Audio books and reading

There are a lot of ways to consume books these days. I still have a preference for the old fashioned style of paper and text but then reading electronically has tremendous benefits especially when traveling. It is very easy to throw a couple of books onto a Kindle/Nook or some other reader and certainly much easier that packing War and Peace and Middlemarch into your carry on luggage!

However the other important way to appreciate books is via audiobook. This may seem like cheating. It’s not really reading in the strictest sense but I love audiobooks for a number of reasons:

  1. Convenience – sometimes one doesn’t want to read or it is impossible to do so. The classic for me is car journeys. Even 15 minutes in the car provides the time to reacquaint oneself with a story. I tend you put audiobooks on my phone and I can pipe it through the car audio and away we go. Obviously there are other opportunities such as the treadmill or walking the dogs where losing oneself in a book definitely makes time pass faster
  2. Story telling – most of the readers, at least the readers of classic fiction, are actors. Often they are well known actors but always they bring a great deal of life to the story. They use voices for the characters, they have great inflection and nuance in their story telling and this really brings books to life. I am not sure how easy I would have found Don Quixote to complete without an audiobook
  3. Encouragement to read – There is definitely enjoyment in the printed word. There is nothing to stop you reading a book you have previously listened to. The two genres are so different they both add to the overall experience
  4. Widening your reading time – personally I normally have at least 2 books on the go at any time; one that I am reading, the other that is on audio. It is perfectly possible to read two stories at once (we tend to follow multiple series on TV for example) but it makes it easier when they are in two different formats
  5. Speed – not all of us are speedy readers. I have tried to follow the lead set by Tim Ferris on speed reading and it has helped a little, but still, listening to a book may well be faster than reading it. Right now I am listening to Bleak House and the audio is over 48 hours long. I know it would take me longer to physically read this complex book than that!

There are, of course, some cons to audiobooks and this is what I have found:

  1. It feels like cheating – It really isn’t reading in the strictest sense
  2. It can be hard to follow plot nuances – in books with complex plots and a multitude of story lines and many characters (Dickens is the classic example) it is sometimes necessary to flip back in the narrative and re-familiarize oneself with these details. This is much harder to to on an audiobook
  3. The reader is all important – some are better than others, but generally they are all very good and it is a matter of personal taste. I wouldn’t want to listen to a reader for 48 hours unless I was enamored with their reading style.
  4. Cost – Axis 360 audiobooks can be a little more pricey than written text but if this is an issue, one can often take audiobooks from the library these days using the application which I strongly recommend and use frequently.

I highly recommend audiobooks – they drastically reduce your reading downtime! There are a couple of sites I recommend although there are a many options and they are worth perusing. These are the ones I tend to use:

Audible – this is an Amazon company and you can access their books from the main site too

audiobooks.com

Both offer free trials and free books to get started!

Goodreads

Goodreads is a great resource for readers. I don’t know about you, but my memory isn’t always the best. I forget sometimes, which books I have read even.

This is the best site I found not only for keeping track of what I have been reading, but also to write reviews for others to see (some of which spark quite lively debate) and that one can read to figure out which books are next on the list!

It is very helpful to read other’s opinions of any given book. What starts out as a means of recording preferences, books one wants to read etc. quickly becomes a very useful resource for the serious and casual reader alike. It’s free as well! I have never failed to find a book listed on there.

It isn’t without glitches. In the past there have been a couple of times when data is not showing but those issues are always quickly rectified and, for the most part, the site is highly reliable and stable. It offers the ability to add friends and to examine other people’s lists so you can follow reviews and build up a community of like minded readers. An excellent way to share thoughts and comments in what is, often times, a  solitary pastime!

I am sure most people know of it either as a website or mobile app or both. The latest version lets you scan a book barcode or even the cover so that you can update your lists as you go. This is invaluable if, like me, you peruse bookstores for the latest books that you may wish to purchase or reserve at the library. It is a go to resource for sure.

Struggling with imagery, metaphor, allegory etc

I have long been an avid reader of nonfiction. Such books have a great deal to teach us about history, society, thought etc. but often times, they are fairly straightforward. Histories of particular events are of especial interest to me, as they place the reader in a given time and, as LP Hartley famously opined: “The past is a different country: they do things differently there”.

