The Skeptics Guide to the Universe is $2.99 on kindle today. The reviews are overwhelmingly positive except for people who are fans of acupuncture or salt rooms or who hate Hilary Clinton. Sounds interesting.
@sammydog01 I dunno… used to listen to their podcast, but they got a little too… certain. Too comfortable being in a debunking mode. I don’t think that’s a good way to remain skeptical.
And then they’d occasionally drift into tech topics and do a bad job covering them.
They’re mostly new authors, usually with a few books in a series (amazon wants you to buy the other books in the series by the author). There’s usually several genres to choose from. Sometimes they suck. For free, and you-pick-em, what do you want?
@f00l
You may be right. I have had Prime so long (for the video streaming) that I’m still using $89/year “Gift of Prime” gift certificates that I gave to my future self.
I’m most of the way through “Exhalation” the collection of stories by sci-fi author Ted Chiang. Meh.
I liked the stories in his other collection, “Stories of Your Life and Others”, but none of the ones in this book have impressed me at all, and I think I’m on the last one.
This one’s probably the most promising of the lot, with a great title - “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom” - and an interesting premise of a world in which there’s a device that lets you communicate with an alternate you, in an alternate timeline - a branching of reality that’s precipitated by activating the machine in the first place - and the consequences of such a technology.
The story itself is not turning out to be as interesting as the title and premise would suggest.
I’ve been thinking that it’s like a P.K. Dick story that was written by an author of historical biographies or something similarly dry.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Can someone remind me who was the Meh staffer who recently published their first novel, and the title of the book? A link to it on Amazon would be even better.
I think it was ChadP, but my memory sucks, and a search of these forums for “ChadP” didn’t find me the answer after several pages of search results.
That book of the Brit economy looks kinda interesting. Or perhaps a summary would be interesting.
Re Graham Greene
He is viewed as a substantial novelist. Was Nobel shortlisted.
And also was reputedly often in a quite miserable frame of mind.
I have been reading a bit about his private life:
and he seems to have been a talented, tormented, educated, privileged shit for much of the time.
And, as judged by his contemporaries, often a notable and total hypocrite.
In his case this perhaps these judgments matter because he was so willing to actively participate in profiting (sexually, reputationally, esp financially) from practices and institutions he condemned;
and to betray, lie to, or undercut, so much (institutions, persons, and esp values and beliefs) he praised or claimed to espouse.
I am no Greene expert and this is just a quick take based on a bit of reading.
But, if one wants to know a little of “the person behind the work”, well, Greene looks to be quite a case study.
@f00l - I’ve seen a couple Graham-Greene based movies but I don’t think I ever actually read one of his books. Someday I’ll read “Our Man in Havana” (but the film had Alec Guinness and Maureen O’Hara in it!!!)
I’m kind of regretting “Surrender”, which is pretty much a continuous stream of bad news, baldly presented. A better (and shorter) book on the British economy is supposed to be “Forging Ahead, Falling Behind and Fighting Back: British Economic Growth from the Industrial Revolution to the Financial Crisis” by Nicholas Krafts.
@f00l - As for a summary, “Surrender” (by Nicholas Comfort - funny about the names) largely blames British businesses for failing to modernize and government for failing to coordinate policy with reality. Of course he can’t ignore the impact of the British unions, which were stupefyingly obstructive and greedy. I haven’t finished it yet, but he speaks glowingly about the German and French governments for protecting their industries while supporting continuous equipment improvements and support for industrial education.
I’m reading Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History by Kurt Andersen. It was a kindle deal-of-the-day which I did not buy because my library had a digital download available (also a hard copy, but I’m still semi-boycotting the library, even though I only know two people who work there now and like them both). It’s very openly anti-Trump and anti-Evangelical Christianity (which I don’t have a problem with, but feel should be clear about in case someone else does), but as far as the introduction goes puts the ultimate blame for current American culture on Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press and everything that happened in the 1960’s.
