AudioBook Mid-Week Meme...

Our host Jen at Devourer of Books offers us this quick set of prompts about audio books so we can get to know each other's tastes in audio books, and perhaps find a new title or two.

Current/most recent audiobook: I'm in the middle of Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, with The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris soon to follow, and two YA audiobooks in my library queue.

Impressions: I always enjoy Pollan's breezy style and engaging "new journalism", and he often writes about food related matters, notably in his recent The Omnivore's Dilemma.  So far, this one's focused on the history of "nutritionism", pulling the curtain back to reveal how 'nutrition science' isn't very reliable at all.  I'm enjoying it, but I wish Pollan himself were narrating, because I've heard him speak multiple times and I'm sure he'd be quite good.  More on Friday when I hope to post a review.

Current favorite audiobook: Made To Stick by Chip and Dan Heath.  This book's content is useful for anyone: Why some ideas stick and others don't, and how to make your own ideas memorable.  They walk their talk, so the content's interesting from beginning to end, and the narrator, Charles Kahlenberg, conveys it beautifully.  (This book's another of my 'tandem reads' - not only do I listen to the CDs, but I've also reread the text multiple times.)

One narrator who always makes you choose audio over print: Richard Poe.  I don't know what he's been up to lately, but I got hooked when he read Jane Smiley's Good Faith.  What a gorgeous timbre to his voice, plus a wit and intelligence behind it that makes you want to 'read' on.

Genre you most often choose to listen to: YA and children's lit.  Even if I can't bear one of these books as I read it, I can almost always get through it on audio, and while multi-tasking (driving).  As a teacher, I often need to read YA and middle-reader texts that I otherwise would not choose.

If given the choice, you will always choose audio when: It's children's or YA or I want to 'tandem read' a lengthy book - to compress the amount of time it takes by listening in the car, then reading when I get home.

If given the choice, you will always choose print when: It's a complex non-fiction like the one I reviewed part of today.  In that case, I like to mark up the text and flip back and forth.  Also, if I'm reading for book group, I want the hard copy so I can "sticky it" for reference during our discussions.

How about you?  Even if you haven't participated in Audio Book Week, you can still join in this meme, or even write your responses to some of the questions in the comments here. 

MFB,
L

p.s. If you're new to the blogosphere, a "meme" in this context translates to a prompt or set of prompts offered by one blog for a blog hop.  Bloggers respond to the prompt on their own site, then link at the central site to find out what others think and to 'meet' new bloggers.