Listen Up - Part 5

This week is all things audio. I’ve already talked about my early ruse to memorize books in order to trick people into thinking I could read. I’ve talked about my discovery of audiobooks and how they completely redefined my childhood. I’ve talked about how I listened to my text books on fast forward during college. And I’ve talked about my eight year audio book fast after I graduated from college during which time I forced myself to learn to read.

But onto the present. I really hate silence. That’s not true, sometimes when it’s really truly quiet I love it. I love getting lost in my own head and inventing new worlds to entertain myself. I love making up stories and filling the silence in my head with my own words. What I hate is white noise. I’m so used to listening to everything around me, that things like buzzing lights and whirring fans often make me wonder if I might be a little bit autistic on top of being a lot dyslexic.

I have a very very hard time focusing on “life” without something in my ears. So I’m plugged into my iPod about 12 hours a day. I listen on the way to work. I listen while I’m at work. I listen on the way home. I listen while at home. There are about 5000 songs on my iPod, and lot of the time I listen to those. But I also listen to audiobooks.

People have a hard time believing me when I tell them that I comprehend audiobooks while also dealing with every other detail of my life. But I do. I remember listening to books-on-tape before bed as a kid and memorizing the last word I heard before I fell asleep. I would rewind the next day and find the exact word where I fell asleep so I’d know where to restart the tape. I’m just a good listener. So yeah. In the past year, I’ve listened to about 150 books. I don’t think I could recite any of them back to you. I gave up on the whole memorizing books thing shortly after getting diaconosed with dyslexia. But I could definitely tell you all the minor details of the plots.

I concider myself very lucky. I was introduced to audiobooks very young. And I was never alloud to believe that being dyslexic would stop me from achieving all my goals. I have had nothing but achedemic success. As an adult, I have succeeded in my carrer, developing a reputation as having a strong attention to detail and the ability to keep large amounts of data organized in my head.

I’ve never thought of myself as stupid. And I know learning disabilities don’t have anything to do with intelligence. But I really don’t think I’m all that “smart” either. I’m just a really good listener. If I’d learned how to read in first grade like a normal person, maybe I’d be better at zoning out and selective listening. But I’ve never been normal, and I probably never will be. In the long run, dyslexia hasn’t been much of a disability at all. Cause I can read now. Even my spelling is improving. And you probably can’t listen nearly as well as I can.

Joke of the Day

What's another word for syninim?

Listen Up - Part 4

This week is all things audio. I’ve already talked about my early ruse to memorize books in order to trick people into thinking I could read. I’ve talked about my discovery of audiobooks and how they completely redefined my childhood. And I’ve talked about how I listened to my text books on fast forward during college. So what happened when I graduated from college? Shockingly, I quit RFB&D. I decided to stop listening.

I went totally cold turkey. No audio books period. I didn’t have proffessors expecting me to read 100 pages by tommorrow. If I wanted to read a book for fun, I could suck it up and read it. I’m glad that I forced myself to do this. By the time I graduated from college I’d listened to thousands of audio books and had a very deep seeded love of literature. So I finally bit the bullet and truly forced myself to learn how to read.

But what were my ears supposed to do while I was reading. I’d been plugged into audio books for my entire life. I’d trained myself to not simple hear, but actually memorize texts rattled off on fast forward. I couldn’t just turn my ears off. They were to keyed into everything around me.

The first thing I did was find NPR. I needed to hear words, to dedicate a section of my brain to memorizing facts at the same time as I was busy doing differential equations. Oh yeah, did I mension that one year after I graduate from college I went back to college. My first degree was in anthropology. My second was in civil engineering. I didn’t have RFB&D to help me out in engineering school, so I didn’t bother reading any of those text books. I just listened in class and flipped through my text books for example problems while doing my homework.

On top of considering all things, I also started listening to a lot more music. There are currently 5000 songs on my iPod. It’s not like I hated music before that. I had a couple hundred CD’s back before MP3s became the rage. But once the audio books went dead, I found the silence overwellming. So I filled it with any sound I could find.