When I saw the title I thought, hot damn, this is going to be about the Burned-Over district and Spiritualism and Mormonism and the New Thought movement! And it is, but Andersen is a novelist and not a historian, so the book is not quite as wonky and historically detailed as I’d like. It’s funny, but I WANT MORE HISTORY AND FOOTNOTES. For an example of my state of mind: he quoted Keith Thomas, author of Religion and the Decline of Magic and I squealed because I’ve read that book three or four times (I love that book).
@mossygreen Update: He goes into no detail on anything and it’s driving me crazy! Quotes w/out footnotes and it doesn’t look like there’s a bibliography. I think he oversimplifies a lot of things as well, spends no time on the New Thought Movement and so (perhaps inadvertently) presents How to Win Friends and Influence People as a new thing rather than a direct continuation of it. So far has ignored all weird religious movements and cults that aren’t at least nominally Christian except for Scientology, and I’m up to the '60’s, so it’s not going to happen. Really, I’d just like to read all the books he read in order to write this one.
@sammydog01 I have an irrational dislike of J.K. Rowling and that book in particular because I read it at the same time I read Tanith Lee’s first published book, which was also for children, and which I thought was much better. I had a very emotional why aren’t people reading this other, much better writer?! reaction which is probably not fair.
The HP series is a lot of fun. And Rowling is amazingly inventive in that series; the whole thing seems to thoroughly engage most readers from the start.
She’s just a damn fine writer. And her sometimes annoying public persona (she’s active on Twitter) should not (I hope) count much against her books.
Re Tanith Lee
I’ve never read her. But it’s pretty commonplace for very talented writers to get overlooked.
JK Rowling’s series had the ability to really engage so many readers.
Remember the worldwide all/night book launch parties?
That summer camps that could not get kids to sign up for camp the week of a Rowling book release, unless the camp offered every child who wanted one their own hardback copy, and gave each child many days off regular camp activities in order to finish reading it?
For the last few HP book releases, I stayed up all night reading the books the day they came out. They were and are just plain fun.
So did many friends, and their children.
And I think some people still play quidditch.
For me, the memory of the series that sticks is how she got childhood/adolescence right. You can see how the characters stumble through the same errors, embarrassments, humiliations, angers and resentments we all felt and feel; they want to be strong and competent, and their stumble forward, getting in their own way.
Creating half the own problems. Not being able to get over being obsessed and angry, or feeling inferior or rejected, even tho they want to. Even tho they know they are being stupid.
But these are no “troubled youth” stories. She was writing for a PG-13 audience and stays within that boundary; and she’s inventive, full of wonder, and funny as hell. She never pays out the reader into total hopelessness.
Both the Brit (narrated by Stephen Fry) and the American/worldwide (narrated by Jim Dale) audiobook series are some of the best ever recorded. Both excellent.
Both versions won numerous awards.
The voice narration style starts “youngish” (late elementary school expectations) and grows with the series and characters.
If you are interested in the audiobooks, don’t be put off if the opener sounds like a kid’s book. Both the narrators’ voice styles start there, and then grow, with the deepening complexity and maturity of the books.
If the Rowling e-books are available under Kindle Unlimited, once you check them out, you can also check out the audible versions of the audiobooks at no charge (I think).
These would be the Jim Dale narrated versions.
I’ve never done this: but I’m told if you have a Kindle Unlimited e-book checked out that is also “whispersync-for-audio-enabled”, you can also listen as well as read.
If you wanna give that a try.
Re Sorcerer’s Stone
The book kinda really finds its stride, so to speak, about midway. Around Christmas, in the in-book story chronology.
It has some of the feel of what is it - a first novel; and is clunky pr has issues at times. But it’s still kinda wonderful.
@f00l@mossygreen There are a few audible books available with unlimited but not many, and the Harry Potter ones aren’t.
It took me about 4 tries to get through The Sorcerer’s Stone. I think this time it worked because I went to Universal Studios a few years ago and the Harry Potter part was amazing.
@sammydog01 I really like the series. The first couple books seem geared younger and less complex to me. I would love to see JKR do an extended version. I didn’t find the series until I was in England when the parties were happening for the third book. I had to read them to find out what everyone was talking about. By the final book I was preordering and staying up to read it so I didn’t have anyone spoil it! I also recommend the audio versions. Both of them. I bought both and listen to the often.