However the degree of interpretation needed to read such texts is not the same as is necessary, or at least desirable when reading fiction. Much of the fiction I have hitherto consumed has been popular works (and there is nothing wrong with that) of the Tom Clancy type, or at least easy to read works such as Sherlock Holmes (for which I still have a great soft spot). It soon became clear to me that reading classic literature for enjoyment necessitates a deeper appreciation of nuance, as well as an appreciation of the story itself. In short, I was and am a beginner when it comes to reading these works.

In an effort to improve my abilities in this area, I picked up an interesting book:

It is an easy read and explains much, in top level terms, about classic literary styles and techniques. For example have you ever noticed how many literary figures succumb to either consumption or to drowning? There is a reason for that! I learned a lot, including what I don’t know! You can read a review of this book on my Goodreads profile.

It is a challenge for me. Sometimes imagery is easy to spot. In O’Neil’s wonderful play “A Long Day’s Journey into Night” the fog that frequently shrouds proceedings is akin to the mists that the main characters are fumbling through. However in many cases the imagery and message is harder to identify. Often times there is social commentary and satire built into the prose. There may be references to other classical works or the Bible (“Moby Dick” being a great example of the latter).

I am still struggling with this but it makes the reading experience so much richer and, as with most things, practice improves skills. There are so many stories, they are often deliberately rehashed and due homage paid to those that went before. I am always looking for these references and it is very fun to do so. I have a long way to go but, as always, the journey is as important as the destination.

Brave New World – Aldous Huxley (Review)

As amazing as it sounds, this book somehow passed me by when we were studying literature in high school. It was on the list but for some reason my class didn’t read this one. So it wasn’t until I reached my fifties that I finally read it, and then for a book club in combination with that other dystopian classic, Nineteen Eighty Four.

It is definitely worth comparing the two and whilst the horror of totalitarianism is perhaps more viscerally illustrated in 1984, I am not sure that Brave New World isn’t perhaps the more disturbing for me. The endings in particular, whilst very strong in both, and more disturbing in Orwell’s work, is very poignant in Huxley’s horrific vision.

Of course, I am sure there are nuances of plot and symbolism that passed me by although I found the most profound and interesting section the Controller’s explanation of World civilization and particularly his discussion with John the Savage late in the novel. It is an interesting take on future society for sure and the intimation that we truly need suffering to be human is well taken here. Even though I sometimes feel that a few grammes of Soma would certainly be welcome, we all know that, with the drugs we do have, that isn’t the long term answer.

It was these messages, as well as the consumerism and the conditioning that I found more interesting than the “process” of producing children. I found the reverence for Ford, though, to be somewhat bizarre and whilst I understand this in terms of his production line approach, it just seems weird to me and a little forced, although perhaps this was AH’s way of suggesting that the introduction of the Model T was somehow the start of the descent into this dystopian nightmare.

More relevant to today’s horrendous descent into a modern day nightmare is what I fear is actually becoming true i.e a disdain and contempt for history and reading in particular and intellectualism in particular. It is pathetic and disappointing to me how many people never pick up a book to read for pleasure, spout the importance of one’s country and patriotism without the first idea of the major events in said country’s (or indeed any world) history. Today’s equivalent of the feelies in Brave New World is surely reality TV to which we are endlessly subjected when the information age should make learning easier than ever. I think that Huxley’s fear that nobody will want to read books is more prescient that Orwell’s fear that they will be banned, although the latter may well happen too.

There is a lot that is prescient here of course but it would be interesting to see what Huxley would write now, given an understanding of genetics and genetic engineering. However as one who generally believes in conditioning, this element of the novel is fascinating indeed. Also the guess that helicopters would still be the primary means of transport in 2450 seems off the mark given where we are with transport in 2018, many decades after this work was penned.

Very much an enjoyable read though, ultimately as I suspect is the intent, a bleak ending. I guess if one is looking for a happy ending then one has innumerable options from which to choose. This ending somehow strikes me as much more satisfactory and frankly, if such a society were to develop (as it certainly could) much more likely.

Cutting the cord

How much TV do you really watch I wonder?

Is it worth what you pay for it?

When we moved into our home about 12 years ago, with relatively young kids, it wasn’t at all a question of whether we installed a TV service but rather: “which one?” There were a number of choices for broadcast TV but we were still in the days of Blockbuster and DVDs so streaming services were, as yet, unheard of.

We chose a satellite provider and I seem to recall the cost was around $60 a month. By this summer, that fee had grown over the years, without adding any channels, HD etc. to over $110. Here’s the rub though: we NEVER seemed to watch it. We have no interest in reality TV and/or most of the serials and miniseries. We can get news online and honestly, with the broadcast news these days, it is more and more partisan talking heads than hard news anyway.

