Back and Forth

Most of the time when I'm reading a book that hops from character to character, I only care about what is happening to one character and the rest is just anxiously awaiting getting back to that character. The Outlander series has so many good characters that I'm interested in each hop. I'm already unhappy because it will be a long time before the next book is out...and I only got this one yesterday morning. Written in my Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon, eighth in the Outlander series, is excellent so far. Sometimes a series just gets tiresome...and it doesn't always wait very long, unfortunately. This one isn't a disappointment.

New Series

I found a new series that I'm enjoying tremendously. The one I'm listening to is The Crown Tower by Michael J. Sullivan. I love books but sometimes I feel that I've already read all the good ones. So I'm really excited to find a new author, new series.

Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg

I've read most of the Stephanie Plum series and thought they were funny. So when I saw Janet Evanovich had teamed up with Lee Goldberg, the creator of Monk, it was interesting to me. I thought there would be quirky characters involved in amusing escapades. So I got Heist as an audio book, prepared to laugh as I tried to get my steps in. It was interesting, but more like It Takes a Thief than anything else. It was good enough that I'll get the second one in the series.

Storm Front Audio

I like the Jim Butcher Dresden series.  I've read them but decided to get Storm Front, the first in the series, on audio.  The reader is making me nuts.  He breathes and sniffs into the microphone. It's one of the reasons I stopped listening to American Idol...the singers caught their inhalations on mike. 

Dremel with Audio

I can't listen to my iPod with the vacuum cleaner or lawn mower so I assumed I couldn't carve eggs with my dremel and listen. But today I tried it and without increasing the volume I was able to listen while I carved with the dremel.  That was amazing. I didn't really expect it to work without turning it up a lot and I didn't know if that would be enjoyable.

Life's Hard

I've listened to Audible books for years.  Today I finally figured out that I can download a book without it being attached to the computer.  I download the various parts and wander about doing whatever is next on my sad little list, listening to my iPod.  When it has downloaded everything, I hook my iPod up, and then it syncs.  This is so much easier than hooking up the iPod and sitting there forever while it downloads.  I don't know if it is different and I just noticed it, or if it was that way all along and I was too simple to figure it out.  Oh well, better late than never.

Audible Experience

I accidentally bought an abridged audio version of a book that I like. I didn't notice that I'd done it until after I'd listened to it and tried to figure out why the funny parts weren't there.  I didn't want that version but didn't want to rebuy it.
So I went to audible chat and asked if I could exchange it even though it wasn't the last one I'd gotten.  The person gave me back that credit and I was able to download the unabridged version.  Yea, Audible!

An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon - a Comment

I think I know why it is taking Diana Gabaldon so long to publish the next book after An Echo in the Bone. She got her characters in such an awful mess that even she can't figure out how to extricate them!

Niccolo Rising

I first read a book by Dorothy Dunnett in the Citronelle, Alabama, library.  It was the third of the Lymond Chronicles.  It was rich in devious plot twists, descriptions, historic settings, and wonderfully complex characters.
After reading the third one, I started on the series in order. I wanted to buy the series but couldn't find it.  It was before computers in homes or internet.
I eventually found the series in hardback going through a reprint at Harrod's in London.  I bought the ones they'd had so far and put the future editions on my credit card to be delivered as they appeared in reprint.
Then a new series started...Niccolo Rising was the first.  I was almost afraid to read it in case the author had used all of her brilliance on the characters of the first series and the next would be a disappointment.
I don't like the second series quite as well, but it is still wonderful.  In addition to all that, the setting is in Bruges, a jewel of a small city that I especially like. Some people can spend hours in art museums.  I love wandering the streets, reveling in the old architecture.  So when I read (or reread) the book, I also revisit the town in memory.
These books are not for the faint of heart who think history is tidy and noble.  It is rather more Machiavellian...interesting to read about but better viewed from a distance.
BUT! Niccolo Rising has appeared in audio.  I was delighted. It is the only one, so far.  I think collecting books used to be more difficult.  Now I have the hardbacked books (acquired in England), ebooks, and have started on the audio books as they become available:)

Listening Ramdomly

My iPod jumps out of the book I'm listening to (even when locked so I know it's not a pocket change) and starts on another.  I can tell I'm listening to a different book, but finding my place in the one I was listening to is somewhat chancy.  Sometimes I just listen to a section over again to get back to my place, but sometimes I know it is previous to where I was but is something I didn't hear.  So it is an advantage somewhat that I'm familiar with the story.  If it is a totally new book, I can't tell if it's skipping around with the characters' parts of the plot or if the book just doesn't make any sense.

Changed Reader-Additional Complaint

The new person reading in the Outlander series is evidently from somewhere in the northeast because she puts "r's" where they don't belong.  Briana should not have an r sound at the end, nor should saw have an r sound anywhere.  I normally enjoy hearing different accents although I seriously became tired of some.  But I have never become accustomed to hearing r sounds in words that don't have r's where the sound is. 
Also, the text will say, for example, "she said cheerfully..." and the reader reads it as if it were part of an obituary.

Changed Reader

I'm listening to an audio book series, Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon.  I like the series and has read it more than once and listened to it, too.  I really liked the first reader.  I worried a little about whether I would speak with an English or Scottish accent when I finished.  Turned out my own accent is firmly in place.  But this book has a different reader and it is not the same!