@sammydog01@speediedelivery One of the reasons the books held their audience is because Rowling did an incredible job of growing the content and characters with the readers. My wife (huge HP fan) started these at 11yo when no one knew what HP was. She followed them all the way through. The early stories seem aimed at a younger audience because they were.
also recommend the audio versions. Both of them. I bought both and listen to the often.
I love them both. I borrowed the CD Fry versions from a friend who was getting them sent each release from a U.K. relative. I bought the CD Jim Dale ones her, split the ($$$ for audiobooks) expense w a friend.
been a few years, but I remember loving the Fry versions for their combo of both taking the stories seriously, and adding a droll quality, without overdoing either.
I love the Jim Dale versions for the incredible range of character voices, and even more, for his ability to convey emotion perfectly, again without overdoing it
As I recall, both narrations got better (for me) as the series progressed and moved further from the “children’s lit” category toward emotional and narrative maturity.
I think there are two versions of the audiobooks because there are two versions of texts. In the original manuscripts, Rowling used so much insular BritSlang that, when she signed a worldwide contract (smd got her first serious $), a US/Worldwide publisher condition was to lighten up on the slang.
She was not so far from a “nobody” then, and agreed. I think she has said in interviews that, had she been sure of supporting herself in the future, she would have held out on that.
Anyway, there are the two text versions: “BritSpeak” and “less BritSpeak”. What you get depends on what country your copies are published in smd those sorts on publisher contracts.
And, hence, there are two different audiobooks versions to match the two diff text versions.
Both Stephen Fry and Jim Dale are UK natives, who narrate the books in modern “relaxed proper” UK accents.
Re the films: my favs are 3 and 4. I’m not a huge fan of the film versions of 5-8. They’re ok. My take.
And I esp love Kenneth Branagh in the second film.
And my fav thing in all the films is prob Alan Rickman as Snape.
I was trying to find a list of good books on Kindle Unlimited and I found this analogy on Reddit:
Imagine going to the grocery store and wanting to find some spaghetti noodles, but all 20 aisles are filled with dick shaped pasta.
Then you have to go down each one and look in every nook and cranny to find the normal shaped noodles.
You pick up a promising looking box, but upon closer examination realize that it says “Pusta” instead of “Pasta”.
Reading the ingredients, you come across foreign looking words such as “Wheet”, “Flowr” and “Eg”. You know that perhaps this could be the most delicious pasta in the world, but the frequent and offputting spelling has completely turned you off.
After 2 hours of searching, you are relieved to find a normal box of spaghetti noodles. You take them home and open the box to pour into boiling water. What’s this? As the noodles begin to cook, they expand into some kind of strange shape. God damnit, you’ve been tricked! Before you know it, tiny edible dicks are overflowing out of your pot and into your kitchen.
Frantically, you call the store for help. “It’s all dicks!” you scream. But they laugh as you hear the sound of money being counted on the other end.
@sammydog01 I think most if not all of Gladys Mitchell’s Mrs. Bradley mysteries are on it. I kept on buying them and not getting kindle unlimited, but I noticed.
@f00l Thanks, but I own way more books than I can ever read. I only got the membership because there’s a long waiting list for Harry Potter at the library.
I looked up the HP kindle books. They don’t have whispersync-for-voice enabled. So no freebie listens. : (
I was gonna suggest you check the library for the HP audiobooks, if you are interested in giving those a try. I thought most public libraries would have either insta-download versions or cd versions or both, and I also thought - stupidly thought, it seems - that, 12-13 years after the final book in the series was published, they ought to be available; that library demand would have slackened, as people either finally read them, or finally a bought them.
And perhaps that’s true for the audio versions. Huh. Dunno.
But I really should have guessed there would still be a library wait-list.
Because, 12-13 years after publication, all 7 books are almost always in the top 50 list of fiction bestsellers (physical and digital versions I think but not certain), often in the top 20 fiction books, and not unusually in the top 10 fiction bestsellers. Esp around Nov-Dec each year.
