This is such a hideous admission to make, but no, I haven't (yet) read any Raynor Winn, and I hate telling you that, as you named your other fabulous newsletter after 'The Salt Path'. I must pull my socks up...
Still friends?! Please....? 🙏
Having finished my latest audiobook - and, hot on its tails, my latest book-book (I'm so sad to have finished 'Road Ends' by Mary Lawson - it was an absolutely superb read) - I haven't chosen my latest listen yet - instead I'm enjoying Christmas music on Classic FM. My book-book reading time is taken up with reading around something I hadn't ever known anything about until very recently, but which I'm suddenly finding deeply fascinating.
Audiobooks are the best! I started listening to audiobooks after I started my career and couldn't find time to sit and read. Listening was a fun way to consume books as I commuted to work or cooked or cleaned. My favorite audiobook experience is The Hitchhikers' Guide To The Galaxy. Check it out!
I remember when that first came out as a radio serial! Friends and I (university students) would gather each Sunday afternoon if I recall correctly to listen. I hope the audiobook is as well done as that original version. I guess it would make sense to use the original serial as the audiobook. Hmmm... now I’ll have to google it to see. (Memories of poor Marvin, the depressed robot who had to come the long way through history.) A true classic.
The radio plays are something else altogether! They're super duper entertaining. While the original audiobooks were narrated by Adams himself, the newest version that came out has Stephen Fry, Adams' best friend narrating the first book. The other 4 are narrated by Martin Freeman who played Arthur in the movie. They're well narrated and entertaining!
Also thank you for sharing the memory of your fun and carefree university days. It brought a smile to my face! 😀
I am a big fan of audiobooks. I find, lately - and with some level of shame - it's the only way I can get through certain reads. Available time in the evening is usually lost to catching up on what I've let drop during the day (laundry, personal email, Chicken Scratch), but time while traveling to some meeting or other allows for long, uninterrupted stretches of "reading."
Remind me, sometime, to tell you about how terribly lost I was at one of those recent meetings. What a mess!
I'm enjoying the format so much, Elizabeth! Yesterday I had the chance to listen to some more Austen - this time a radio dramatisation, though, of 'Sense & Sensibility'. I did struggle to folllow it in some places, though, as I was doing things which required a bit of brain power - so there was a little bit of competition going on there. Having said that, I still enjoyed it!
Ooooh yes - although I'm very sorry to hear that you'd got terribly lost, I'd love to read about it!
The astrologists were right on this month! Expect "exciting offers ... good reviews!" Sounds about right to me, Rebecca. And I would dearly love to see you set your hand to fiction, 50-word or otherwise. You certainly have the creativity for it.
LOL - thanks, Donna! I'm looking forward to reading Terry's damning review of those line painters' exploits. I wonder if he'll go and check them out....? 🤔
Frank Skinners version of 12 days of Christmas is hysterical. I couldn't stop laughing 🤣. Also enjoy audiobooks and agree some books need to be read particularly those authors I enjoy their use of language. Because I get to "read" while driving, exercising or completing household tasks I am able to read more which I would rather do anyway.
It's brilliant, isn't it? I try to dig it out every year - it always has me in fits of laughter!
I don't drive very far or very often, so actually it had never really occurred to me to listen to an audiobook while I'm in the car. HOWEVER I do travel as a passenger for long and mostly boring distances in the van with Jim, so I'm going to make a point of suggesting some listening material for our next trip. Can't wait!
And you already know I'm in love with audiobookS for which I thank my friend, author Matthew Harffy, for sending me down that track a few years ago.
Spotify are planning on doing AI voices for books - as a writer with them, I received an email informing me of that fact the other day. I was FURIOUS! I spent days listening to wonderful audio voice -talent whilst looking for a narrator for my first ever audiobook and I am aghast for the sake of those magnificent real voices. I won't buy anything that's AI generated.
Karma indeed, Prue! It flipping well served him right! 🤣
Gosh, AI voices for audiobooks - that sounds like an absolutely terrible idea!
And thank you so much for such a lovely compliment about these letters. Terry and I have no plans to stop - they bring me such joy, because they call for a different kind of writing to my Saturday posts, and I really relish the project!
