>>>>>>>>Never mind.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>OK ;-)
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Mike,
>>>>>>Well said
>>>>>>Koen
>>>>>
>>>>>I can always rely on Mike with constructive input.
>>>>
>>>>Dmitry,
>>>>
>>>>It didn't seem like constructive input was any longer desired so I threw in a dumb joke. My apologies for any offense. I guess I didn't realize I need to be careful what I say to you.
>>>>
>>>>Just tired and a little cranky after a six hour drive. Don't take it personally. What I should really do is write a history of Interstate 55, if only it were interesting. Don't say Route 66, even though mentions of Route 66 are incessant in rest stops up and down I-55. Also mentions of Abraham Lincoln, needless to say. I-55 runs parallel to a long stretch of the old Route 66 and helped make it irrelevant other than as Americana.
>>>>
>>>>Have a good week. My life really does seem to exist in weeks these days, rounded by commutes back and forth between Chicago and St. Louis. In a way it reminds me of distance running training. It's better not to pay attention to details all the time. You just try to find the zone.
>>>>
>>>>Mike
>>>
>>>Mike,
>>>
>>>No apologies necessary; no offense. We were just joking.
>>>
>>>As far as driving; have you tried books on CDs while driving? I have been a huge fan of books on CDs (and tapes before that) for many, many years. I have to drive a lot too (less now with the Internet and GoToMeeting) and listening to books while driving makes the road shorter and more pleasant.
>>>
>>>Enjoy your week.
>>
>>I am glad you were also joking.
>>
>>Audio books really are something I should look into. You can even rent them from the library. I listen to satellite radio some, especially to baseball games on the drive to St. Louis on Sunday afternoons. Sirius/XM also broadcasts all NFL games live. I am sure I will be taking advantage of that because with my commuting schedule I will mostly be partaking of NFL games on the radio, not TV. That isn't ideal but having no job and no money isn't ideal, either.
>>
>>This has probably been discussed here before, since I remember the topic of audio books coming up before, but are there any specific titles anyone would like to recommend? I am going to re-ask that same question in a new chatter thread.
>
>I get all of the audio books from the library. Tons and tons of great books. Basically almost any book you can get in paper comes in an audio version. Some of my favorite are books by Frank McCourt (narrated by himself); great books and he is an excellent narrator.
Amazing! The only audio book I own is "Angela's Ashes," narrated by McCourt. I loved the book (so did all the book award groups that year) so when I saw the audio version was read by the man himself I snapped it up. I liked it so much I bought another copy for a couple who have been close friends since college. They were about to embark on a driving trip from the Chicago area to visit Phil's family in Florida, along with their two sons who were in their late teens at the time. Phil reported back that they were quickly speaking to each other in Irish brogues ;-) Particularly with the addition of his voice reading it, McCourt takes you into a world quite different from your own, which has always been my favorite kind of book. Many readers want to read about characters and circumstances similar to their own and that's all they're interested in. Those are not necessarily the books I seek out, although I have nothing against them and do read some of them. It's just usually more interesting to hear (read) the voices of characters who are of different sexes, ages, nationalities, life experiences, etc.
The most amazing thing to me about Frank McCourt is he was an obscure English teacher in NYC public schools until fairly well along in life. The genre of memoirs by unknowns was rare at the time -- memoirs were the domain of public/historic figures -- before it became a form of communicable disease to judge by the bestseller lists and book reviews. Everyone and their brother is doing it now. The good news is McCourt set the bar so high most of them will never get over it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_McCourtOne of my favorite passages is a classic in modern writing IMO, regardless of genre. And I bet you're hearing McCourt's voice from the audiobook as you read this. It's from the very beginning of the book.
When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood. Nothing can compare with the Irish version: the poverty; the shiftless loquacious alcoholic father; the pious defeated mother moaning by the fire; pompous priests; bullying schoolmasters; the English and the terrible things they did to us for eight hundred long years.http://www.amazon.com/Angelas-Ashes-Memoir-Frank-McCourt/dp/068484267X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314063956&sr=8-1I just added to my To Do list for myself to grab the CD next weekend and pop it into the car. That will be one or two easier drives. (The audio is unabridged).