This in spite of secondhand physical books (and pirated digital versions ) being available all over the place.
I and my HP-liking friends consider these to work great as re-reads or re-listens. One friend (not any kind of HP fanatic) likes to re-read or re-listen when he is stressed enough that he doesn’t want any new material in his heads at that moment; he just wants something familiar that gives him a long “mood vacation”.
I do love the audio versions of these. If you have a taste for that format, I hope you can find audio copies.
Last night I finally finished Stephen King’s The Stand. This was the “author’s edit” version which restored hundreds of pages of content which was cut by Doubleday in the original 1978 edition. The original version was 823 pages. The updated edition is 1152 pages.
It was long. I don’t know which portions were restored, as this was my first time through the story, but there was lots of stuff that could have been sliced from the book and wouldn’t have affected the overall story. Stu and Tom’s trip back to Boulder, for example. It was much longer and more detailed than it needed to be and didn’t really add a thing to the plot.
Still, I enjoyed it. Despite the few spots that drag on, I would recommend.
A couple weeks ago I ordered a DVD of the six hour miniseries which aired on ABC in the spring of 1994. I’ve been holding off on watching it, waiting to finish the book. I’m curious to see how badly ABC butchered this one. I remember watching The Langoliers on ABC in the mid-'90s and it was pretty bad.
@ruouttaurmind I read the sliced version (I guess) more than several years ago. I enjoyed it but it was a bit of a slog in parts so I can’t imagine what 300+ pages would do to it!
@f00l I can’t do much commenting on the narration for some of these but the ones I’ve tried or sampled have been good. All are under $1 with an audible membership.
Ten Essential Pieces of Literature
The prophet [Khalil Gibran],
Treasure Island [Robert Louis Stevenson],
White fang [Jack London],
The Time machine [H. G. Wells],
The Battle of Life [Charles Dickens],
The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes [Arthur Conan Doyle],
The Three Musketeers [Alexandre Dumas],
The adventures of Pinocchio [Carlo Collodi],
Robinson Crusoe [Daniel Defoe],
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn [Mark Twain].
The Skeptics Guide to the Universe is $2.99 on kindle today. The reviews are overwhelmingly positive except for people who are fans of acupuncture or salt rooms or who hate Hilary Clinton. Sounds interesting.
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B079L5FDBJ/ref=pe_385040_117923520_TE_M1DP
@sammydog01
Thx for setting up topic.
@sammydog01 I dunno… used to listen to their podcast, but they got a little too… certain. Too comfortable being in a debunking mode. I don’t think that’s a good way to remain skeptical.
And then they’d occasionally drift into tech topics and do a bad job covering them.
@InnocuousFarmer I will keep that in mind. Thanks.
I know it isn’t news, but Amazon has a monthly program of a “pick one free book”. It’s called Amazon First Reads, or sometimes Kindle First Reads.
https://www.amazon.com/firstreads
They’re mostly new authors, usually with a few books in a series (amazon wants you to buy the other books in the series by the author). There’s usually several genres to choose from. Sometimes they suck. For free, and you-pick-em, what do you want?
@mike808
I think “First reads” requires amazon prime on your account?
@f00l
You may be right. I have had Prime so long (for the video streaming) that I’m still using $89/year “Gift of Prime” gift certificates that I gave to my future self.
I’m most of the way through “Exhalation” the collection of stories by sci-fi author Ted Chiang.
Meh.
I liked the stories in his other collection, “Stories of Your Life and Others”, but none of the ones in this book have impressed me at all, and I think I’m on the last one.
This one’s probably the most promising of the lot, with a great title - “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom” - and an interesting premise of a world in which there’s a device that lets you communicate with an alternate you, in an alternate timeline - a branching of reality that’s precipitated by activating the machine in the first place - and the consequences of such a technology.
The story itself is not turning out to be as interesting as the title and premise would suggest.
I’ve been thinking that it’s like a P.K. Dick story that was written by an author of historical biographies or something similarly dry.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Can someone remind me who was the Meh staffer who recently published their first novel, and the title of the book? A link to it on Amazon would be even better.
