Audible Island Books

[Erik Burns]

When listening to books I just let it flow. Like to listen to things I've read and love, but also books I'd probably not sit down and read. I have about 60 mins of commuting everyday so I can use that time. Just finishing Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and a lot of it is hazy, though the prose is magnificent and the bit Gaddis mined about homoosians and homousians was a delight. I had no idea that was real and very often Gibbon reads like a humorless Gaddis.

-----Original Message-----
From: "Perry Noid" <coolwithdoc at gmail.com>
Sent: ‎1/‎18/‎2016 19:54
To: "Allan Balliett" <allan.balliett at gmail.com>
Cc: "Steven Koteff" <steviekoteff at gmail.com>; "pynchon -l" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Subject: Re: Audible Island Books

What I do is hit the "go back 15 seonds" button every fifteen seconds



On Mon, Jan 18, 2016 at 11:51 AM, Allan Balliett <allan.balliett at gmail.com> wrote:

Lot's of people don't get it but early on I learned to compensate for the real time overflow by listening to the complete work over and over again. A simple 1 hr podcast might get 7 or 8 listens. (Jesus, I'll be working 14 hrs in one day!)  The Recognitions, I have to admit, I haven't gotten through a second time, but that's how it's done. -Allan in WV (what did you say?)


On Mon, Jan 18, 2016 at 2:40 PM, Steven Koteff <steviekoteff at gmail.com> wrote:

The audience's agency in the pace of a book is central to literature as an art form, I think. Not that there's nothing to be gained by listening, just that there's also a ton to be lost, for me anyway. 

On Jan 18, 2016, at 1:36 PM, Perry Noid <coolwithdoc at gmail.com> wrote:


Lovecraft read by Wayne June is fun stuff imo. And I agree with what you said Mark, it's hard for me to listen to the more complex stuff if I haven't already read it. The book goes on without me 





On Mon, Jan 18, 2016 at 11:08 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

I can only listen to 'great' books, works of fiction in which every sentence, every word, matters and must be (somehow) felt...
if I have read the work at least once already. .....Moby Dick on a car trip to Michigan and back to New Jersey was (almost) as
good as Jeremy reminding me of Humbert. 


So, I am done. 


On Mon, Jan 18, 2016 at 1:15 PM, Steven Koteff <steviekoteff at gmail.com> wrote:

That's a great suggestion, Mark.


I don't do audiobooks very often but I'm partial to ones where the author reads his/her own work. 


I doubt he gets much love on here but I think certain sections of Hitchens reading his memoir are very good/moving.


Think about the format. I usually save audiobooks for things where the language (and the physical act of reading it typeset) is maybe less of a focus--things that are less stylized, or that have their linguistic integrity compromised by translation, etc. So with audiobooks I lean disproportionately to non-fiction or lighter fare. I usually end up saving the format for books I'm semi-interested in, but not necessarily enough so to spend my precious desk-time with. Or for books I absolutely love and need to consume in another format (hence Irons's Lolita's appeal).


The first Knausgaard book on audio is decent--at first I thought the guy reading it was overwrought but developed some affection for it. 


I heard a good audiobook of Anna Karenina once. I can imagine a perfect reading of Proust.


Go for something that has elements of orality/yarnness. 


If there's anything of Barry Hannah reading his work...


On Mon, Jan 18, 2016 at 11:45 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

if still available, Jeremy Irons reading you LOLITA is unforgettable. 


On Mon, Jan 18, 2016 at 12:29 PM, Allan Balliett <allan.balliett at gmail.com> wrote:

I can't believe my powers have recall have sunk so low today, but here's a manifestation of the problem:


I have credit for two audio books at Audible right now and have to use them by the end of the day and, although I admit that everything I want cost $7 or less cash(33 1/3's "Low", for example)  but the credits cost $15 each and can 'buy' recordings valued to over $50 each, so every purchase counts and I'm hesitant to 'just buy something.' 


I also have, for example, all the P titles that are in audiobook on audible snd most of the Jim Harrison (incl several never listened to) and many many more.


Listens are more for working in the greenhouse than for driving.


Leaning towards that recent title that's about a 'non fiction' love affair with an octopus but fear it may be more whimsical than real.


Open to suggestions, you don't even have to check Audible before checking


I'm going to go sit in front of some bright lights


Thanks in advance.


=Allan in WV
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