BBAW: My Blogging Community

Happy Book Blogger Appreciation Week. The theme for this Monday is my blogging community, the bloggers that I read every post and feel a kinship with. I've listed some of my favorite blogs below.

Free Audio Review: Felbrigg started his blog on free audiobooks about the same time I did mine. He's got good tastes in audiobooks, and I always can find a good new candidate for reviews.

Fantasy Literature and SFFaudio are two blogs that I occasionally write columns for, but I was a fan of both long before either asked me to post. Both cover science fiction and fantasy literature, from slightly different perspectives.

The Reading Life: I'm not sure why more book bloggers don't review short stories; they're my favorite part of The Reading Life. Mel u does an excellent job of looking deep into classic fiction, both short and long forms. I've found several great suggestions there.

The Blue Bookcase: I first found the Blue Bookcase through the Literary Book Bloggers Hop, but I've also enjoyed their regular posts as well. One of my favorite features is The Reading List, a introduction to the greatest hits of sub-sub-genres.

I know I'm probably forgetting someone I love to read.  If I left you out, don't feel bad, I may have just had a mental lapse. Let me know what your favorite blogs are and maybe I'll add them to the list.

Literary Book Blog Hop: Must literature be difficult?

Every month The Blue Bookcase host a Literary Book Blog Hop for blogs that feature classics and literary fiction. This week, the question for discussion is

Must all literary writing be difficult? Can you think of examples of literary writing that was not difficult?

This question ties directly into the book I reviewed this week, Beowulf. I enjoyed the story itself, but the language Grummere used in his translation was so difficult that it took away from the beauty of the work. I've listened to some samples of Seamus Heaney's translation and think I would have gotten more out of the same poem listening to less difficult, but still well-crafted, writing. The confounding effect of translators on a literary work is a difficult problem to avoid, since the translator has the often conflicting tasks of making the writing clear and conveying the style of the original. Therefore, I'll limit the rest of my answer to English-language authors.

Literary writing need not be difficult to be literary. I find the books of E.M. Forster, Willa Cather, and John Steinbeck to be clear and easy-to-read (links go to previous reviews). These writers sometimes slip into a lyrical style, but the images they project are crisp.

I appreciate the work of writers like Virginia Woolf, Herman Melville and William Faulkner, but I'm always reluctant to pick up another one of their novels, since it means I'll have to fight through difficult prose. I'm not opposed to the idea of putting in some work to unravel meaning from a piece of literary fiction, but I more greatly admire writers who can engage my intellect without breaking it first.

Book blogger hop

Each week, the Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Crazy for Books asks a different book-related question for book bloggers to answer. This week, the question is

What is the LONGEST book you've ever read? (Not including spiritual works)

Since I write an audiobook blog, I've changed the question slightly to

What is the LONGEST book you've listened to?

I'm not going to include The Count of Monte Cristo, since I had read part of it on my smartphone and listened to other chapters. The longest book I've listened to only is A Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. The audiobook is great; it's well-performed, it changes up narrators with changes in points of view, and has an exciting, easy to follow plot. Even so, I found myself having to push through parts and counting down the hours to the end. Listening to a very long book can become difficult, but it's a nice way to get a start on a large, imposing book on your to-read list.

What's your experience with long books? Do you prefer to read, listen or a bit of both?

Literary Book Blog Hop

The Literary Blog Hop brings together blogs that post on novels with literary qualities. Though the last two novels I've posted on have been summer books, before those two I posted on The Time Machine and "Rappacinni's Daughter", so hopefully my Literature Club card hasn't been revoked.

This week's question for the blog hop is


Should literature have a social, political, or any other type of agenda? Does having a clear agenda enhance or detract from its literary value?

My first answer is that every type of writing has some sort of agenda, even if it's simply an agenda to entertain. I think what the question is asking, though, is about books with an overt agenda, that frame the raft trip down the Mississippi to tell you how people should get along no matter what their skin color.  I think the presence of such an agenda can be distracting from the literary value, but it depends on the skill of the author.

Let's take the example of two books that deal with a similar agenda: the denigration of the industrial working class in the early 1900's. In The Jungle, Upton Sinclair tells what could be a touching story of hardship in the meatpacking factories of Chicago, but clumsily overdoes the pathos. The plight of the workers and the Socialism presented as the savior are so extreme as to be cartoonish.

In Howards End, on the other hand, the working class people are portrayed as less desperate, the upper class people as less villainous and the  solution as promoting understanding between the two classes, rather than a political panacea. Even this would come across as weak and idealistic if not for Forster's great skill with prose. Despite having an agenda, his work is more literary than Sinclair's not because of the agenda, but the writing in which he expresses it.