I think it was ChadP, but my memory sucks, and a search of these forums for “ChadP” didn’t find me the answer after several pages of search results.
Anyway, I’d like to read that one next.
@DennisG2014 -
The debut novel of Sean Adams meh writer to you and me out now
@aetris Thank you!
That’d explain why searching for ChadP didn’t yield results. lol
@DennisG2014 - YW
I enjoyed it, it was a pretty quick read with some fun ideas and good characterization.
@aetris @DennisG2014
I’m looking forward to reading that book.
Right now I’m fixated by John Le Carre and Graham Greene. “World weariness novels”, you might call these.
@f00l - I’m trying to gnaw my way through “Surrender: How British Industry Gave Up the Ghost, 1952-2012” and getting pretty weary of that world!
Actually, my next read will probably be: “Man Without a Face” by Markus Wolf…
@aetris
That book of the Brit economy looks kinda interesting. Or perhaps a summary would be interesting.
Re Graham Greene
He is viewed as a substantial novelist. Was Nobel shortlisted.
And also was reputedly often in a quite miserable frame of mind.
I have been reading a bit about his private life:
and he seems to have been a talented, tormented, educated, privileged shit for much of the time.
And, as judged by his contemporaries, often a notable and total hypocrite.
In his case this perhaps these judgments matter because he was so willing to actively participate in profiting (sexually, reputationally, esp financially) from practices and institutions he condemned;
and to betray, lie to, or undercut, so much (institutions, persons, and esp values and beliefs) he praised or claimed to espouse.
I am no Greene expert and this is just a quick take based on a bit of reading.
But, if one wants to know a little of “the person behind the work”, well, Greene looks to be quite a case study.
@f00l - I’ve seen a couple Graham-Greene based movies but I don’t think I ever actually read one of his books. Someday I’ll read “Our Man in Havana” (but the film had Alec Guinness and Maureen O’Hara in it!!!)
I’m kind of regretting “Surrender”, which is pretty much a continuous stream of bad news, baldly presented. A better (and shorter) book on the British economy is supposed to be “Forging Ahead, Falling Behind and Fighting Back: British Economic Growth from the Industrial Revolution to the Financial Crisis” by Nicholas Krafts.
@f00l - As for a summary, “Surrender” (by Nicholas Comfort - funny about the names) largely blames British businesses for failing to modernize and government for failing to coordinate policy with reality. Of course he can’t ignore the impact of the British unions, which were stupefyingly obstructive and greedy. I haven’t finished it yet, but he speaks glowingly about the German and French governments for protecting their industries while supporting continuous equipment improvements and support for industrial education.
@aetris @f00l I’m enjoying it.
@aetris
I can believe that book could wear on one emotionally. Not very much good news.
I’m reading Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History by Kurt Andersen. It was a kindle deal-of-the-day which I did not buy because my library had a digital download available (also a hard copy, but I’m still semi-boycotting the library, even though I only know two people who work there now and like them both). It’s very openly anti-Trump and anti-Evangelical Christianity (which I don’t have a problem with, but feel should be clear about in case someone else does), but as far as the introduction goes puts the ultimate blame for current American culture on Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press and everything that happened in the 1960’s.
When I saw the title I thought, hot damn, this is going to be about the Burned-Over district and Spiritualism and Mormonism and the New Thought movement! And it is, but Andersen is a novelist and not a historian, so the book is not quite as wonky and historically detailed as I’d like. It’s funny, but I WANT MORE HISTORY AND FOOTNOTES. For an example of my state of mind: he quoted Keith Thomas, author of Religion and the Decline of Magic and I squealed because I’ve read that book three or four times (I love that book).
Here’s an amazon link if you’re interested, but check your library first:
https://smile.amazon.com/Fantasyland-America-Haywire-500-Year-History-ebook/dp/B004J4WNJE
@mossygreen Update: He goes into no detail on anything and it’s driving me crazy! Quotes w/out footnotes and it doesn’t look like there’s a bibliography. I think he oversimplifies a lot of things as well, spends no time on the New Thought Movement and so (perhaps inadvertently) presents How to Win Friends and Influence People as a new thing rather than a direct continuation of it. So far has ignored all weird religious movements and cults that aren’t at least nominally Christian except for Scientology, and I’m up to the '60’s, so it’s not going to happen. Really, I’d just like to read all the books he read in order to write this one.
