Books on tape

Check to see whether your local library has a website. If you could scan their holdings, you'd probably find all sorts of books that you've been meaning to read.

Books on tape
Just about anything you're interested in comes on audio tape. Some libraries only get CD's now, which can be awkward, but old and new titles are available on both CD's and tape.

What sort of subject are you interested in? Biography? Fiction? History? Give us an idea, and we can give you some specific suggestions.

Hmmmm. What will keep Montana's interest on a road trip? Mystery? Nah, she'd get bored and toss the tape out the window. Romance? Nah, her life has been one whirlwind romance after another and she would soon tire of reading of such familiar things. Action? I think not. She lives in the wilderness and fights animals and, if I remember correctly, once stopped a boatload of terrorists from storming the beach. Action is her middle name.

Think, damn it think! What should she read?

Aha! Eureka! I've got it!! This is perfect.....

I used to just plain browse the library. Pick out whatever suited. After a while it got to a pattern... something 'serious', something not so serious...

Not so serious... Tom Clancy comes out well on tape, and I listened to several of the Jim Chee / Joe Leaphorn mysteries by Tony Hellerman (?). Spenser books by Robert parker didn't work as well, but that's mostly because I'd already read them.

Serious... Moby Dick. My library also had the complete series of Winston Churchill's history of WWII.

although, since I bought a new car a few years back, well, the radio works so I commute with NPR... (commute got shorter too.)

S'anyway, go to the library and see what floats your boat...

Montana -- Maybe you could try to PM Peace and Love. She has mentioned a few books on tape that she liked including White Oleander, Life of Pi and a new one I can't remember. She listens to them on her way to work.

Great ideas everyone. We have a very small library in our little town, so I hope they have them. My aunt just retired from working there for several years, so I think I'll give her a call tomorrow to see if they even have them there before I go snooping. Thanks again :-D

If you want a place to browse for titles and reviews before you purchase or borrow from the library, Amazon has an entire section devoted to books on tape. It's in their Book category. Just click on the audio cassettes sub-category.

They have them sorted by subject and give reviews on the audio quality as well as the book itself.

Thanks Butrfly :-D I was just wondering where I could take a peek at some of them.

Ok, so I decided to snoop around for audio books and figured I'd start at my favorite place to shop (ebay). I've read a few books by Louis L'amour years ago and enjoyed them so much that I always wanted to get his other books, so I did a search on ebay under audio books and I found a ton of Louis L'amour tapes. Well, now I'm excited :-D This trip might just be exciting after all :-D

I always loved having stories read to me...used to listen to them on some radio station in Kansas City...so I LOVE books on tape, it doesn't really matter what it is, i just love the voice inflections, and the SOUND of a book....enjoy them Montana.

I am still laughing at Gus....a book on tape about canning tomatoes, imagine that being read by Meryl Streep!

not a book but poetry - Richard Burton reading Under MilkWood by Dylan Thomas is amazing and brilliant. His voice is just perfect for it ... and what a voice!

I think I'm gonna have a great time with the stories. I'm still laughing at Gus's post. He is never ending cracking me up, LOL! Believe it or not, a canning book on tape would actually be something I'm interested in, hahaha! Gus knows me all too well ;-)

I've never been much into poetry, but it sounds wonderful Vivien :-D

Books on tape
Yes, Life of Pi is delightful, and the Tony Hillerman books are very well read.

What I often do is look up the reader - I have my favorites - and sometimes I'll just pick something they read because I like the way they read. George Guidall, Patrick Tull, and Barbara Rosenblatt are particularly good.

If you enjoy mysteries, the series by Diane Mott Davidson are good. The principal character is a female caterer, and the setting is the Colorado moutains; if you aren't from that area (from your name, "Montana", I wonder if you are already familiar with such scenery) that makes for interesting reading. Anyway, these are among those read by Rosenblatt.

Of course, if you haven't read the Harry Potter books, they are extremely well done; a pleasure to listen to.

Most public libraries belong to some kind of regional system and can easily get tapes on Interlibrary Loan, so if there is something you want it's almost always pretty widely available. Of course, it may take time if other people are using the tapes, and I don't know when you plan your trip; does your schedule allow for requesting and testing various tapes before you leave?

Another thought: when you're in a serious mood, try the tapes from the Teaching Company. These are usually four tapes to a volume, and are lectures given by professors in various fields. There's something there for everybody - the tapes on literature and the ones on music are particularly good. Again, it pays to test the tape first, because once in a while you get a teacher who goes a bit too fast.

Otherwise, try some of the classics of literature - Dickens (although Flo Gibson, one of the Dickens readers isn't the best, still she doesn't interfere with enjoyment of the stories) is a really good bet. Anything by Anthony Trollope is also pleasing. Classic mysteries are also good - the Lord Peter Wimsey books by Dorothy Sayers are wonderfully well read by Ian Carmichael (he played Lord Peter in the TV series); he does different voices and accents for each character very neatly and consistently. I don't recommend "Five Red Herrings", though; the Scots burr is a bit much, and the plot is just too complex for listening to.

Anyway, enjoy your trip!

P.S. What about music tapes?

Tomkitten
Wow! Thanks for the suggestions. I'll look into those. It'll probably be between a month and 2 months from now before I make my trip, so I do have time. I'm going to check out the library tomorrow just to get an idea of what they have. I also have all my favorite music cd's on tape and already in my car, so I'm good to go there. Actually, any country station would do just fine too and there are plenty of those on this trip, LOL!

Thanks again.

Re: Books on tape

Has anyone read "The Gift" by Danielle Steel? I'm watching that one on ebay and it looks like a pretty good one. It's a 4 tape set, so that should keep me busy for awhile.

I'm pretty flexilbe with what I like. I like mysteries, romance, comedy, horror, but my favorites are westerns. I think I better stay away from the horror for this trip though. I don't think Stephen King's stories would relax me at all on my long journey through the wilderness, LOL!

books on tape
Another thought: "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time". This is a novel about a teen-age autistic boy (the narrator). It sounds rather grim, but actually it's quite tender and touching. The boy is very engaging, and despite free use of "language" I found it delightful to listen to. The "language" is consistent with the characters and their background, and eventually you aren't particularly aware of it.

This one is particularly well read, and for that reason, as well as enjoying the book itself, I hated to have it end.

"The Big House" by George Colt and "Frankie's Place" by Jim Sterba (both non-fiction), are new, and may not have made it onto tape yet. If either of them has, try it. Both are about family-owned country houses - one on Cape Cod and the other on Mt Desert Island. Of course, I may be prejudiced in their favor, because they are about places I am very familiar with, which is always a plus.

Those sound wonderful TK. I am also very familiar with Cape Cod and Mt Desert Island. I use to live on the Cape and Mt Desert is one of my favorite places, so those sound like my kind of books :-)