Book blogger hop

Every week the Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Crazy for Books, asks a question, then encourages book blogger to see what others have written on the same subject. This week's question is


"How many books are currently on your To-Be-Read (TBR) pile?"

For me, the answer to this question depends on what you mean by a TBR pile. I have a list of over 400 books that I'd like to read. These are usually books I have heard about from others or seen on lists of book recommendations and have caught my interest. Having such a big list is useful, since it allows me to plan what I'll read next. When I'm at a large used bookstore or library, I no longer disappointed when my first choice isn't available, since I have plenty of other books to read.

I have a much smaller pile of books that are actually present in one way or another, whether that be audiobooks and ebooks that I've downloaded, but haven't started on yet or actual physical books on my shelves that I plan to read. I don't keep an actual list of these books, but I estimate it to be around twenty books. I like to have a few options on my phone to listen to or read when I'm stuck in a waiting room, and I always have some audiobook ready for the car. The actual physical pile of books is only two to three books sitting on my nightstand, waiting to be read.

Free Listens on Vacation

I'll be taking a two week break from posting new reviews while I'm on vacation. So, no reviews this week, and no reviews next week. In the meantime, check out these other audiobook review blogs:

• Audiosync May Roundup: Audiobooks reviewed by bloggers in the month of May.
• Free Audio Review: a very similar site to Free Listens.
• My Librivox List: numerical reviews of Librivox books and narrators.
• Reading with My Ears: reviews of commercial audiobooks.
• SFFaudio.com: reviews of science fiction and fantasy audiobooks.

A winner is me.

Yay! I just got word that I won a $15 gift certificate to Amazon.com through Cym Lowell's weekly Blog Book Review Party. If you're a blogger and would like to enter, just visit Cym's site every Wednesday to post a link to your review. It's also a nice way to visit other blogs and see what folks around the internets are reading.

Follow Friday

As part of an effort to find new blogs and help others find mine, I'm participating in Follow Friday, hosted by Parajunkee. To those of you new to my blog, I review free audiobooks and audio stories. I usually try to review one book and one story a week, while keeping non-review posts to a minimum.

There are lots of great books and stories being offered in audio format for free. In some cases, this is because the book is out of copyright, and volunteers like LibriVox.org or literacy projects like Lit2Go have recorded a classic book. In other cases the audiobook is under copyright, but being given away for free to promote the author's career, to drive traffic to a website selling other audiobooks, or just as a thanks to readers. So browse around my blog, find your favorite genre with the labels to the right, and follow my blog!

Literary Book Blog Hop

Each week, the Literary Book Blog Hop asks a question, then encourages participants to answer the questions and read responses on others' book blogs. This week the question is:

Do you find yourself predisposed to like (or dislike) books that are generally accepted as great books and have been incorporated into the literary canon? Discuss the affect you believe a book’s “status” has on your opinion of it.

If I read a book that's considered a classic, then I'm likely to give it the benefit of the doubt. Parts of The Woman in White, for example, were pretty slow, but I kept reading and loved the book as a whole. I don't feel obligated to like every book that has great critical acclaim, but I do try to figure out why literate, intelligent people have held that book up as a classic. Sometimes, I still don't enjoy the book, but have an appreciation of what the author was trying to do, as in Return of the Soldier. Other times, I'll dislike the book at the time I read it, but later pick it up and be able to see it with different eyes, as in The Red Badge of Courage. I realize that there are plenty of great books that aren't in the Western canon for reasons not having to do with their quality, but I feel that the ones that have been inducted into the hall of fame deserve my best effort.

Book blogger hop

Each week the Book Blogger Hop asks a question for book bloggers to write about, then asks its participants to visit linked blogs. This week's question is


Do you read more than one book at a time?

I always read several books simultaneously. I usually keep a print book on my bedside table to read at night. I typically listen to two free audiobooks for Free Listens at a time: one on CDs in my car and one on my PDA/phone. I also have an ebook I'm reading on my phone right now for times when I'm waiting in line or at an appointment. Sometimes, I'll have an additional print book to read for school or other discussion. That adds up to four or five books to read at once. I try to read separate genres in each so I don't confuse myself.

What about you? How many books are you reading?

"The Dead" by James Joyce

Source: ThoughtAudio.com (part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 )
Length: Approx 1 hrs, 30 min
Reader: Michael Scott

The story: As part of the week of St. Patrick's Day, I'm celebrating Irish Short Story Week, hosted by The Reading Life. If you don't already subscribe to The Reading Life, hop on over and check out reviews of other Irish writers' short stories. I'll be reviewing two stories by Irish authors, but in keeping with my blog format of reviewing one free audiobook and one free audio story each week, I'll start with a story that could also be considered a novella.