I just started reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I’ve had the hardcover around for years and kept meaning to read it. It’s pretty good.
@sammydog01 I enjoyed the whole series. It’s a fun read.
@sammydog01 I have an irrational dislike of J.K. Rowling and that book in particular because I read it at the same time I read Tanith Lee’s first published book, which was also for children, and which I thought was much better. I had a very emotional why aren’t people reading this other, much better writer?! reaction which is probably not fair.
@sammydog01 @mossygreen
The HP series is a lot of fun. And Rowling is amazingly inventive in that series; the whole thing seems to thoroughly engage most readers from the start.
She’s just a damn fine writer. And her sometimes annoying public persona (she’s active on Twitter) should not (I hope) count much against her books.
Re Tanith Lee
I’ve never read her. But it’s pretty commonplace for very talented writers to get overlooked.
JK Rowling’s series had the ability to really engage so many readers.
Remember the worldwide all/night book launch parties?
That summer camps that could not get kids to sign up for camp the week of a Rowling book release, unless the camp offered every child who wanted one their own hardback copy, and gave each child many days off regular camp activities in order to finish reading it?
For the last few HP book releases, I stayed up all night reading the books the day they came out. They were and are just plain fun.
So did many friends, and their children.
And I think some people still play quidditch.
For me, the memory of the series that sticks is how she got childhood/adolescence right. You can see how the characters stumble through the same errors, embarrassments, humiliations, angers and resentments we all felt and feel; they want to be strong and competent, and their stumble forward, getting in their own way.
Creating half the own problems. Not being able to get over being obsessed and angry, or feeling inferior or rejected, even tho they want to. Even tho they know they are being stupid.
But these are no “troubled youth” stories. She was writing for a PG-13 audience and stays within that boundary; and she’s inventive, full of wonder, and funny as hell. She never pays out the reader into total hopelessness.
So … /win!
The in-world “fairy stories” are also very fine fine and quite inventive.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3950967-the-tales-of-beedle-the-bard
/image “tales of beedle the bard”
I dunno if any writer deserves that much success. But whatever “it” is for popular writers, Rowling has it.
FWIW, Rowling’s “Robert Galbraith” Cormoran Strike mystery series is also v nice.
PS @sammydog01
Both the Brit (narrated by Stephen Fry) and the American/worldwide (narrated by Jim Dale) audiobook series are some of the best ever recorded. Both excellent.
Both versions won numerous awards.
The voice narration style starts “youngish” (late elementary school expectations) and grows with the series and characters.
If you are interested in the audiobooks, don’t be put off if the opener sounds like a kid’s book. Both the narrators’ voice styles start there, and then grow, with the deepening complexity and maturity of the books.
@f00l @mossygreen I have two months of free kindle unlimited waiting for me- I think I’ll join to read the rest of the series.
@mossygreen @sammydog01
If the Rowling e-books are available under Kindle Unlimited, once you check them out, you can also check out the audible versions of the audiobooks at no charge (I think).
These would be the Jim Dale narrated versions.
I’ve never done this: but I’m told if you have a Kindle Unlimited e-book checked out that is also “whispersync-for-audio-enabled”, you can also listen as well as read.
If you wanna give that a try.
Re Sorcerer’s Stone
The book kinda really finds its stride, so to speak, about midway. Around Christmas, in the in-book story chronology.
It has some of the feel of what is it - a first novel; and is clunky pr has issues at times. But it’s still kinda wonderful.
@f00l @sammydog01 I said I was irrational and not fair.
@f00l @mossygreen There are a few audible books available with unlimited but not many, and the Harry Potter ones aren’t.
It took me about 4 tries to get through The Sorcerer’s Stone. I think this time it worked because I went to Universal Studios a few years ago and the Harry Potter part was amazing.
@f00l @mossygreen Taste is subjective.
