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Chocolate makes me a better person

6/6/2017

10 Comments

 
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Sometimes I wonder if I’ve learned more about history from book clubs than formal education. Hopefully this means that I am a “Lifelong Learner”. When a story is linked to people, even fictional characters, it becomes so much more compelling and memorable and makes me want to learn more.
 
I just finished reading The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen. This book about the Vietnam War (or the American War if you live in Viet Nam) made me realize how little I knew about this war. And some of what I thought I knew was wrong. Nothing, or next to nothing, about this war must have been included in my American history classes because I’m sure I was seeing some familiar words for the first time in print. These words dominated TV news in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Seeing them written down was a surprising jolt.  Additionally, I’ve never encountered more unfamiliar (English) words in a single book, it was not an easy read, and the story was often uncomfortable if not downright disturbing.  I didn’t like it much until the very end, and now I am so glad I read it. It’s one of those books that provides a perspective that I hope makes me a better person and a better citizen. It wasn’t boring or hard to understand, it’s just that I wasn’t the only person in my book club to comment about the fact that I didn’t feel compelled to pick it up most days. In order to complete it on time, I ended up creating a strict reading schedule that included frequent breaks and periodic chocolate rewards. 
 
It's also worth mentioning that I read the book instead of listening to it. Listening is my new preference because it enables me to move while making progress, my house is way cleaner when I listen, and I sleep better when I’ve moved more during the day. Some friends tell me they can’t listen because their minds wander, and I get that. It happens to me too. But I’ve learned that if I am doing something very mundane like cleaning the kitchen, doing laundry, weeding, walking, or even painting a room, the time flies by, and  I am transported into the story. And whatever I’m working on turns out cleaner, neater or nicer in the end. Most recently I painted a wall … in Paris (as I listened to America’s First Daughter by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie).
 
This is a very long lead in to some questions. Have you heard of archive.org? My latest reading assignment is 11/22/63 by Stephen King. I have about three months to “read” 849 pages. I’d rather listen! It’s not available via my local library audiobook sources (Hoopla and Overdrive). I’m willing to buy it via either Audible.com or Audiobooks.com, but while searching for it last night, I stumbled across a free audiobook version via Archive.org, and I also stumbled across another source of free audio books called LibriVox. Without any help, I was able to start listening to 11/22/63 on both my computer and phone, and I also downloaded the Archivist app onto my phone. With a little help from my husband this morning, I now have the Smart Audiobook app loaded onto my phone which provides a friendly interface for listening to the downloaded book. Here’s what I’m wondering; is listening this way legal? It’s a Tech Frustration because I know that just because I can do something, doesn’t necessarily mean that I should do it, and finding that answer isn’t easy. The last thing I want to do is to deny Stephen King any income he’s rightly earned. My husband did a bit of research and said the answer wasn’t immediately clear to him either. I’m also wondering if anyone has used LibriVox. I haven’t checked it out yet because I have 849 pages to read. And my kitchen is a mess. 
 
Tell me what you know!  Thanks, and happy reading.
 
P.S.  Listening to snippets of an NPR TED Radio Hour show Can Ordinary People Become Leaders? yesterday inspired me to keep blogging. It was pretty entertaining. Who knows what it will inspire you to do.
10 Comments
Kathy Elder
6/6/2017 12:09:27 pm

Kathy, this is really helpful because I'm listening to 11/22/63 for my book club too! I used Audible to buy it so, hey, one of us is legal. I have no idea about downloading from archive.org or any other site. It is an older book so perhaps he sold the rights a while back? It's good for listening to. I've noticed that all the projects and places I've been while listening to an audiobook remind of that book when I go back later. My hostas and tomatoes now remind me of this book and the vegetable garden always reminds me of The House of Seven Gables, for example. I would also LOVE another audiobook recommendation. I'm driving out to California with Grace soon. :)

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Kathy Haselmaier link
6/6/2017 01:01:16 pm

I can relate to your comments about associated a place or activity with a book. I highly recommend the audio book _America's First Daughter_. You can borrow it via Hoopla (with a Poudre Valley Library card). It's 23 hours long, I was always eager to listen to more, and I learned a lot. Happy driving and thanks for your comments!

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Kathy Elder
6/6/2017 02:14:54 pm

Thanks! And if I haven't recommended it before, which I think I have for you, Destiny of the Republic is the fascinating account of the assassination of President Garfield. I think it is only about 6 hours long. :)

Don Calder
6/6/2017 03:35:07 pm

Chocolate caught my eye. Reading content for third time.

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Kathy Haselmaier link
6/6/2017 08:08:06 pm

Thank you for reading it three times, but why are you doing that?

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Adair Calder
6/8/2017 02:00:39 pm

Two old books that stick in my mind are "No Ordinary Time" about Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. I think the author is Doris Kearns Goodwin. I love American history so I especially enjoyed that book. Also "Angela's Ashes." It was read In dialect and I remember the reader singing the songs. I like to listen to long books.

And, I made a chocolate cake in a cup the other night.


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Kathy Haselmaier
6/8/2017 10:29:28 pm

I'll add those books to my list!

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Larry Besaw
6/13/2017 09:13:06 am

I second the recommendation on The Destiny of the Republic, a fascinating and little-known slice of American history. I happened to listen to it on audiobook.

I have listened to some books on Librivox. It is a good source of audiobooks in the public domain. The quality of the productions is uneven though, since it depends on volunteer readers and narrators, rather than professionals. Some are fairly good; some are terrible. It shows how much of the experience of listening to an audiobook depends on the performance of the narrator. Sometimes books are read by voice actors who do an amazing jobs (e.g., some productions of the Harry Potter books and the Lord of the Rings series). In fact, there is a set of annual awards - the Audies - for audiobooks and audiobook narration - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Award . Sometimes it is worth listening to a book just because you like the artist doing the narration.

Like Kathy, I use audiobooks while I am exercising (e.g., walking) and doing cleaning and other jobs around the house. I am currently listening to Einstein by Walter Isaacson.

Novels and popular non-fiction work well on audiobooks, but other things, like philosophy, don't work so well, since you need time to pause and consider the statements, and that is often not convenient when listening to the book.

Audiobooks go back to the roots of literature. Originally all literature was experienced orally. Writing is a recent invention in human culture (only about 5,000 years old). And it wasn't until about 500 BCE that we started getting a lot written literature. Plato in the 4th century BCE complained about writing because it was adverse to memory. People could just look up the writing instead of having everything memorized. The Homeric epics (the Iliad and the Odyssey) were composed orally and transmitted that way long before they were written down. The Rig Vedas in India were oral. The Mishnah, the core of the Talmud, in Jewish tradition was oral. Etc. Even the earliest philosophers (e.g., the Presocratic Parmenides) composed their works as poetry, since the meter of poetry made it easier to memorize and recite. Poetry generally precedes prose in literature. And Poetry works well on audiobooks, since the sound and rhythm is integral to the experience and meaning.

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Kathy Haselmaier link
6/13/2017 09:36:07 am

Thanks for the interesting (and informative) comments, Larry!

Reply
Don Calder
6/13/2017 10:00:51 am

Great insight to transformation of verbal to written. Thanks

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    Kathy Haselmaier

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