Monday, February 23, 2009

Helen of Troy Audiobook

I'm listening to the Margaret George audiobook Helen of Troy in the car. See image on sidebar. I thought I'd have plenty of time to listen to it. We're a commuter family and traffic here is notoriously clogged and slow. I think I've miscalculated though. This book, unabridged, is 25 discs (30+ hours). The longest audiobook I've borrowed so far had 16 discs & I got pretty obsessive about dragging the case everywhere with me. I've renewed Helen of Troy twice now & I'm only up to disc 7.

I love the voice of the narrator, who is British. I wonder that they couldn't find a Greek speaker or had an actor who could do a Greek accent. The British lady did a great job, but if they could find an Italian for Donna Leon and Niccolo Ammaniti, then they could've found a Greek actor for Margaret George. I'd really like that. It adds to the listener's experience of the book. Besides, the whole saga is unmistakably Greek, it would've been a tribute.

The niggling issue with this one is the tracks are not evenly spaced out. For example, on both of the BBC Audiobooks each disc was marked at three minute intervals, which turned out to be very easy and convenient. The tracks on Helen aren't evenly spaced, which is turning out to be an annoyance- especially on a book this large. What does this mean? Well, if I arrived at my destination and had to stop on disc 7 track 5- track five might be four minutes or it might be twelve & I can't get back to my exact place. I have to repeat the four or six minutes or whatever until I'm at the exact spot again. This might not sound like a big deal, but on a book that's 25 discs long? Those little minutes add up gang.

I'm at the point in the story where I really don't want to give it up- Helen and Paris have just met in Sparta. Helen was naive enough to seek out Aphrodite and beg her help without specifying what man she (Helen) would feel all of Love's power for. Poor stupid Helen. Led astray by a desire for orgasms. Seriously. I don't think I can quit the series now!

3 comments:

Kailana said...

I bought this book as soon as it came out. I love books about Helen of Troy. I started reading it and then I started hearing bad things about it... This is why I try to avoid reading reviews of books until I have finished them! Anyway, I put it aside to get back to later... and never picked it up again. I couldn't imagine listening to it, though. I really should get back to it...

Bob & Muffintop said...

Kailana~

I purposely avoid reviews. I'm enjoying it so far. I wanted to see what Ms. George would come up with as far as Helen's viewpoint & so far it's ..interesting. Not quite what I expected.

Marg said...

I was listening to Great Expectations last year and the tracks were anywhere between 12 and 45 minutes long - very irritating if the bookmark did't work properly.