Armchair BEA Day 2 ~ More than Words

Day 1 was a fun day of visiting blogs, though I didn't get to as many as I wanted to, as I tinkered with my new header, but I enjoyed the ones I did visit and I plan on visiting more today. It was nice to have some people come by *HI* and hopefully everyone who stopped in enjoyed their visit.

More than Words

Two topics for discussion today involve author interaction ~ which I have never had any, beyond a couple asking me to review their books and mediums that feature more than just words, such as graphic novels or audiobooks.

Though I've listened to a few in the past, I recently really discovered, and found a love for, audiobooks. About 8 months or so ago, I was in the mood to re-read The Night Circus (my favorite book, though if you've visited me more than this one time, you already know that). I didn't want to take up my regular time to read, when I could be reading something new, so I thought I'd try to listen to it. From there I discovered a few things about audiobooks for me. 1 ~ I LOVE listening to them at any time, especially when I have other things I could be doing, like the dishes, surfing the internet and even playing poker online. 2, and more importantly, ~ I found that listening to audiobooks at night help me fall asleep easier. I've always had a hard time falling to sleep, my mind just races, and with audiobooks I'm able to slow down, just listen and fall asleep much better than I used to. So now, instead of laying in bed trying to fall asleep for hours, I can enjoy listening to books until I get sleepy. It's GREAT! But, I digress.

I want to come back and make a note here. With pursuing blogs today for Armchair BEA, I've noticed that a lot of people mention they don't like audiobooks because they are slower than how they read. I think that is precisely what kept me from audiobooks for so long. I read really fast and the audio I had heard was slow. But, I started liking it at night, until I heard Brendan Fraser's narration of Inkspell and OMG it was soooooooooo super slow. I think he was trying to put people to sleep. That's when I went on a quest to find a way to speed him up. I found the app ~ Audipo at the Google Play store for free. You can speed the books up to 2 times faster and it REALLY helps out. Brendan sounded at at normal speed around 1.60 and I ended up speeding him up a little more and listening to him at 1.9. It REALLY works well. Not only that, have you done the same for ebooks? I have to be VERY focused to do it, but it's fun to use a speed reader (I first heard about these with Spritz, but there's free ones out there) every now and then. I've found the app ~ Speed Reader, also from Google Play ~ works best for me.

There are 4 works that stand out to me in audiobooks. Granted, I've not read many yet, in fact I've listened to less than 30 so far (and half of that is the Series of Unfortunate Events series & the Harry Potter series) but these are my audio loves.

I found that I ADORE Jim Dale. I first heard him with listening to The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern. I found out, when I got that audiobook, that he was quite well known for his work on the Harry Potter series, and I knew I had to listen to those as well. Listening to The Night Circus and then all of the Harry Potter series was absolutely wonderful. Jim Dale is wonderfully charming and does a great job!


Two other books that I enjoyed a lot were not only because the books were wonderful, but also because of another fantastic narrator that I love to listen to! I first read Ready Player One by Ernest Cline through a library book my hubby picked out, but I snagged and read first. I LOVED it, and it's one of my favorite books ever. A few months or so later, I found out about Wil Wheaton reading it, and I had to re-read it just to listen to him. He's SOOOOO fun. When I found out that he also recently narrated Redshirts by John Scalzi, a book I wanted to read, I just got the audiobook and it was so good as well. The book is funny, but Wil reading it just made it all that much better. I've enjoyed these 2 books on their own, but even more with Wil reading them!


So far, these have been very very well known books, and readers, so I'd like to leave you with one more set, I guess the books that actually started my enjoyment of audiobooks sometime last year. There was a brief reality TV show called Whodunnit? In the show, 16 contestants came together to solve a "murder" mystery. One among them was the killer, and they had to figure out clues each week to keep from being "murdered" so they could stay and figure out the killer and win the prize. I LOVED this show, and hope it returns. It was created by Anthony E Zuiker, who among other things, has written for CSI. He wrote 2 books to continue the Whodunnit it series, set before, and after, the show. In addition, the Butler of the show ~ Giles, who was played by Gildart Jackson, read for the audiobooks, and like the TV show, he stole the show. Any fans of whodunnit mysteries, this is a must read, and was even better as an audiobook!!

I absolutely LOVE audiobooks now, and am finishing up the Lemony Snicket series within the next few days. I've been enjoying some celebrity read books (Lemony Snicket done mostly by Tim Curry, the Inkheart series read by Brendan Fraser) and just anything that looks good. It's been enjoyable and I wish I had discovered my love for audiobooks earlier!


Do you enjoy books in other mediums?
Are you an audiobook reader? Do you have suggestions?
Leave me your link, and I'll come visit!