Showing posts with label Audio Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Audio Books. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

To listen or not to listen?

Reading according to Websters Dictionary is an  activity of interpreting music, a situation, or something said or written.   But it also means to be able to read a written or printed text.  Today one can read in a variety of formats; the traditional format can be read on the computer, on one's kindle, or on a traditionally bounded set of printed words.  But also reading is now being defined as listening to books; the reader can listen to complete books via audio c.d.s or via a MP3 file, on their computer.

But is listening to an audio book reading?  Does listening to a book constitute the same experience as reading one?  Will the reader's reaction to the book be influenced by the listening experience?  Some authors have published and read their own works on an Audio format.  Neil Gammon read his Graveyard Book and recorded it onto C.D..  I ponder if my liking Fahrenheit 451 was due me listening to it, and not reading it.  Bradbury is a really good oral story teller, but is his writing good?  Hmm we ponder!

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Review: The Man Who Loved Books Too Much






The E-Library Librarian suggested that I read this book. So I listened to the Audio CD.

The book explores the relationship of book collectors, book thieves, and the books they collect. The book is an examination on how books shape our lives and how we shape the books we read or collect. Thomas Jefferson Fitzpatrick desired to make a tomb by collecting so many books, when he died in 1951 he had so many books that he had to sleep on a cot in his kitchen.

I read and collect books because it is an elixir for my insecure post modern polluted mind.

Books provide a way to make a personal biographical museum of our interests and our loves tomes in one volume. Books serve as a vehicle for a public image shaped carefully by our selected works. We discard books as a way to say, "See how much I have grown, and look at the books I use to own." Words today are footprints of our fleeting thoughts, some holy-some not.  



The book poses the question: "Are we shaped by the books we read, or do we shape the books we read?"

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