Wednesday, June 8, 2011

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.

7 comments:

Jen - devourer of books said...

Ooh, MADE TO STICK sounds like something my husband would really enjoy, I'll make sure to grab that for him. Don't forget to link your ALl THings Shining review up to the review post!

Laurie said...

Absolutely: It's one of the few books my husband and I both talk about all the time, and we swap the CDs between cars too!

Kristin said...

I tend to read my books for book club too instead of listening to them.

My mid-week meme can be found here.

Jen - devourer of books said...

Practically all he reads is brain-based stuff, Freakanomics-type stuff, and Malcom Gladwell-type stuff, so this sounds perfect.

newshadeofgreen said...

I hope you review In Defense of Food, it's been on my TBR list for a while. So has Four Hour Workweek! I'm going to go reserve online after this :). Here's my meme post: meme post. ~ Jen @ A Book and a Latte

JoAnn said...

Michael Pollan's books are great on audio. I especially enjoyed The Omnivore's Dilemma.

Laurie said...

JoAnn - Yes, I enjoyed both The Botany of Desire and The Omnivore's Dilemma too.
Jen @ - I'll review In Defense of Food either tomorrow (Fri.) or Monday, depending on how much time I get to listen today. So far, it's just as well-crafted as Pollan's other books, but I know a lot of the content already so it's not quite as gripping for me as the two I mentioned above. If you're new to nutrition science or the history of how diets have changed over time, then In Defense of Food should be quite fascinating, I'd think...

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