I've listened to a couple of classic books during the last week or so.
Have Space Suit Will Travel, by Robert A. Heinlein, was the first science fiction novel I ever read (I think I was about ten or eleven at the time). I was surprised at how much of the characters and story I remembered, and how much I enjoyed revisiting this great yarn.
Still in 'classic' mode, I next picked Robert Louis Stephenson's, Treasure Island, from the library's audio collection.
When I first read the book, some 40+ years ago, I understood very few of the nautical terms and expressions, but it didn't stop me enjoying what (at the time) I thought was one of the best stories I'd ever read.
I've seen various movie interpretations of it since (the best being Muppet Treasure Island), but I haven't revisited the actual book since my late teens. After listening to the unabridged audio version, I'm happy to say that it's still one of my favorite stories. Long John Silver has to be one of the most enjoyable bad guys in fiction.
How about you?
What book are you reading (or listening to) at the moment?
- Current Mood:
cheerful
Comments
Moby Dick.
This is at least my third time with it.
it is also, far and away, Tim Curry's best movie.
Now I've just started listening to All's Quiet on the Western Front. I'm finding that classic audio books make the commute a bit more bearable. Gives me a way to catch up on classics I missed out on reading in my youth, and makes what I previously considered "dead" time productive. I'm a firm believer that exposure to good reading helps us learn, if only intuitively, better craft for our writing. Since February I've listened to six audio books and am on my seventh now. If I can manage about one a month, that's an extra dozen novels to consume every year. From where I stand (or sit as the case may be while driving) that's a fine thing.
Not sure. I downloaded a pile of classic books a while back. Books I always wanted to read, but could never find.
If you ever come across a narrator named Josephine Bailey, she's incredible. I listend to Libba Bray's "A Great and Terrible Beauty," which has four main teenage girls in Victorian England and scads of supporting characters. I could tell which character was "speaking" even when the character wasn't identified, by the variation the narrator put into their voices. It was amazing. She's also done "The Secret Garden," which is where I first discovered her.
Thanks, Amy :)
I'm reading the dead tree version of KNIGHT OF THE BLAZING SUN by Josh Reynolds
I'm just finishing Alexander McCall Smith's The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection. To anticipate any question regarding what I think of it, it is the 13th in the The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, and I have
listened togreedily consumed all of the first twelve! If I wasn't impressed, I would be listening to this one.The reader, Lisette Lecatt, does an excellent job of preforming the Botswanan accent, as well as switching to the occasional British and in this book, an American visitor.
The book is filled with the beauty of Botswana (a land-locked country); it/their traditions, culture, respect for one another, and the indications of the changes as the old generation succumbs to the in-roads of the more modern.
Alexander McCall Smith
And I picked up a second-hand 1970s book on Australian Christmases on the weekend, so that's next :)