Dec 15, 2023·edited Dec 17, 2023Liked by Rebecca Holden
I've never listened to an audio book as my mind is both jumpy (I can leap to the end of a book in a single bound with a summary even before reading the first chapter) and focused (meticulously reading every word and neatly filing all of it in a large imaginary word/sentence/paragraph/chapter vessel, layering each new thing on top of another) when I read, always hearing my voice reading throughout. I'm wary of audio books, but this post is like an encouraging nudge to give it a go . . . My hesitancy is wondering if whatever voice I'll be listening to, is reading it right (correctly). 🤔
Like you I was wary of audiobooks, but they've added to my reading options in a lovely way. They'll never replace book-books in my reading life, but they're a good addition. The books I really really want to read (as opposed to simply wanting to be entertained while I'm busy cooking or cleaning or ironing or whatever else I'm up to when I'm not working) will always be actual books, though.
I have a number of audio books as I used to have to commute about 1 hour to work. Certainly it took that long going home! It made me not mind the commute as much.
I think travelling's an excellent opportunity for audio-book listening, although actually I don't listen to anything much in the car - well, perhaps the radio, sometimes.
Today I finished listening to 'The Remains of the Day' by Kazuo Ishiguro, read by the fabulous John Moffat (who is also the sadly now-departed voice of Hercule Poirot on BBC Radio) - such a wonderful story! I'd never read the book but I'd seen the film many, many years ago. I thoroughly enjoyed the listen.
Ah yes, the wonderful pleasures of multi-tasking!
This is such a hideous admission to make, but no, I haven't (yet) read any Raynor Winn, and I hate telling you that, as you named your other fabulous newsletter after 'The Salt Path'. I must pull my socks up...
Still friends?! Please....? 🙏
Having finished my latest audiobook - and, hot on its tails, my latest book-book (I'm so sad to have finished 'Road Ends' by Mary Lawson - it was an absolutely superb read) - I haven't chosen my latest listen yet - instead I'm enjoying Christmas music on Classic FM. My book-book reading time is taken up with reading around something I hadn't ever known anything about until very recently, but which I'm suddenly finding deeply fascinating.
Audiobooks are the best! I started listening to audiobooks after I started my career and couldn't find time to sit and read. Listening was a fun way to consume books as I commuted to work or cooked or cleaned. My favorite audiobook experience is The Hitchhikers' Guide To The Galaxy. Check it out!
I remember when that first came out as a radio serial! Friends and I (university students) would gather each Sunday afternoon if I recall correctly to listen. I hope the audiobook is as well done as that original version. I guess it would make sense to use the original serial as the audiobook. Hmmm... now I’ll have to google it to see. (Memories of poor Marvin, the depressed robot who had to come the long way through history.) A true classic.
The radio plays are something else altogether! They're super duper entertaining. While the original audiobooks were narrated by Adams himself, the newest version that came out has Stephen Fry, Adams' best friend narrating the first book. The other 4 are narrated by Martin Freeman who played Arthur in the movie. They're well narrated and entertaining!
Also thank you for sharing the memory of your fun and carefree university days. It brought a smile to my face! 😀
Happy letteraversary to you both. :).
Awww, thanks, Olga!
Thanks, Olga. I've declared a national holiday.
"Letterospective..." 😅
I am a big fan of audiobooks. I find, lately - and with some level of shame - it's the only way I can get through certain reads. Available time in the evening is usually lost to catching up on what I've let drop during the day (laundry, personal email, Chicken Scratch), but time while traveling to some meeting or other allows for long, uninterrupted stretches of "reading."
Remind me, sometime, to tell you about how terribly lost I was at one of those recent meetings. What a mess!
I'm enjoying the format so much, Elizabeth! Yesterday I had the chance to listen to some more Austen - this time a radio dramatisation, though, of 'Sense & Sensibility'. I did struggle to folllow it in some places, though, as I was doing things which required a bit of brain power - so there was a little bit of competition going on there. Having said that, I still enjoyed it!
Ooooh yes - although I'm very sorry to hear that you'd got terribly lost, I'd love to read about it!
