Tag: audiobook

Almost There

It’s 2:15pm. Lunch is about to end (I started my break a little later than normal today). I have a vacation day booked for tomorrow, then the following two days are off for Thanksgiving, then the weekend. That’s right, folks. I have a five day weekend coming and it is just a bit more than three hours away. I have one more meeting on my schedule this afternoon and I have a few email threads that need updating. Other than that, we’re just riding out this fine Tuesday in the office.

87/365

So before Covid shut everything down I was a regular user of Audible, the audiobook subscription service. I forget how but at some point I came into a whole bunch of credits and blew them all on a number of books that I never got around to listening to. Back in March when my company upped our in-the-office requirement from once a week to twice a week I reopened my account and all of those unread books were still there. One was a biography of Syd Barrett. I’m listening to it now and while many of the events and facts the author describes are clearly incorrect, and many others are trying to show Barrett as some poetic legend on a level that is infinitely greater than his catalog demonstrates, it is a good read. I have been listening to a lot of his music over the last week.

The National Solo Album Month (nasoalmo) rules allow for one cover song. While adding another song does not fit my personal theme for this month’s project, I am wondering if I should record a cover of Dominoes. I’m thinking about it.

Audible Failure

I didn’t think that failing at the Audible app was a thing. You know Audible, right? Basically it’s Amazon’s audiobook subscription service?.

I didn’t think there would be a way to straight up fail at using the app, but you know what? That audiobook that I just downloaded is most definitely in German, not English.

Fail, indeed.

I Hate Abridged Audiobooks

Watching Fear the Walking Dead has given me the urge to re-read World War Z. I figured I’d go for the audiobook and listen in the car driving to and from work. I bought it from iTunes, something I’ve never done before. It’s cool, it downloads into iBooks and plays from there instead of the Music app. Nice, huh?

The audiobook for World War Z has three tracks and runs for a little under six hours. Uh Uh, kids, that doesn’t seem right. I know it’s not that long a book, but a six hour read? No way. Too short.

Sure enough, there was nothing in there from the discussion of pre-panic profiteering in the United States (no vaccines against African Rabies). There was also nothing about the decimation of the Russian military during the panic (the word decimation being used in the literal sense, not the figurative sense. Look it up). There was also nothing about the Japanese net nerd who was so locked into the web that he didn’t realize the zombies had overrun his building. All really good stuff from the book, all missing from the audio book. I just finished and there is actually a mention in the end credits for “abridgment by”. Hey, why don’t you just bite me?

At least the character from whom we learn of the Battle of Yonkers was read by Mark Hamill. That is one Jedi Knight who can kick ass at anything he sets his Jedi Knight mind to.

Clockwork Angels the Audiobook

On my drive home today I started listening to the Clockwork Angels audiobook. It was read by Neil Peart. I’m still only at the beginning, but my first impression is that when it comes to audiobooks, Neil is a great drummer. No offense.

The other thing you learn very quickly is that Mr Peart is aboooot as Canadian as you can get. The first line: “It seems like a lifetime agoooo.”

You just have to love it.