Of Men and Mice By The Dashboard Light July 15, 2008
Posted by skinbad in Entertainment, Literature, Personal Experiences, Travel, Women Ranting.trackback
I have about a 20 minute work commute, depending on whether or not there are a lot of deer on the road and if I hit the one traffic light in the county just right. So, (I’m pretty sure I don’t need Geoff to check my math on this one) I’ve got about 40 non-competing minutes to embiggen my intellect each work day.
I have access to quite a few audio books and have been listening to “classics” that I never got around to reading–or have started several times and never pushed through to the bitter end. I was looking at what was available today and thought you would naturally want to know my thoughts on the subject.
Some I’ve listened to:
- The Turn of the Screw–Barely remember the plot.
- Juneteenth–Do not remember anything about it. Well, there was a kid prodigy preacher. I remember that.
- House Made of Dawn–Listened to it a long time ago. Barely recall.
- Recognizing the Symptoms of Alzheimer’s–Hey, just checking to see if you’re paying attention.
- The Old Man and the Sea–Liked it. I’ve read a lot of the short stories, but not the longer works.
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn–It deserves to be famous. I resist reading books by women authors. Sorry. I know it doesn’t say anything good about me, but it’s true. I wouldn’t have ever read it and I’m glad I got to it this way.
- Moll Flanders–Interesting that it is so old (1700s). It had to be fairly scandalous for the time and Defoe was kind of a pre-curser to Dickens in showing some of society’s brutality to those born without advantages. He needed a good editor, though. Far too much time spent explaining how the heroine pulled off successful thefts.
- A Tale of Two Cities–I like Dickens. Glad I can finally check this off (with an asterisk).
- Death in Venice and other stories–Hard time remembering much about this one. I liked Mann’s Magic Mountain (not a euphemism).
- On the Road–I don’t know. Pretty much what I thought it would be like.
- Darkness at Noon–This one stuck with me. Comm-symps should give it a try.
- Emma/Pride and Prejudice/Sense and Sensibility–I swear I could read, listen to, and watch on PBS each of these titles every year and I would never keep them straight. I have given up.
- Jane Eyre–I’ve got this one down, though. Crazy West Indies wife in the tower? Right?
Options for Future Distracted Driving:
- Walden–Started it several times. Studied it in classes. Written papers on it. Never gone all the way.
- Canterbury Tales–Ditto. Someone farts in someone’s face when a guy climbs a ladder to sneak into a bedroom window. That’s the piece of this classic my brain has clung to.
- Things Fall Apart–African writer. Need to try this some time.
- Lord Jim–Started reading it and failed. Enjoy Conrad’s shorter stuff.
- Madame Bovary–I am an empty white board, waiting for my first impression of Madame Ovary.
- All Quiet on the Western Front–Need to check this one off
- Fathers and Sons–Turgenev. No idea.
- Don Quixote–I know the story thanks to Peter O’Toole’s ridiculous moustache and Sophia Loren’s heaving bozangas. But mostly the bozangas.*
Suggestions? Thoughts? Ridicule?
Now on the dead Book Club thing. How about if there was a blogroll link for books and one for movies? Then we could comment there if we had something to say about what was watched or read. Or if anyone else wants to inject the Book Club with a shot of fresh, hot enthusiasm, it would not offend me in the least.
*Thanks to Michael for the use of “bozangas.” It has a German/Lutheran etymology that I was unfamiliar with.
I read Walden every couple of years. A lot of it is good, some is ‘eh.
If it’s a tape, just FF when he starts talking about THE POND. The source of the pond, comparisons to other ponds in the area, the type of fish in the pond, the rocks around the bank of the pond.
You’ll know when.
C. S. Forester’s Hornblower books. A nobody rises through the ranks in the British Navy to become titled and marry very well. Good stories. I always found the ‘promotion by merit’ interesting, since he was a Brit.
Why limit yourself to ‘old’ lit? Modern classics are nice, too.
“Mother Night” by Kurt Vonnegut
“The Vampire Lestat” by Anne Rice
“The Man In The High Castle” by Phillip K. Dick are all good reads also.
3 Nights In August, even if Buzz Bissinger is a douchebag horsef&cker
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is one of my favorites and may be the only book I had my girls read. Another good one not on your list you might like to try is Fires of Spring by Michener.
Turn of The Screw?
Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco.
Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss.
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer (this is truly an awesome book; one of my favorites despite being very long).
The Truth About Muhammad by Robert Spencer (I recommended this book to WickedPinto too).
Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series.
The Harry Dresden series by Jim Butcher.
Any book by Fouad Ajami.
