Monday, May 09, 2022

Audio Books

Back a few years ago, when I was suffering from depression, going through a divorce, and wasn't able to focus my mind to read through a whole book I began listening to audio books. I am able to read books again but I still enjoy listening to them. Here is what I've listned to since Christmas 2021.

1. The Little Drummer Girl by John Le Carre. (It wasn't his best, nor close to it.)

2. The Greek Revolution by Mark Mazower. (It was good but I needed a map.)

3. The Holy Angels by Mother Alexandra. (WOW! Totally not what I was expecting. I thought it would be a dense scholarly tome, instead it was very personal. I'm going to listen to this one again.)

4. Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne. (I saw the movie at the Stanford Theater a long time ago and very much enjoyed it. The book was even better.)

5. Arise, O God by Fr. Stephen Andrew Damick. (It was good. Kind like his podcats on Ancient Faith Raido.)

6. The Booksellers Tale by Martin Latham (I just couldn't get into it. I think I listend to the first 30 minutes 4 different times but just wasn't interested.)

7. The Great Anglo-Boer War by Byron Farwell. (I'm happy to have learned about a subject of which I had been ignorant but, gosh, it was a slog getting through this one.)

8. The Bomber Mafia by Malcolm Gladwell. (His conclusion is, I think, childish and naive, but the rest of the book is first rate. I enjoyed learning more about Gen. Curtis Lemay.)

9. The Sea and Civilization by Lincoln Paine. (Very good. The way it dealth with geography, specifically where there are oceans, as cause of historical action reminded me of Braudel's The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II. It was worth the investment.)

2 comments:

GretchenJoanna said...

I tried The Holy Angels from Audible, but I returned it, only because of the narrator. She lacks gravitas or something, makes me think I am in a kindergarten classroom, which is very distracting. I think narrators should be chosen for how they reflect the tone and subject of the author, but I guess Ancient Faith doesn't have enough narrators to choose from. They had the same narrator for a book from a holy elder; do they not have any men narrators??

Matt said...

Yes, I agree. I did not like the narrator, either. It took me a while to get used to her.