independently chosen our comfort reads from the crime-fiction genre. I for one don’t find it easy to explain; it’s just that, in the time-honoured phrase, “I know what I like.” Maybe we’ll get round to discussing why tales of murder and mayhem should be so satisfying. As a mystery writer and reader, it’s a question I’d like to know the answer to.
The broadcast by the way is this week’s BBC In Touch programme on February 28; In Touch goes out weekly on Radio 4 every Tuesday evening at 8.40 GMT. If you can’t catch it then, the BBC has a “listen again” feature through its special software, iPlayer, and it also provides podcasts. Check out www.bbc.co.uk and follow the links to In Touch.
So you’ve no excuse for missing it…unless, of course, you’re too busy listening to audiobooks to turn on the radio!
Hi Jane, well you know I’m not a radio fan, but will try to catch this one….do you know of any partilcularly good, simple modern devices for listening to audio books. Thinking of something for Christine’s birthday in July when I will be coming over to the UK again. She doesn’t have a computer or even a mobile, but the best thing I have seen-heard so far has been an Olympus Recorder for music and audio, but someone would have to put the CDs onto this from a computer. As it was my Intercambio Argentinian friend who showed it to me, and my Spanish still leaves a lot to be desired, I did not grasp all the technicalities of it. Maybe when I come over, there will be a shop to explain it better to me. M xx
Margaret, I’ll ask around a bit and see what I can find. I’m sure there are players that can play both ordinary audio CDs and MP3 disks, without having to have anything downloaded from a computer. Iit’s just a question of finding one that’s not too dear, and is easy for someone to operate without looking. The RNIB website rnib.org.uk might give you some ideas, though their stuff is often not exactly cheap. Talking of RNIB, is Christine a member of their Talking Book Library? It’s an excellent service, the books are in their own special format with a very easy-to-use player, and all free to a blind reader; her local council pays a fee, which is fair enough because they provide library books for the sighted population! I know some people are reluctant to join, put off by the word “blind” in RNIB’s name; but you don’t have to be stone-blind, just have eyesight so bad that you struggle to read ordinary print. My own books are all in the Talking Book Library as well as being for sale as MP3 disks. I didn’t bother putting them onto ordinary CDs because I’d have needed TWELVE separate cds for a book, and the labelling and packaging for all that would have been a shocking price – which is why when you see adverts for CD versions of books, they are so fiendishly expensive.
Jane, it was a very enjoyable programme and, as you say, available on BBC iplayer very easily. Philip Kerr is one of my husband’s favorite authors. He has a very dry wit which makes him great fun to read. Like you, I love audio books but the reader makes a crucial difference. Martin Jarvis reading Just William…. Now there’s a performance and a half!
I always used to read to the kids when they were little and the right book really calls out the actor in all of us. The Family From One End Street was a firm favourite but it was only one of many.
Hi, Jane—in your blog on being read to, your instructions for listening to the show where you discuss a comfort book, etc you mentioned going to a link. To wit: “The broadcast by the way is this week’s BBC In Touch programme on February 28; In Touch goes out weekly on Radio 4 every Tuesday evening at 8.40 GMT. If you can’t catch it then, the BBC has a “listen again” feature through its special software, iPlayer, and it also provides podcasts. Check out http://www.bbc.co.uk and follow the links to In Touch.” I’ve spent about 20 minutes trying to find the broadcast. I see nothing that says In Touch (even in a general search) and when I’m asked where I want to listen from, I’ve typed in various versions of United States (USA, United States OF America, etc)—they can’t find it! Except one for the “minor islands”, Washington, DC. I had no idea we HAD minor islands, especially off D.C. I know I’m not a technophile, but that site is not so easy to navigate. I tried Podcasts, Radio, Programmes, Radio 4 etc. Please tell me that Great Britain has not mislaid not only the United States (major) but the way to get to that programme! Thanks so much! ~~~Thérèse in “A Previous Colony”