Book roundup, Jan-June 2011
eBooks
Audiobooks
Audio lectures:
eBooks: 22
Audiobooks: 19
Audio lectures: 2
I think this is the first time since I've started using audiobooks that I've read more books in print than in audio, and I'm pretty sure this is the most books I've ever read in 6 months. It's been fun and my reading speed is getting better. I've never been happy with my reading speed but if I push it, my retention drops to zero. If I read a paragraph much faster than my normal speed, I couldn't tell you what it was about at all. So I have to push the speed up slowly.
- Mission of Honor by David Weber
- Storm Front by Jim Butcher
- Fool Moon by Jim Butcher - Dresden Files book 2
- Grave Peril by Jim Butcher
- Summer Knight by Jim Butcher
- The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
- In Fire Forged by David Weber
- I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett
- Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold
- Blackout by Connie Willis
- All Clear by Connie Willis
- Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex by Eoin Colfer
- Hyperion by Dan Simmons
- Changes by Jim Butcher
- Variable Star by Robert Heinlein and Spider Robinson
- Agatha H and the Airship City
- The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons
- Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- Dreadnaught by Jack Campbell
- Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
- Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
- The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Audiobooks
- The Evolutionary Void by Peter F. Hamilton
- Mars Life by Ben Bova
- Death Masks by Jim Butcher
- Blood Rites by Jim Butcher
- Dead Beat by Jim Butcher
- Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher
- White Night by Jim Butcher
- Small Favor by Jim Butcher
- Turn Coat by Jim Butcher
- The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by H.K. Jenisin
- Feed by Mira Grant
- The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen J Gould
- Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
- Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind
- Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings
- Queen of Sorcery by David Eddings
- Magician's Gambit by David Eddings
- Castle of Wizardry by David Eddings
- Enchanter's End Game by David Eddings
Audio lectures:
- Cycles of American Political Thought from TTC
- Victorian Britain by Patrick Allitt, from TTC
eBooks: 22
Audiobooks: 19
Audio lectures: 2
I think this is the first time since I've started using audiobooks that I've read more books in print than in audio, and I'm pretty sure this is the most books I've ever read in 6 months. It's been fun and my reading speed is getting better. I've never been happy with my reading speed but if I push it, my retention drops to zero. If I read a paragraph much faster than my normal speed, I couldn't tell you what it was about at all. So I have to push the speed up slowly.
I will say that I still enjoy the act of reading better if I slow down to speaking speed, but I enjoy getting through more of the story more afterwards so I try to read faster.
I also now run RockBox firmware on my MP3 player, which allows me to control the reading speed and pitch of audiobooks separately; this has been handy when I get the occasional female reader with a shrill voice, or a male reader with a lower voice. And for slow readers I've cranked the speed up to as much as 185%.
I actually do read print faster than even that now if I'm really able to concentrate, but I still get through audiobooks at least as fast simply because I have more time to spend on audiobooks; I can listen to them while riding my bike, weeding the garden, mowing the lawn, doing the dishes, etc.
Another problem that I have is that I'm absolutely the most hopeless unitaskers that I know of. If I'm listening to something, it's nearly impossible for me to do anything else that requires that part of the brain. If I'm listening to an audiobook, I can't really do anything that requires any language at all, even reading a road sign causes me to lose the audio stream for several seconds. If I'm listening to an audiobook in the car and the GPS says something, I completely lose the ability to hear what either of them said, it just turns into a jumble. I can't really listen to music and do anything else. I love music but I seldom listen to it because I really can't unless I'm just standing still and doing absolutely nothing else, and I never have the time for that.
Edited at 2011-07-02 01:48 am (UTC)
If you subscribe at all to the "multiple intelligences" theory -- which I sort of buy and sort of don't, but there's a boatload of anecdotal evidence supporting multiple learning styles if not multiple "intelligences" per se -- my two main ones are verbal and musical, with musical being the more prevalent. I was in a seminar once where someone was demonstrating facilitation techniques using the theory of multiple intelligences. She gave us a spatial relationship task (building something out of blocks or some such) and played music while we worked. I tried to explain to her afterwards that this was actually not serving me as a musical learner in any way whatsoever, because I needed too much brain for listening to the music and had none left over for the spatial task (doubly so because spatial is my weakest style).
I hate talking GPSs even though I grudgingly recognize their extreme usefulness. I'm not a big fan of visual displays that move in cars either, for similar reasons.
I dissed GPSs for many years until I realized that they're not just about the destination, they're about the trip, and being a bit of an expert guide wherever you are. I love being able to just tap in fast food, "taco" while driving and have it pop up all the Taco Bells nearby, with arrows for their directions, and pick one that's ahead and have it take me there, then continue on the way. Or being able to go to the car in the hotel parking lot and tap in "office supplies" and finding some nearby, even in a place I've never been before.