I've started back on the audio books. I'm working on the other side of the Beltway again and wrestling with an annoying, sometimes overwhelming commute. The audio books help pass the time, as does the satellite radio when my receiver is working. When it isn't I upload books on cd to my new phone which serves as an MP3 player and I escape the commute as best I can.
The funny thing about audio books is the narrator. A good narrator can make or break a book. In the past I've listened to some Isaac Asimov books in which the narrator's voices for women seemed to distract from the story. I'm sure he was trying his best but I couldn't invest in the female characters because their voices were so odd.
I just finished listening to 'A Wrinkle In Time' narrated by none other than the author, Madeleine L'Engle. This woman's voice, I can only compare to nails on a chalkboard whilst red hot pokers are being slowly shoved up the anuses of a million alley cats during a tone-deaf diva's aria in an opera performed in the bowels of Hell! Her voice was torture; unbelievably shrill, stilted, and she has the lisp where it sounds like her tongue is stapled to the roof of her mouth! I would step out of my car after my morning commute and have a headache because her voice had cause me to clench my jaw the entire ride. I wasn't sure I would make it through the 5 discs of the book but I did. Some of my students are reading the book in class and I thought how fun it would be to be able to talk with them about it. Unfortunately, now I have less of an appreciation for the book which I remember liking as a child and I can't get that harpy's squawking out of my head.
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