@mossygreen @sammydog01
IMHO The series improves as it goes along hope you find that to be the case
@sammydog01 I really like the series. The first couple books seem geared younger and less complex to me. I would love to see JKR do an extended version. I didn’t find the series until I was in England when the parties were happening for the third book. I had to read them to find out what everyone was talking about. By the final book I was preordering and staying up to read it so I didn’t have anyone spoil it! I also recommend the audio versions. Both of them. I bought both and listen to the often.
@sammydog01 @speediedelivery One of the reasons the books held their audience is because Rowling did an incredible job of growing the content and characters with the readers. My wife (huge HP fan) started these at 11yo when no one knew what HP was. She followed them all the way through. The early stories seem aimed at a younger audience because they were.
@RedHot @sammydog01 @speediedelivery
I love them both. I borrowed the CD Fry versions from a friend who was getting them sent each release from a U.K. relative. I bought the CD Jim Dale ones her, split the ($$$ for audiobooks) expense w a friend.
been a few years, but I remember loving the Fry versions for their combo of both taking the stories seriously, and adding a droll quality, without overdoing either.
I love the Jim Dale versions for the incredible range of character voices, and even more, for his ability to convey emotion perfectly, again without overdoing it
As I recall, both narrations got better (for me) as the series progressed and moved further from the “children’s lit” category toward emotional and narrative maturity.
I think there are two versions of the audiobooks because there are two versions of texts. In the original manuscripts, Rowling used so much insular BritSlang that, when she signed a worldwide contract (smd got her first serious $), a US/Worldwide publisher condition was to lighten up on the slang.
She was not so far from a “nobody” then, and agreed. I think she has said in interviews that, had she been sure of supporting herself in the future, she would have held out on that.
Anyway, there are the two text versions: “BritSpeak” and “less BritSpeak”. What you get depends on what country your copies are published in smd those sorts on publisher contracts.
And, hence, there are two different audiobooks versions to match the two diff text versions.
Both Stephen Fry and Jim Dale are UK natives, who narrate the books in modern “relaxed proper” UK accents.
Re the films: my favs are 3 and 4. I’m not a huge fan of the film versions of 5-8. They’re ok. My take.
And I esp love Kenneth Branagh in the second film.
And my fav thing in all the films is prob Alan Rickman as Snape.
/giphy Severus Snape
I was trying to find a list of good books on Kindle Unlimited and I found this analogy on Reddit:
@sammydog01
@sammydog01
A lot of really good stuff from 50 years ago or longer is on Kindle unlimited I think maybe try looking for some of that
@sammydog01 I think most if not all of Gladys Mitchell’s Mrs. Bradley mysteries are on it. I kept on buying them and not getting kindle unlimited, but I noticed.
@sammydog01
Try a few of the links from this search. Many have made lists of best Kindle Unlimited books, it seems.
Seems like quite a few books and genres get a nod, so hope you can find wonderful stuff worth the reading investment.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=best+kindle+unlimited+books&t=fpas&ia=shopping
@f00l Thanks, but I own way more books than I can ever read. I only got the membership because there’s a long waiting list for Harry Potter at the library.
@sammydog01
I looked up the HP kindle books. They don’t have whispersync-for-voice enabled. So no freebie listens. : (
I was gonna suggest you check the library for the HP audiobooks, if you are interested in giving those a try. I thought most public libraries would have either insta-download versions or cd versions or both, and I also thought - stupidly thought, it seems - that, 12-13 years after the final book in the series was published, they ought to be available; that library demand would have slackened, as people either finally read them, or finally a bought them.
And perhaps that’s true for the audio versions. Huh. Dunno.
But I really should have guessed there would still be a library wait-list.
Because, 12-13 years after publication, all 7 books are almost always in the top 50 list of fiction bestsellers (physical and digital versions I think but not certain), often in the top 20 fiction books, and not unusually in the top 10 fiction bestsellers. Esp around Nov-Dec each year.
This in spite of secondhand physical books (and pirated digital versions
) being available all over the place.