Joyce is the paragon of Irish literature. Whenever I think of his writing, I think of dense, melancholy stories that require the use of a commentary and a dictionary of symbolism to wade through. "The Dead" has all those qualities, but it is also by turns humorous and romantic. In the story, Gabriel Conroy and his wife Gretta visit his aunts' house for a Christmas party. While there, Gabriel blunders his way through a few conversations with other women, then is struck by the beauty of his wife as she listens to a song that brings back old memories for her.

Joyce explores what it means to belong: to belong to a family, to belong to Irish nationality, and to belong to another person. Gabriel is a man who doesn't quite feel like he belongs. His education has removed him from those around him and his taste in culture tends toward England and Europe rather than Ireland. Catching his wife in a moment of reflection he is overjoyed to belong to her. And of course, her love belongs to him, right?

Rating: 8 / 10

The reader: Scott has a radio-announcer's voice that is extremely polished. His American accent is nondescript, and while it does not add the authenticity that an Irish accent would, it does not detract either. The recording is clear and well-made. In fact the only complaint I have about this reading is that it may be a little too polished; I didn't feel a strong sense of character from the reader. Most listeners will probably feel that this recording is perfectly fine, but if you want a second option, the always wonderful Elizabeth Klett has read "The Dead" for Librivox. I haven't listened to her entire recording, but from what I've heard, it's very good.

Literary Book Blog Hop

The Literary Book Blog Hop features book bloggers who focus on books with literary merit. Every week a prompt is presented and bloggers answer it, leaving a link to their post at The Blue Bookcase. This week's prompt is:


Can literature be funny? What is your favorite humorous literary book?

A book can certainly be both serious literature and hilariously funny. Literary books don't even need to confine their humor to highbrow irony; they can be as slapstick as Catch 22 or as sarcastic as Slaughterhouse 5.  It's hard to pick a favorite, but some of great humorous literature that I've reviewed here include The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Diary of a Nobody.  I don't think I'd count the Jeeves books as great literature, since they're a bit too light, but I can't let a post like this go by without mentioning Right Ho, Jeeves and Jeeves in the Morning.

If I were to extend the reach to literary short stories, "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is quite funny (up until the end), "The Open Window" is a classic short joke, and "Bullet in the Brain" made me laugh out loud. Some literary stories aren't all-out humor writing, but include important elements of humor. Examples include "The Overcoat" (aka "The Cloak") by Gogol, "The Dinner Party" by Joshua Ferris, and "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant. In these stories, humor is used, like in the plays of Shakespeare, to balance out the negative aspects of the stories and make the tragedies that much more tangible.

Literary Book Blog Hop

 The Literary Book Blog Hop features book bloggers who focus on books with literary merit. Every week a prompt is presented and bloggers answer it, leaving a link to their post at The Blue Bookcase. This week's prompt is:

If you were going off to war (or some other similarly horrific situation) and could only take one book with you, which book would you take and why?

The book I would chose in such a situation would have to satisfy at least two of the following three conditions: 1) it must be funny or uplifting 2) it must be long and 3) it must be something I haven't read before. To satisfy all three qualities, I'd choose something like Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. It's been on my to-read list for a long time. Even though I love Bryson and think he's hilarious, I haven't picked up a copy of this book yet.

Another possibility would be an anthology of short humor writing. I love David Foster Wallace, David Sedaris, P.G. Woodehouse, and Mark Twain. If I could find a good "Best Short Humor of the 20th Century" book, I think this would be a perfect way to get my mind off the horrors of war.

Literary Book Blog Hop: What book did I not like?

Each week, the Literary Book Blog Hop asks a question and has writers from literary book blogs engage in a discussion around that question. This week's topic is

Discuss a work of literary merit that you hated when you were made to read it in school or university.  Why did you dislike it?



When I was in high school, we had to read Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy as summer reading. I hated everything about the book. The long, flowery passages in which Hardy describes the English countryside tried my patience. In contrast, the most important event in the book, Alec's rape of Tess, has only a passing allusion. Since I had switched to skimming the book to get through the long descriptions, I didn't even realize anything had happened until Tess had a baby. At this point, I became annoyed at the weak characters including the pitiful Tess, her useless eventual husband Angel, and her rapist-with-a-heart-of-gold Alec. I ended up skipping to the end and limping my way through class discussions.


