Mostly books.

[kyrielle]

I'm doing okay. I didn't post about it then, but yesterday was Mother's birthday - her 62nd - and Dad died three months ago today. I felt worse in the week leading up to these dates than I do now. (The difference is largely, I think, that I had one final big piece of info to toss at the lawyer looming over me and now, I just need to look up one additional thing and send it to him. Plus my to-do list is not as long as it was, though still longer than I like. Making progress is good for my mood.)

I have started listening to audio books in the car. I used to be unwilling to give up my traffic reports, until I started paying attention and realized that I was lucky if one traffic report every couple weeks actually occurred at the proper time to allow me to avoid the traffic. The rest of them simply explain to me why I am sitting around and exactly how unpleasant it may be. Plus, I'm not sure avoiding the traffic actually helps in most cases; the slow freeway may in many instances still be faster than the clear route over the hill. So, the radio goes away.

I listened to most of five CDs of seven in Stephen King's On Writing (I think I mentioned in an earlier post), and then returned them to the library because there was nasty skipping in the remaining tracks of #5. I checked the paper book out and read the rest of it (not while driving, you may be pleased to know) and quite enjoyed it. I'm not sure if I will ever use anything in there, as I don't currently aspire to write fiction. But it was fun to listen to. (Even when I was reading the book, after the CD problems, I was still 'listening' - I could still hear it in his voice.) My current audio book (which is, alas, running down) is Thomas Ayres's That's Not In My American History Book. I'm assuming the stories are true; they are supposed to be; I've done no research and likely never will. But whether they are true or not, they are thought-provoking and also very funny to listen to. Jeff Riggenbach, who narrates, has a very pleasant voice and a very pleasant flow as he reads. I don't care how good a book is, a bad reader means it needs to be read on paper if at all.

Here's hoping I have luck as good with my next attempts...we'll see. (I'm picking titles sort of willy-nilly from what the library can give me, so it really is sort of a crap shoot anyway.)

Also, having read P. J. Tracy's Monkeewrench, I got Live Bait from the library and read it. It was fun, but I must admit that I find it a bit distressing that they seem to like to punch the 'bizarre and outlandish scenario' button. The tales are fairly well-told and the pacing is good, I'm just not sure I should like them. They're not, I think, re-readable books for me really. The funny moments are really well done, though, regardless of other thoughts. I have Dead Run, the third book, from the library, but am waiting to read it until the weekend as I have been warned (by a friend who beat me to it) that it is "intense" and maybe not a good one to sleep on.

And now I go to bed, so as to be functional tomorrow, for more useful past-times than reading of books. :) Well, okay, actually I type in the last data and send it off, THEN go to bed.

Comments

[geordie.livejournal.com]

Audio books would be one thing that would get me to use the new library they just built here, even though nobody used the old one. On one very long road trip we listened to two Stephen King/Peter Straub books, The Talisman and Black House. It's the only time I can remember everyone being happy about spending a week driving.

[katbyte.livejournal.com]

Oh, I listened to "The Black House" on a long road trip, too. (I like Stephen King most of the time) I had to drive around just to finish it. I loved it.

James Patterson books are great for road trips, too.

[the_rck]

We've got one of those things for getting scratches out of CDs and DVDs. It's a pain in the butt to use, requiring a few minutes of hand and wrist effort, but it does work. I mostly use it on things from Netflix and the public library that won't play otherwise. I've found it a good investment, especially since I read the fine print and discovered that it's acceptable to use reasonably pure tap water or bottled water in place of the 'specially prepared grinding fluid' (which seems to be very thoroughly distilled and purified water).

At any rate, if you're going to get a lot of CDs from the library and don't have a scratch remover, it might be worth the investment. I don't think ours was very expensive.

[kyrielle]

I didn't know those existed, so I'll think about it. But I'm lazy and cheap - I'm not sure I'll care enough to bother.

[roadskoller.livejournal.com]

The anniversary's of someone close death is hard.

[kfrye.livejournal.com]

You should totally check out Escape Pod. Each episode is a short SF story, and most of them are really good... and they're free.

[kyrielle]

Thanks - I will check it out!