What Are You Reading?
7So. What are you reading?
In 2020, I decided to stop listening to podcasts and start focusing on audiobooks. I went from averaging 1 book a year to reading over 50 a year for the last 2 years, and well on my way for this year. And yes, I consider audiobooks reading books. It has increased my number of actual books sat down and read as well.
Anyway, I just read The Terminal List. It’s a weird little action book that is actually now an Amazon Prime series that dropped today. I’ll be honest, I was really conflicted over the book. The action was good. The story was neat. It gets a little in the weeds on some things that didn’t interest me. But I’m probably going to watch the show as a result, just to see how they pull it off.
So. What are you reading? Drop you recommendations. Let me know if you want to know what I read. I’m all over the map, so.
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I’m reading two books.
Web Analytics: An Hour a Day: Kaushik, Avinash
and
Suspicious Minds by Gwenda Bond.
Oh, I also have a “car book” that I keep in my car for emergencies and that’s How to Archer by Sterling Archer.
Forgot how to read. Sorry.
/giphy sorry not sorry.
Will update laterz.
Currently reading House of Gucci, which the movie was based on. That’s only because I’m taking a break from rereading all of Mario Puzo‘s books (author of Godfather and related books).
P.S. For all the illiterate folks out there, as this month’s goat, I apologize for your lack of reading skills. Goats can’t read either eh.
@hammi99
wut did u sez?
@f00l oh you’re literate . . . just can’t spell. HAHAHAHAHA blame the goat!
@hammi99
Deh red it owt lowd
False Value (Rivers of London book 8 ). It’s summer, time for beach books even if I’m not at the beach.
I just finished the audiobook of Cryptonomicon. That took a lot of road trips.
@sammydog01
But now that you read that, you’re culturally cooler than those college kids you hang out with.
@f00l I’m trying to get the math major to read it but no luck so far.
Ulysses.
Last time I read it was in grad school 30 years ago.
This time it’s just for fun.
I’ve been trying to read several books, none of which have taken since I finished Cary Grant: a Brilliant Disguise. Finally gave up and started a reread of Dorothy L. Sayer’s Lord Wimsey mysteries last night, and it’s going really well so far.
Finally got around to read Stephen King’s 11/22/63, it’s not bad, unlike the TV show which I couldn’t even finish episode 1. Thomas Perry’s The Old Man is next.
It’s pronounced “redd-ing”
@reddinghill
So what are you redding?
Listening <> Reading
@unksol But it is at least more cognitively involved than watching TV.
@xobzoo I don’t know which is more just that they are not the same so.
“And yes, I consider audiobooks reading books”
Annoys me.
Simply because saying I read a book is fine.
I listened to an audiobook is fine.
I read an audio book? I listened to a book.
Those do not convey you consumed the media as expected
@xobzoo keep your mitts off my tv :p
@unksol @xobzoo
Audiobooks rock.
Or so I say, thereby justifying my wonderful time and $ investments.
Any way (in terminology terms) by which a person wants to indicate having “consumed” or “experienced” or “completed” the book/audiobook is fine by me.
/image audiobook
@f00l @xobzoo I have no problem with audiobooks and if I had a commute I’d probably be all over that.
Just words have meanings. Hrumph.
Although when I did read a lot the focus would not have been condusive to driving. Or anything else. Since I just got into the book. I wonder if listening would really be the same. Different brain pathways and all
@unksol @xobzoo
PS
“Fine by me” Includes when people indicate that they consumed the audiobook with fava beans and a nice Chianti
@unksol @xobzoo
Consuming difficult or challenging or technical material in audio form is more challenging for most of us than reading it with our eyes but both are learned skills.
Sight impaired people who cannot use visual reading spend their lives mastering these skills and are quite fine with them
As for multitasking and the fact that it’s slightly different process
when I’m reading difficult material by using an audio format I wind up doing a lot of replays and repeats to go over material until I sort of got it and frequently I listen more than once sometimes I listen many times
I’m not great at this but it can be done
@f00l @unksol @xobzoo I dislike not having the option to read instructions or recipes or whatever - I’m so distractable that audio-only means I miss stuff; not such a problem if it’s just for fun.
@Kyeh @unksol @xobzoo
In my case, re audio or other forms or dealing with instructions or tech info, practice makes for perfect idiocy and incomprehension.
It’s a gift!
@f00l @Kyeh @unksol @xobzoo
The Shadow knows there’s no such thing as audiobooks, they are radio dramas.
@blaineg @f00l @Kyeh @xobzoo lol basically what I was going to compare them to.
@f00l @xobzoo I meant more I suspect my individual brain might function differently listening vs reading simply because of the sheer volume of reading as a kid. Fiction and nonfiction.
But it’s been a long time since I’ve read/listened to a book. Pretty sure I can still read faster than listen but. That’s sitting down and reading a book
@blaineg @Kyeh @unksol @xobzoo
; )
Radio/audio dramas are usually thought of as being with a full cast.
They can be awesome. Check out the NPR audio version of Star Wars someday.
Reading books/lit works aloud by a single reader, or similar is an old tradition. Way back in Greece and Rome and before. people read or recited to groups of listeners. There’s Beowulf and Homer and way on back.
In Ye Olde England, early in the development of the novel, a literate person or group would stage regular episodic readings of Defoe or Clarissa or Dickens, as esp in rural villages many folk still couldn’t read well or couldn’t afford books.
At certain key notable plot moments in the storyline, the audience might break into cheers or cries of woe, and sometimes the local folk would even ring the church bells to mark and extend the feel of the dramatic story development.
Audiobooks as we know them began with the beginning of longer form sound recordings, first as a means of providing lit to injured/disabled WWI vets.
Later the program, sponsored by the Library Of Congress in the US snd by various charities in the UK, was extended (free) to all disabled.
The first audiobooks from the L of C were shipped out on wire recorded media, later on 78’s. Can you imagine getting something like Great Expectations in many heavy boxes of 78’s?
An excellent history is here:
The Untold Story of the Talking Book
https://www.amazon.com/Untold-Story-Talking-Book-ebook/dp/B01N0R4BF0/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?crid=P5SOBL4XCQ16&keywords=the+history+of+the+talking+book&qid=1656891861&s=digital-text&sprefix=the+history+of+the+talking+book%2Caps%2C116&sr=1-4#
VAN GOGH! MANGO! TANGO! AWESOME!
Just finished A Case of Need - by Jeffery Hudson (Pseudonym for Michael Crichton). I hate even the mildest hint to a book/movie before starting so I just randomly grab a book from the shelf. This just happened to be written in 1968 about abortion (before Roe v Wade) and was worth the read just seeing attitudes toward abortion (Racism and sexism too) at that time.
Currently enjoying The Woods by Harlan Coben
@callow I just started The Woods on audiobook today!
Just started the latest in the Honor Harrington extended world, To End in Fire. Supposed to be wrapping up the Mesan conspiracy.
Didn’t even know it was out, just stumbled onto it.
@mike808
Except for my headphones. Sometimes.
: )
/giphy audiobook