These were my views at the time, but I wonder what I would think if I read it now. My tastes have changed. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have liked Crime and Punishment as a high schooler, and re-reading Red Badge of Courage changed my opinion of it from hate to a begrudging appreciation. On the other hand, reading the plot summary of Tess from Wikipedia didn't pique my interest in the least, so perhaps I'll pass on a re-read.

Some other audiobook challenges

Besides the "52 Free Audiobooks in 2011" list here, there's a few other audiobook listening challenges out on the web

• "Whisper Stories in My Ear" at Bewitched Bookworms. Read twelve audiobooks in the year and enter contests for monthly prizes.
• 2011 Audiobooks Challenge at Theresa's Reading Corner. Chose a level and read 3, 6, 12, or 20 audiobooks in a year.
• There's still a few books open in the 5th Annual SFFaudio Challenge. In this one, you record rather than listen to any of the books from a list of science fiction, fantasy, or noir novels in the public domain. Winners get their choice of a selection of audiobooks as a prize.

I'm joining the Whisper Stories in My Ear and the 2011 Audiobooks challenge. As you can guess, it's no big deal for me to listen to over 12 audiobooks in the course of a year. I'm not doing the SFFaudio Challenge - I've recorded a few chapters for LibriVox before, but recording books is tough and takes a lot of time! I have so much respect for the volunteers at LibriVox. I may record a few more chapters or short stories this summer when I have more time, but for now I'll have to stick to listening and reviewing.

Literary Book Blog Hop: How did I get into literature?

Every week the Literary Book Blog Hop, hosted by the Blue Bookcase, asks participants to answer a question, then read other participants' responses. Here's this week's question:

How did you find your way to reading literary fiction and nonfiction?

You may have noticed that many of the books I tend to review are classics. This is mainly due to the fact that I'm limited to free audiobooks for this blog, and most of the free audiobooks are novels that have fallen into the public domain and then recorded by LibriVox or other organisations. But  I wouldn't be reviewing these classics at all if I didn't enjoy reading them.

I suppose my love of literary fiction originates with my lists. If I see a list of book suggestions, be it an assigned reading list for a class or a list of best books of 2011 posted at the library, I want to be able to check them off. The other big influence on my love of literature comes from the classes I've taken in high school and college. My teachers in these classes taught me how to investigate a book, rather than just be a passive observer. This approach appeals to my inquisitive nature and helps me to cut through difficult language to get to the author's intent.

52 free audiobooks to read in 2011

It's the beginning of the year; time to make New Year's resolutions! I've seen many fellow book bloggers tackling some impressive lists of books, like the dubious 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (from a book by Peter Baxter) and the somewhat better 1000 Books Everyone Must Read from the Guardian newspaper.

 So on a lark (and with nothing better to publish this week), I've come up with a list of my own: 52 Free Audiobooks and Short Stories You May or May Not Want to Read in 2011. I tried to keep all selections under 10 hours and include plenty of diversity in terms of authors, narrators, source websites, and age of the books. I've broken it into sections of five books from the same genre plus a dozen assorted short stories. I don't seriously expect anyone to complete this list, but if you do, let me know and I'll feature you in a post.

Other audiobook sites

I'm not posting a review this week - too many things to do. If you're looking for an audiobook review fix, try one of these other fine blogs:

• Audible Candy: reviews mostly commercial audiobooks
• Devourer of Books: reviews both print and audio, but made the list for hosting audiobook week
• Free Audio Review: what it says on the box, with a preference for science fiction
• SFFaudio: Reviews commercial and free science fiction, fantasy, noir, and horror. I occasionally guest post.
• Reading with my ears: audiobook reviews with a preference toward the Young Adult genre

I'm sure I've missed plenty of audiobook-dedicated sites and regular book review sites that have occasional audiobook reviews. If you have any you'd like to suggest, link to them in the comment section.

Best of Escape Pod

Speaking of Escape Pod, the blog Diabolical Plots has a list of "The Best of Escape Pod".  While you're there, also check out "The Best of Podcastle" for short fantasy fiction, and "The Best of Pseudopod" for short horror fiction.

Vacation week

I'm going on a late vacation this week, so there won't be any reviews until next week. Until then, check out some other audiobook review blogs:

• Free Audio Review is one of my favorites. Felbrigg reviews everything from history to old-time radio shows.
  
• Trucker Rich tends to favor horror, science fiction, and action.
• I Like Podcasts is written by science fiction author Cat Rambo and features (what else?) mostly speculative fiction podcasts.

Hope these three will tide you over until next week. If you're searching for more, try the "blogs" tag on the navigation bar at the right.