Tuesday Book Review

I've taken a liking to audiobooks lately.  I find that I feel really accomplished when I multitask by knitting or sewing while I'm listening to a book.  I'm an avid reader and have been for as long as I can remember, but I have become so focused on knitting lately that my evening hours are pretty much consumed with needles and yarn.

After some suggestions from my knitting group friends and some links on Ravelry, I decided to take a plunge into the world of audiobooks.

First of all, let me say that my local library is FANTASTIC in the way of selection of audiobooks.  I guess that's one of the perks to being more urban as opposed to the sparse selection offered up by the Forsyth and Cherokee County libraries.   I have a really hard time justifying buying a book anymore when the library has so much to offer with such generous checkout times.  Yes, I realize that I sound like a big book nerd right now, but honestly I grew up going to the library and that's been my motivating factor for getting my new driver's license the last two times we moved!

Back to audiobooks, though... The only drawback that I have found is that I, personally, am a very tactile and visual person.  My brain absorbs information much better if I see the words on a page rather than have them read to me.  However, somehow simultaneously knitting and listening keeps enough of my senses involved that I can pay attention and I've been pleasantly surprised with how much I've been able to remember from the books.

The first books I have listened to have been on Libravox which I was introduced to thanks to one of my knitting and blogging friends, Mary.  Libravox has a great collection, including a lot of classics, that are free in the public domain.  Basically, that means that you and I get to listen to them through this great resource because the copyrights have expired and they can be used however we (meaning individuals in the US) want to use them (for the most part).  If you want to try out audiobooking, I'd give Libravox a try!

The first book that I got from the library was Dear John, by Nicholas Sparks.  If this sounds familiar to you, it's because it was recently released in theaters.  I wanted to read the book because I've long been a believer that if a movie is good, the book must be better.  I heard that the movie was phenomenal, so I decided to go the book route first.  Big Mistake!!!  I should have learned my lesson by now that Nicholas Sparks books translate to movies much better than they read on paper.  No one would go pay to see a movie that ends the way this book does... well, at least I wouldn't.  I'm a happy-feel-good-warm-and-fuzzy kinda gal when it comes to love stories.  If you want to have a genuinely good side-by-side comparison of the book to the movie, check out this blog.  I think it gives a pretty fair summary of both. I'm not going to offer detailed spoilers on here.  However, I will say that this book did not get a thumbs up from me and was pretty disappointing.  I so desperately wanted to like Nicholas Sparks, but this is probably the last one I'll spend time on by him.  In my opinion, it was well read as far as audiobooks go, but overall the story left me feeling empty and frustrated.  I'll may or may not be checking out the movie once it is available on DVD.

Up next is Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman, the 17 disk behemoth, as my solo "read".  The Husband and I are going to listen to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling.  I've heard that these are both phenomenal books, so I am excited to see what they have to offer.

Love, hugs, and blessings,
The Mama