So, after some deliberation, we cut the service. We no longer have live TV in the house and we haven’t missed it for a second. I sometimes wonder whether live sports would be worth having but it isn’t worth paying for all the other dross along with it and, frankly, most sports channels are talking heads rehashing the argument over whether Lebron or Jordan are the greatest ever.

We still have Netflix and Hulu, and that gives us more than enough but, joy of joys, there is more time for other things like socializing over a meal, playing games or, of course, reading.

There’s no judgement here. If you watch a ton of TV and get value from it, great. But paying over $100 and never watching is foolishness, at least it was for us. There are too many books to read, not enough time. TV is a time suck and most of it isn’t very good anyway!

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

I had never read Kafka before and wondered about the term “Kafkaesque” that appears in literary reviews and the general lexicon. I guess if you give rise to a word in the language, you have really achieved something. The Metamorphosis is perhaps Kafka’s most famous work and the opening line is famous and sets the tone for what follows: “As Gregor Samsa awoke from unsettling dreams one morning, he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin”.

Translations vary of course and it is never very satisfactory to read books in a different language to that in which they were penned but, not reading German, I have no real choice! The vermin in question is a hideous insect although Kafka is at pains to spare us too many details although, at one point, a character describes him as a huge dung beetle.

This is a surreal, disturbing and sad story. I finished it late into the evening which wasn’t a great idea – it kept my brain churning well into the night. I wonder about the symbolism here, which may be a fruitless exercise when it comes to Kafka. There is no reason for the transformation, and initially it is clear Gregor believes his situation to be temporary or indeed, simply a dream. Inexplicably, his family, although horrified by the change, keep him in his room and although treat him fairly badly, seem to go on as normal, if not slightly better.

Gregor tries to adapt and survive but his family are not uniformly interested in him as he stays in his metamorphosed state and he becomes depressed, injured and ultimately gives up. Some of the descriptions are very depressing as he basically becomes a big insect kept in his room with minimal interaction. His family, in contrast to his plight, seem to metamorphose themselves into better workers and in the case of his sister, a more comely individual altogether.

It is bleak. Kafka wasn’t happy with the ending it is said (indeed many of his works were unfinished, suggestive of a difficulty in rounding off his tales) but it seems fitting to me. Even if the family is basically seeking to rid themselves of what Gregor has become. Is his change a metaphor for death and decrepitude? There is a suggestion that he wants to remain in his state and initially he seems to think that he can more or less carry on as usual. I am not sure what we are to take from this as allegory but it is a fascinating story – Kafka must have had a somewhat dark mind indeed.

I read this translation from Barnes and Noble Classics (Link below) which also includes: The Judgement, The Stoker, The Penal Colony, A Country Doctor, An Old Leaf, A Hunger Artist, Josephine the Singer and Before the Law.

This is a version that only includes this story, but the translation will likely be a little different (sometimes “vermin” is replaced by “insect” for example in the opening sentence)

Reading the Classics – a personal challenge

It’s been a long time coming, but at the ripe old age of 53 (actually I started when I was still 52 but it took a while to get really motivated) I decided that my life would be better if I read more classic literature.

I have long had a love of reading but like many of us I suspect, I didn’t really make the time in between less developmental activities such as watching TV. However as the shows on offer became less and less interesting, as the news became more partisan, as politics became more “nervous breakdown” inducing, I decided that I should dedicate more time to reading, and specifically, break from my habit of consuming non-fiction and try some of the classics of human achievement that is, classical literature.

So where to begin?

Classics are in the eye of the beholder to a large extent and I spent some time perusing lists online and of course, there is no definitive answer to what makes a classic, and even less consensus as to what the “100 greatest works” list would comprise.

So I started with books I had always meant to get to and had been put off  since my school days. The first was Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens. I was immediately hooked by the prose, the humor, the social satire and I knew this was a path I wanted to follow before I became too much older!

However I wanted to plot a path through the great works and I came across the following website which is the source of the books that I have set myself to read: The Greatest Books.org

This list actually changes as it is compiled from 116 other lists of the great and the good so there is always some movement especially within the top 100 but as a snapshot in time, this will suffice for my purposes.

So the plan is to work through the top 100. No time scale, no particular order but the list will provide a framework for the next few years most likely. The plan is to share the journey, and some insights that hopefully come up along the way. Many people don’t read anymore and I think that’s a shame, hopefully some will be inspired to get back between the pages of a great book.

Here we go…..