Not sure I'll be able to write about it until I can find a way to tuck it into a larger story that is a bit less...erm...humiliating. :sigh:
The astrologists were right on this month! Expect "exciting offers ... good reviews!" Sounds about right to me, Rebecca. And I would dearly love to see you set your hand to fiction, 50-word or otherwise. You certainly have the creativity for it.
Awww, thanks, Sharron! I'm working on getting started on a bit of a 'Rebecca tries to write fiction' project. I'll keep you posted!
fiction? That's what I assumed your letters were. You mean they're true??😱
🤣
Parts of some of them are sometimes true, Terry.... 😆
The astrology! The road lines!
A great letter. Hopefully Terry will go in search of the lines, I’m sure he will also provide some good headlines. Yours were priceless!
LOL - thanks, Donna! I'm looking forward to reading Terry's damning review of those line painters' exploits. I wonder if he'll go and check them out....? 🤔
I hope he does, it will be funny!
😁
I thought they did a good job.
🙄
Frank Skinners version of 12 days of Christmas is hysterical. I couldn't stop laughing 🤣. Also enjoy audiobooks and agree some books need to be read particularly those authors I enjoy their use of language. Because I get to "read" while driving, exercising or completing household tasks I am able to read more which I would rather do anyway.
It's brilliant, isn't it? I try to dig it out every year - it always has me in fits of laughter!
I don't drive very far or very often, so actually it had never really occurred to me to listen to an audiobook while I'm in the car. HOWEVER I do travel as a passenger for long and mostly boring distances in the van with Jim, so I'm going to make a point of suggesting some listening material for our next trip. Can't wait!
Love the car clamps! Karma?
And you already know I'm in love with audiobookS for which I thank my friend, author Matthew Harffy, for sending me down that track a few years ago.
Spotify are planning on doing AI voices for books - as a writer with them, I received an email informing me of that fact the other day. I was FURIOUS! I spent days listening to wonderful audio voice -talent whilst looking for a narrator for my first ever audiobook and I am aghast for the sake of those magnificent real voices. I won't buy anything that's AI generated.
Sorry - rant over.
Keep writing those super letters!
Karma indeed, Prue! It flipping well served him right! 🤣
Gosh, AI voices for audiobooks - that sounds like an absolutely terrible idea!
And thank you so much for such a lovely compliment about these letters. Terry and I have no plans to stop - they bring me such joy, because they call for a different kind of writing to my Saturday posts, and I really relish the project!
I've never listened to an audio book as my mind is both jumpy (I can leap to the end of a book in a single bound with a summary even before reading the first chapter) and focused (meticulously reading every word and neatly filing all of it in a large imaginary word/sentence/paragraph/chapter vessel, layering each new thing on top of another) when I read, always hearing my voice reading throughout. I'm wary of audio books, but this post is like an encouraging nudge to give it a go . . . My hesitancy is wondering if whatever voice I'll be listening to, is reading it right (correctly). 🤔
Oh I loved reading about how you read, Mary!
Like you I was wary of audiobooks, but they've added to my reading options in a lovely way. They'll never replace book-books in my reading life, but they're a good addition. The books I really really want to read (as opposed to simply wanting to be entertained while I'm busy cooking or cleaning or ironing or whatever else I'm up to when I'm not working) will always be actual books, though.
I fall asleep to audiobooks. Sigh. Clamping makes me nervous.
🤣
Clever video, and most chortleworthy. And thanks for the information about the audiobooks. I will respond in due course.😆
Thanks, Terry! 😁
That video was so very funny! Thank you for that!
I have a number of audio books as I used to have to commute about 1 hour to work. Certainly it took that long going home! It made me not mind the commute as much.
I'm so pleased!
I think travelling's an excellent opportunity for audio-book listening, although actually I don't listen to anything much in the car - well, perhaps the radio, sometimes.
Today I finished listening to 'The Remains of the Day' by Kazuo Ishiguro, read by the fabulous John Moffat (who is also the sadly now-departed voice of Hercule Poirot on BBC Radio) - such a wonderful story! I'd never read the book but I'd seen the film many, many years ago. I thoroughly enjoyed the listen.