If I can read around one and a half books per week, and live until my mid-eighties, that means I've only got enough time to read another 2000 or so books. More than likely, quite a few of those will be for light entertainment even though I haven't yet found the time read the complete works of Dickens, Hardy, Elliot or Austen. And there will be books I might want to read again. Unfortunately I don't believe in reincarnation. Even if I do come back it would probably be as a frog, or a flea, a hoodie, or Victoria Beckham and therefore wouldn't be very much inclined to read at all.
So having discovered LibriVox and bought myself an IPod, I've begun listening to audio books as I go for my walks or tootle around the house cleaning and tidying. At first I found the lay readers strange but soon got used to it. It's not like commercial audio books where the reading is often 'performed' by some fruity-toned act-or. That put me off at first, then I started to think of the readers as really kind folk who were taking the time to read to me personally. Which is what they are really.
And apart from increasing my intake of books I'm going for longer walks and doing more cleaning and tidying. Which is all very good.
I'd like to try this, but I have a habit of "zoning out" and missing most of the action. A favorite song will come on the radio, I perk up, five minutes later I didn't tune in to a note of it.
ReplyDeleteI like your goal of 2000 more books!
I have the problem of zoning out too. That's where the rewind facility comes in handy. And if I really want to relish a passage I return to the written word. Project Gutenberg is useful for that if I don't already have the book.
ReplyDeletewhat a great thought to read to a goal. I can't really do the Ipod thing, yet. (The budget is not that elastic at the moment.) Thanks for the Gutenberg tip, I will be checking it out.
ReplyDeleteHappy Easter
Happy Easter to you also Brighid. Bert killed a rooster for the occasion.
ReplyDeleteI bought my IPod second hand as I wasn't sure if I'd like it. For listening to books any MP3 player should do.