698th Friday Blog Roundup
My cousin talked me into my second audio book. I don’t normally do audio books because I have a terrible attention span. I get through about five minutes of concentrating on the story. Then I start daydreaming, and a few minutes pass and I realize I haven’t been listening at all. Books — unlike news podcasts — require you to listen closely and keep details in your head. The only audio book I’ve ever gotten through was Barrel Fever by David Sedaris, and Josh and I listened to it as we drove through Canada. That was 18 years ago.
But she told me that I would love Alan Cumming’s book as an audio book, and she’s totally correct. He’s a great storyteller, and hearing the book aloud is similar to hearing a Spaulding Gray monologue. Plus it’s a great story; a heartbreaking one, but I’m riveted listening to him talk about his father.
Especially close to Father’s Day.
It has made me reconsider audio books. Not all the time, but I think I’ll check out another one when I finish this one.
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Stop procrastinating. Go make your backups. Don’t have regrets.
Seriously. Stop what you’re doing for a moment. It will take you fifteen minutes, tops. But you will have peace of mind for days and days. It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.
As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments in order to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.
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And now the blogs…
But first, second helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week. In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:
- “What I Learned — Microblog Monday” (Pages, Stages, and Rages)
Okay, now my choices this week.
NotMyLinesYet has a moving post containing a letter to her children who aren’t here. She writes, “When we cremated the girls, DH and I wrote each one a letter that was cremated with her. I realized today while I was taking a walk that I wanted to do the same for the six babies we didn’t even get to cremate.” It’s a beautiful letter and a moving way of honouring those lives.
Much Ado About Nothing has a post about friendships told in tiny vignettes. The friends who slip out of our lives and realizing that she has been living with her best friend all along… It’s just a really good post.
Lastly, Dubliner in Deutschland has a post about her transversary (her transfer anniversary). It’s a great post because we rarely know at the time that we’re living the most monumental moments of our lives. And this ordinary transfer plus the row over where to eat and the emotion of the day resulted in her daughter. I smiled through the whole post knowing the end of the story.
The roundup to the Roundup: Trying audio books. Your weekly backup nudge. And lots of great posts to read. So what did you find this week? Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between June 8th and 15th) and not the blog’s main url. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week? Read the original open thread post here.
5 comments
Wow-thanks Mel!! That mention totally made my day and turned my morning around! I feel like I won the Emmy of blogland!
Audiobooks are tricky. I really like when the author is the voice, especially on autobiographical works. (Anna Kendrick is so cute and her book was better because she read it to us.) But I have listened to some fiction novels where the voice didn’t quite match the story, and/or the reader tried to do voices for different characters, and I found it distracting and it just took me out of the action. So I am sort of hesitant to get them for that reason. Plus, they are really expensive in comparison to just purchasing the actual book.
I don’t really do audio books either, not because of a short attention span, but because I don’t really feel like I’ve READ a book if I’ve just listened to the audio version. I like to actually read words on the page.
Having said that, there are a few non-fiction books I’ve been interested in checking out recently that would probably be suitable for listening to on my daily commute. Hmm.
I finally gave in to audio books because it seems to be the only way I can finish my monthly book club books. I have almost zero “me time”, so I multitask by listening to audio books while I go for walks on my breaks at work. The Allen Cumming book sounds interesting. I’ll be sure to look into it. If you think you might want to try another audio book in the future, I can’t say enough wonderful things about Trevor Noah’s “Born a Crime”. It is soooo much better to hear it told in his voice. It’s fascinating, moving, and hilarious.
I read all those posts this week – good choices!
I’m a recent convert to audiobooks. I listen to them when I’m doing menial chores, colouring my hair, or (most often) going on walks. I agree with Charlotte. I’ve been sticking to autobiographies, and my favourites have been when the author themselves have read the book. There was one book I started that was about young adults, and was narrated by someone who sounded about 70, and it just didn’t work.
Oh, and can I say that I appreciate your backup reminders? You may think we all gloss over that, and get no thanks for it. I don’t backup every week because my main work is backed up on the cloud too, and that is ongoing. But I am grateful for the reminders that make me think about anything important I’ve done that I need to backup, or reminds me how long it has been since I did a total backup.
I loved Alan Cumming’s audiobook. I’m a big audiobook “reader” (Audible member for more years than I care to admit) and I’ve discovered that it needs to be both a good book and a good performance in order to hold my interest.
I think David Tennant reading the “How to Train Your Dragon” series may be my favorite performance, despite me not being in the target audience. My kids listen to them over and over, but my son is too impatient to listen at normal speed so he speeds it up. I wander by his room and the high-speed Scottishness leaking out always sounds like something from Trainspotting.
Another good one is “Good Omens” read by Martin Jarvis. And Jon Ronson, David Sedaris, and John Hodgman reading their own works are all excellent. I nearly drove off the road laughing, while listening to David Sedaris describing his first colonoscopy. Drive carefully!