Miscellaneous

First: Found via Walker of Worlds Random House has started a new site called Suduvu, where you can download books from them & they're offering five titles free this month! They are: His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik, Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb, Settling Accounts: Return Engagement by Harry Turtledove, Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson and Blood Engines by T.A. Pratt. If you sign up for their emails they will notify you when they have more free titles (monthly?). I downloaded the Naomi Novik title.

Second: I'm giving up on the Helen of Troy audiobook, strictly because it's too long, I'm too far behind & I keep forgetting them in the car & they go back and forth to work with Hubby. :( I've no renewals left.

Third: I'm currently buried under a windfall of library treasures, most of which are on their second renewal. I just picked up three more today & another is coming via interlibrary loan.

Fourth: My reading pace is slowing down. Like the famous molasses flood in January in Boston- sssslllllooowwwwweeeerrrrr and sssslllooowwwwwweeeerrrr and sssssllllooooowwwwwweeeeerrrrrrrr..

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!

Couple of books read

Somehow over the last ten days or so I've managed to read or to listen to a few library books:

1. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society- Shaffer and Barrows

2. How Not to Die- Dr. G

3. I'm Not Scared (unabridged audiobook)- Niccolo Ammaniti

4. Letter to my Daughter- Maya Angelou

I also listened to one of the Lois McMaster Bujold's The Hallowed Hunt on unabridged cds, which I borrowed from the library. I find audio books wonderful to clean the house while listening to or iron or play Xbox while listening or play in traffic or...They're just addicting when they're done well. Anyhow, I'll write these up eventually. If I've already done the Bujold title as a boook I may do a tiny write up about the audio. Full monthly synopsis later.