You know that I do most of my reading with my ears instead of my eyes. I love to listen to audiobooks while I am sewing, quilting, doing laundry and anything that doesn't require any math or analytical skills.
What I don't like is the process of selecting books, downloading books and loading my MP3 player. Instead of loading books one at a time I know do a bulk process that I think saves me a lot of time in the long run.
As I think of books that I want to read or hear about good books I put them on my Audible wish list. When I need new books I go into Audible and purchase everything on my wish list (using my membership credits). Occasionally I buy books during one of their sales but, as you would expect, the choices in the sales aren't great.
Then I set aside a few hours to download enough books to fill my 4GB MP3 player. Monday was the day.
I found a wide variety of books to listen too including a couple of biographies, some new books in series that I like and a lot of random mysteries and novels.
I am always pleased with myself when I can get as many books as possible loaded and I outdid myself this time with only 16.5 MB left. Now I am good for reading for a few months with 13 new books. One of them, Truman, is a huge book in 7 parts.
Once I start listening I generally go through the list alphabetically because that's how they are listed in my player. It adds a bit of mystery to my reading because I rarely remember which books I selected.
I haven't done a book review in a while because I have not been really happy with the last few books I've read. I hope the new reading list is better.
What's the best book that you have read in the past 6 months? I need to start my next wish list.
But, a book review is also to tell people what you didn't like about a book, isn't it? I tried to listen to books while doing things around the house and sewing, but I found it too difficult to keep pausing (and take my earphones off) every time I had to answer the phone, which happens a lot around here. I still watch TV (DVDs) while sewing.
Posted by: Debbie | February 13, 2013 at 01:37 PM
You will love Truman. I thought it was a great book! I'm reading about Andrew Carnegie right now.
Posted by: Terri | February 13, 2013 at 10:59 PM
Do you know about the mysteries by Jacqueline Winspear? I LOVE them ! They are about a female private investigator in London (ca. 1930 and beyond) and they combine a nice mystery story, some historical background with the personal story of Maisie Dobbs.
Posted by: Frauke | February 14, 2013 at 05:33 AM
Vicki, two books I recently read and weren't my normal genres but both were excellent are:
The Butterfly's Daughter by Mary Alice Monroe
The Wedding Quilt by Emilie Ridhards (I just finished this but will be reading more of hers soon!).
I need to learn how to set my ipod with these books, thanks for the great idea. I did just load a freebie into audible through Amazon, but the kindle fire didn't seem to accept it right but I am technically challenged! lol Jane
Posted by: Jane | February 14, 2013 at 11:56 AM
I have been on a Charles Dickens kick and I'm not sure how that happened. :) Right now I am listening to Nicholas Nickleby and really enjoying it.
I love the "In Death" series by JD Robb. Silly little mysteries set in the future in NYC. I think it is the sexy Irish accent the husband has. I have a weakness for the Irish. LOL
Just finished Les Miserables. LOVED that book. It is long, and the author gets very winded sometimes but I laughed, I got angry, I cried and I cried more. I now want to see the movie. I held out until I finished the book.
Fried Green Tomatoes by Fannie Flagg. Loved it! I love a good book set in the south.
The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck. Very good book.
I used to read small, fast easy books but now with my Audible account and my Ipod I have expanded out and tried books I have always heard about but knew I would never finish since I read very slow. I am so glad I did! There is such good stories out there.
A few I didn't like:
Under the Dome by Stephen King...struggled through it hoping it would get better only to have an ending that just ticked me off. I actually yelled at the ipod!
Kay Scarpetta series of books by Patricia Cornwell. Listened to several before I realized the stories were so unbelievable and I was only listening to them because of one character relationship. Decided to move on.
I think that was way more than you wanted, but now that it is typed...:)
Posted by: Diane | February 14, 2013 at 12:40 PM
Because you just posted this, I thought of you when I came across an audiobook recommendation. "Ben and Birdy" was a link from a link in a blog (you know how it goes). I don't know the age of her children, but she was planning a car trip: "I wanted to leave you with another audio book recommendation: The Star of Kazan, by Eva Ibbotson. We are halfway through it, and just completely on the edge of our seats: it's funny and heartbreaking and suspenseful, but you have to make sure that Patricia Conolly is reading it, because she's just crisply perfect. We also listened to the end of the delightfully vast James Herriot series. I know I always say this, but seriously, if you're looking for a book on tape that everyone will enjoy, he's the man: if there's anything more entertaining than a handsome young English vet up to his armpit in cow vagina, I'd love to know about it."
Posted by: Rebecca | February 15, 2013 at 09:06 PM