what are you reading/listening to at the moment

**BlueBear** · 09-07-2010, 11:54 AM

Good luck with the Count of Monte Cristo. I went to buy the book and felt a little bit daunted by the size of it and changed my mind, I ll leave it for when I hit a dry spell in my selection (which wont be for a while!). I dont know how I would go listening to 50hrs... this is too scary for me

**Meminger** · 09-08-2010, 12:01 PM

I did Gone With The Wind recently and loved every minute of its 6 parts. Hubby is into it now and thinks it will last forever. So, The Count wasn't as dauniting as it could have been.

**mickyplum** · 09-09-2010, 07:41 AM

after i finished the excellent 'green mile' i was very happy to find that john connolly had a new book out and it was part of his charlie parker series.i really enjoy these books as they follow a private detective (parker) on his very violent travels but they also have a paranormal edge to them.i've read all connolly's books and have loved them all especially 'the book of lost things' which isn't part of the series but is a great book on it's own.'the whisperers' is the new book and while i did enjoy it a lot i was left a bit frustrated as some characters from previous books are in the background and i was waiting for a big showdown which didn't happen,oh well maybe next time.the next book i listened to was 'fool' by christopher moore and it is without doubt one of the funniest books i've come across,it's described as a bawdy tale and it certainly is.i've read a couple of moore's books - lamb and a dirty job- and enjoyed them both but i thought this was far funnier and as i couldn't remember anything from my school years about king lear (which fool is based loosely) i also enjoyed the story.there were a lot of laugh out loud moments in the book for me and most of them were because of the swearing,insults and name calling.i couldn't possibly repeat any of them here but some of my friends will be getting some of the moore treatment down the pub this weekend

.i've had this book for a while and i can't believe it's taken me so long to get round to listening to it.next up for me is another one of bernard cornwell's excellent sharpe books - 'sharpe's rifles'

mick

**madmary** · 09-09-2010, 06:36 PM

I'm listening to Pillars of the Earth at the moment. I haven't got very far but I am gripped. I find the narrator takes a bit of getting used to. His voice is very nice, but he seems to rush his phrases sometimes and takes a pause at strange moments. The story however, is rivetting enough for me to overlook this.

I may be sometime with this story although I've realised I can't listen in bed as the chapters are too long and when I fall asleep it takes forever to find my place.

I have just finished gone by Mo Hayer. This was a very good story although I'm afraid I guessed the culprit very early on. The narration was terrible. Another actor whose phrasing was all wrong, as if he couldn't be bothered to follow the punctuation or the natural sense of the phrases and sentences. He also was a tad on the melodramatic side. I downloaded this audiobook in a sale and am glad I didn't pay the full price.

On a lighter note, my local libraries have finally discovered downloadable audiobooks, so if I get a moment today I'm off to my local library to join up. Then I can get books on my ipod for 21 days. Not sure if there's a fee but it's got to be cheaper than paying full price for books I might not enjoy!

Mary

**BlueBear** · 09-09-2010, 08:59 PM

Gave up on The Vor Game, this was the 3rd book in the series and had too many references to the earlier books (despite what I read in some customer reviews) so will now get the first book and listen to the series in order. But until then decided to try out Mary's favourite narrator - Saul Reichlin reading the The Sacred Cut. Impressive voice, very deep and soothing, has been keeping me company while I've been walking. Story is also good, not great literature but it's entertaining and I wont mind listening to the others in the series.

**DorothyD** · 09-09-2010, 11:31 PM

I finished Mockingjay last night. Not as good as the first two, for me anyway. It was more about war than about the characters - and I wasn't happy with the way the characters were portrayed...

**mickyplum** · 09-10-2010, 05:15 AM

On a lighter note, my local libraries have finally discovered downloadable audiobooks, so if I get a moment today I'm off to my local library to join up. Then I can get books on my ipod for 21 days. Not sure if there's a fee but it's got to be cheaper than paying full price for books I might not enjoy!

Mary[/QUOTE]

i'd be very interested to hear how this works mary.i'm embarassed to say that i haven't stepped foot in a library for many years and i'm even more embarassed to admit that,at the age of forty,my mum still picks library books up for me - what a mummy's boy

mick

**Andi** · 09-10-2010, 05:59 AM

yay for downloadable audiobooks! C'mon, mick. Get to the library yourself and figure it all out!

**mickyplum** · 09-10-2010, 06:38 AM

i couldn't do it to her andi,she gets a lot of enjoyment out of picking new books up for her 'special little soldier'

mick

**madmary** · 09-10-2010, 06:50 AM

micky google you local library (usually part of your local council's website). If they have downloadable books you should find them there. There isn't a huge selection on the website that our council has chosen but there are a lot of fairly uptodate books that I will want to listen to and as it's free I can listen to books that I fancy but wouldn't actually purchase.

I had to go to the library to join their scheme but now can download stuff at home.

Mary