One of the things I look for is an unabridged version. I've
come to the
point where, if a book can be distilled down into two
cassettes without
losing the gist of the story, it's generally not worth
"reading"... The
bad news is that most tapes of writers reading their own work
are
abridged.
The two best sources I've found for unabridged tapes are
Books on Tape
(which even has a web page: http://www.booksontape.com)
and a company
called Brilliance Corporation. I generally find Brilliance
Corp tapes
at the rental place and at bookstores; I haven't found a
direct source
for all the things they carry. Brilliance has some good
titles -- like
the books of Michael Connelly and Dennis Lehane. I also kind
of like
their format -- they record a different track on both
channels of the
tape, so you listen to a tape all the way through on the left
channel,
and then again on the right. Twice as much stuff on the same
tape.
[I listened to Connelly's Blood Work on tape last week --
finally ended
up going around with a Walkman on when I left the car, until
I finished
the book! He's getting better -- this one is as good as the
last Bosch
book, and -- I think -- better than The Poet.]
Books On Tape appears to be adding to their mystery/intrigue
catalog --
not just with new stuff, either. After hearing KC
Constantine
recommended by others here, I checked out his first one.
[There were
technical problems with the last tape in the set, but I
wasn't
enthralled with the book enough to call for a replacement.
Should I
have started with another of his books, or are they all about
the same?]
Unfortunately, other than the two sources I've cited, it's
getting more
difficult to find unabridged works, with the possible
exception of every
novel John Grisham has ever cranked out -- and he's one
writer that
would benefit from some wholesale editing. (Can you tell this
really
peeves me?)
Of course, I'll take an abridgement in a heartbeat if it
means I can
listen to a writer I like read his own work. Haven't seen any
of
Burke's, but one of my favorite abridgements was one Tony
Hillerman
read, can't remember which now. (I'm not sure it's because I
heard Chee
or Leaphorn any more clearly -- it's just that he was born in
Oklahoma
about 20 miles from where my family has been for several
generations --
listening to him read is like hearing someone I know well
tell a
story...) I wish I could find Mosley reading his own stuff --
he was in
Houston a few months ago, and did a reading for the creative
writing
program at UH -- read a little from Yellow Dog *and* RL's
Dream.
Wonderful stuff -- I could have listened all night...
Terri
-- Terri Carl terric@neosoft.com # # To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to majordomo@icomm.ca. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.vex.net/~buff/rara-avis/.