Any book by Michael B. Oren (especially Six Days of War).
Any book by Mark Steyn.
Soviet Tragedy by Martin Malia.
The Yom Kippur War by Abraham Rabinovich .
The Sword and the Shield by Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin.
I’ll second the Hornblower vote.
Anything CSLewis wrote is always good for a think.
Darwin’s The Origin of Species (not sure if I’ve ever seen this on audio).
Shakespeare, especially if you can get an audio of like James Earl Jones reading it.
Beyond that I’ve got a total block. I get way distracted w/ audio books, plus they tend to put me to sleep.
Don’t know Juneteenth, except that I do know that is a uniquely Texan holiday celebrated by Black Americans here, supposedly the date news of the Emancipation Proclamation reached Texas.
The only audio book I’ve ever bought was “So Long and Thanks For All the Fish” read by Douglas Adams. I bought it for a trip to Colorado. I liked it, but liked reading it better.
I highly recommend Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg, whenever the audiobook comes out. But I recommend reading rather than listening. The book is not a fast read. I usually eat a 300 page book in 3 days or less. This one took 3 weeks.
I second Musli on Mark Steyn.
If you don’t have a problem with Ann Coulter, her books are a great read.
I’m pretty sure I don’t need Geoff to check my math on this one
Snif….my baby’s all growed up!
My wife does a lot of mysteries on her commutes. Me, I just listen to trance. Very loudly.
I listen to SportsTalk on the way in to work, especially since the host of the show I listen to was a classmate and good friend of mine.
Also, I cannot get myself too angry in the morning by listening to politics.
Not a big fan of audio books. The only one I ever had was Airframe by Michael Crichton. My mom gave it to me the day after I finished reading the book.
Hornblower-good story, well written. The BBC series wasn’t bad, but wasn’t that good either. Jamie Bamber of BSG was in it.
Rise and Fall of the Third Reich- required reading. It will give you a lot of insight into much of how the world works today.
Are there any audiobooks of Mark Steyn’s books narrated by Mark Steyn? That would be so cool!
I’ve never listened to an audio book. I don’t think I could manage.
I just finished Shakespeare’s “As You Like It,” and I’m working on “Dr. Zhivago.” I saw the movie (the new one, with Kiera Knightley) a few years ago. It doesn’t have much in common with the book. It’s only 500 pages or so, so any book clubbers could manage.
I own Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. I’ll read it one of these days. I’m not too happy to have a very large book with a very prominent swastika on the spine on my bookshelf.
I recommend Transal Saga by Gary Paulsen. Rock on!
Sobek: I see your swastika and raise you a black paperback book with a prominent title in white letters on the spine: Mein Kampf. (It’s one of books I now hide.)
Shirer’s book is beyond awesome. I’ve read it three times (and, except for Scriptures, I rarely reread a book). More like three and a half times.
I’ll have to read that, ECC.
Cool beans.
I read Mein Kampf for a poli sci class. It was actually kind of interesting.
I liked Foucault’s Pendulum. I’ve listened to some Shakespeare, but it works better for longer trips. I’m just starting to figure out who’s cuckolding whom on the short commutes. Yes Tattoo, sometimes distraction is a problem and I have to back up because I found my mind had wandered to observe a particularly interesting flock of sheep.
Ditto the Anne Rice Interview With the Vampire.
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.
Anything and everything by Mark Twain.
Darwin’s The Origin of Species (not sure if I’ve ever seen this on audio).
http://librivox.org/the-origin-of-species-by-charles-darwin/
Lots of free books here. Lots of classics.
I’ve been working my way through Dickens and would recommend Tale of Two Cities, Martin Chuzzlewit (his best and most unread novel), and David Copperfield.
Also, if you like the Hornblower series (and presumably Patrick O’Brian), get The Golden Ocean and The Unknown Shore. They’re two very different, yet similar, takes on Commodore Anson’s voyage around the world. O’Brian wrote them years before the Aubrey-Maturin series.
Thanks Jay and Steve. And “welcome.” Although I think Jay has dropped by before?
Just wondering…..do you think that they have Zap Comix in audio books?
I could listen to Captain Pissgums and His Pervert Pirates vs Bullah the Bull Dyke or any Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers whilst traveling.
Jay in Ames, as in Ames IA? And thanks for the link!
Interesting reads/listens. Though I’d have to agree — when listening to audiobooks WHILE getting work done, or driving — you can’t really focus on the plot.
Good point. While listening to the Adams tape on my trip to CO I passed a mangled Yukon at the only curve for 10 miles in either direction. It made me forget about the plot for awhile.