I and my HP-liking friends consider these to work great as re-reads or re-listens. One friend (not any kind of HP fanatic) likes to re-read or re-listen when he is stressed enough that he doesn’t want any new material in his heads at that moment; he just wants something familiar that gives him a long “mood vacation”.
I do love the audio versions of these. If you have a taste for that format, I hope you can find audio copies.
@f00l I was #47 on the waitlist for the first audiobook. Estimated time 7 weeks. I’m happy with the books- I don’t have any long drives coming up.
@sammydog01
Wow.
Rowling is said to be worth way more than Stephen King or Patterson or Clancy or any of those people. I can believe.
Last night I finally finished Stephen King’s The Stand. This was the “author’s edit” version which restored hundreds of pages of content which was cut by Doubleday in the original 1978 edition. The original version was 823 pages. The updated edition is 1152 pages.
It was long. I don’t know which portions were restored, as this was my first time through the story, but there was lots of stuff that could have been sliced from the book and wouldn’t have affected the overall story. Stu and Tom’s trip back to Boulder, for example. It was much longer and more detailed than it needed to be and didn’t really add a thing to the plot.
Still, I enjoyed it. Despite the few spots that drag on, I would recommend.
A couple weeks ago I ordered a DVD of the six hour miniseries which aired on ABC in the spring of 1994. I’ve been holding off on watching it, waiting to finish the book. I’m curious to see how badly ABC butchered this one. I remember watching The Langoliers on ABC in the mid-'90s and it was pretty bad.
@ruouttaurmind I read the sliced version (I guess) more than several years ago. I enjoyed it but it was a bit of a slog in parts so I can’t imagine what 300+ pages would do to it!
Classics with current narration for less than $2 without Audible membership, less than $1 with a membership.
https://www.audible.com/pd/10-Masterpieces-You-Have-to-Read-Before-You-Die-1-Audiobook/2291080687?pf_rd_p=6a5ce8e4-798e-4a64-8bc5-71dcf66d673f&pf_rd_r=CHA9MNZMSCXVYDJ97FGJ&ref=a_lib_c4_libItem_2291080687
https://www.audible.com/pd/Ali-Baba-and-the-Forty-Thieves-Audiobook/B007A4BOT0?pf_rd_p=6a5ce8e4-798e-4a64-8bc5-71dcf66d673f&pf_rd_r=6ZXRRY9RJ08G7P4B4CQC&ref=a_lib_c4_libItem_B007A4BOT0
and many others…
@RedHot
If there is a longer list of such classics at that price on audible, do you link to the longer list of audiobooks?
@f00l There is not an official list that you can go to to see everything. I think these are normal prices. I’ve only found them while looking around.
@f00l I can’t do much commenting on the narration for some of these but the ones I’ve tried or sampled have been good. All are under $1 with an audible membership.
Lot 249
The Mark of the Beast
The Body Snatcher
Compilation of Jane Austin Novels
Ten Essential Pieces of Literature
The prophet [Khalil Gibran],
Treasure Island [Robert Louis Stevenson],
White fang [Jack London],
The Time machine [H. G. Wells],
The Battle of Life [Charles Dickens],
The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes [Arthur Conan Doyle],
The Three Musketeers [Alexandre Dumas],
The adventures of Pinocchio [Carlo Collodi],
Robinson Crusoe [Daniel Defoe],
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn [Mark Twain].
@RedHot
Much thx!
@f00l @RedHot They’re all around a dollar without an audible membership too. Thanks!
Free for me at present, pre-release audiobook.
Maybe free for all you also, if you are an audible member? Not sure.
(I’m a current audible member.)
The Tales of Beedle the Bard
By: J.K. Rowling
https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Tales-of-Beedle-the-Bard-Audiobook/1781103798
/image tales of beedle the bard
The sale page has an amusing video intro recorded (I think) by Warwick Davis
9th gen Kindle Oasis is on sale in the Treasure Truck today. Gorgeous luxe e-reader, for those who like Kindles.
Details here:
https://meh.com/forum/topics/the-unofficial-february-2020-deals-thread---second-best-deals-of-the-decade#5e5804c68b13c10cd0ea2b5f