Audiobooks

Since I started working in Brunswick, which is a 45-minute drive from home, I have become addicted to audiobooks. I almost never listen to the radio anymore in my car - it's always an audiobook. And it has to be unabridged versions. I'll opt to read a book if the only audio version available is abridged. I don't want to miss ANY part of the book.

Right now I am listening to James Lee Burke's Sunset Limited. Mark Hammer reads this book. I've listened to several Robicheaux novels now, and I think Hammer has read all of them. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I know he's read most of the ones I've listened to, at least. At first I thought he sounded a little too old to be Robicheaux, but he's so great with all the dialects and the connotations. He's definitely grown on me, and I really enjoy listening to him. A reader can make a big difference in a novel. I was going to go back to the beginning of Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta series. I read the first book and got the second on audiobook from the library. I ended up not even finishing the first CD. Cornwell's Scarpetta novels are in first person from the perspective of Scarpetta, a North Carolina native - the reader was British - distinctly British. I couldn't listen to it. It was just all wrong. That's the only one I couldn't finish, though, because of a reader.

I get all the audio books from the library. If I really like one of them on audio, I'll buy the book itself. But, rarely do I buy an audiobook. The only drawback to this is not all library users are considerate when borrowing materials. They return them damaged. There's nothing more frustrating than to miss a big section of a book because the CD is scratched and jumps around. Grrrr!

My next acquisition is going to be an MP3 player that I can load with books, so that I can listen to books while I walk outside or on the treadmill. There are just so many ways to fit books into a day! :)