Eventually I gave up. Just over a year ago I put an end to my audio books ban. I haven’t re-upped my RFB&D membership. Instead I’ve found Library’s 2 Go. Library audiobooks downloaded directly to my iPod. Can someone say awesome. Yeah, there is a reason I’ve listened to about 150 books in the past year. But I’ll talk more about that tommorow.

Joke of the Day

What does Santa call his wife on his tax return?

A Dependent Clause.

Listen Up - Part 3

This week I’m talking about all things audio. I’ve already talked about my early ruse to memorize books in order to trick people into thinking I could read. And I’ve talked about my discovery of audiobooks and how they completely redefined my childhood. But the audio world didn’t really open up for me until I found RFB&D (Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic). I’m not sure exactly when the decition was made to lump dyslexic people in with blind people in the world of audio books for the disabled, but I love whoever made that decree.

The thing that separates RFB&D from other audio book distributors is textbooks. As a member of RFB&D, I was able to get any book with and ISBN # on tape, including text books. So I guess I should go back and talk about text books before I found RFB&D.

When I was a kid, my mom’s reading rule was pretty simple. She would read absolutely anything alloud to my brother or I that we asked. This consisted of all our textbooks (elementary school, junior high, and high school). Since she wasn’t in class with us, she would fain confusion at all the complicated parts and ask us to explain the text to her. Somehow she managed to always ask about the topics that later showed up on tests and quizzes. Did I mension my mom was a teacher?

But there was one catch. My mom cut us off at the end of junior year. She wouldn’t be going with us to college, so for senior year we had to be on our own. Somehow, my brother survived this edict. He read all his text books during his senior year, then he managed to read all his text books in college while double majoring in philosophy and poli-sci. He didn’t break down and join RFB&D until the reading in law school became to much for him to handle.

Not me. I joined RFB&D during my sophomore year of high school (when my brother was a senior). Just watching him try to read his own history book gave me heart palpitations. I definately needed an audio alternative. And it was revolutionary. The audio textbooks didn’t talk back like my mom. And the special RFB&D tape recorder had variying speeds so I could listen to my AP Physicis book at Alvin & the Chipmonks speed. And I could do fun things like play video games at the same time.

Obviously, by the time I made it to college, I could perfectly comprehend text books on fast forward while simoltaniously beating Super Mario Brothers. I may have been a good listener back in elementary school. But high speed text books elevated my listening skills to a whole new level. I’m sure I learned things in my actual classes, but I think above everything else, the sharpest skill I came away with was my ability to listen. Memorizing lectures without taking notes was a piece of cake after all those Nintendo enhanced homework sessions.

When I graduated and stepped out into the literate adult world, my piss pour reading skills were such an afterthought they didn’t even matter. I could listen better than anybody! But I’ll wait until tomorrow to tell you about that.

Joke of the Day

How many letters are there in the alphabet?

24, because E.T. went home.

Listen Up - Part 2

This week I’m talking about all things audio. Yesturday, I wrote about my listening habits before I was diacnosed with dyslexia. Now I’ll talk about how I listened post diacnosis.

So I was diacnosed with dyslexia at age 8. Then at age 9, my family moved. I think I wasted most of my time in third and forth grade climbing trees and hecking the neighbor kids. But the thing I remember most clearly about my families move shortly before my 10th birthday, was my discovery of audiobooks.

It took me a while to make friends at my new school. So I had a lot of free time on my hands. Fortunately, my new house was only a couple blocks away from the public library. I may have undergone a couple hundred hours of private tutoring by then. But that just meant I was starting to get down letter combonations like ch and th and all that fun stuff. I was still years away from picking up a good book and actually reading it. So my parents showed me which shelf in the library held all the audio books.

I fell in love immediately. I would go to the library two or three times a week to check out more books-on-tape. Since I couldn’t read the dust jackets, there was no way for me to know which books I would enjoy. So I decided to just listen to them all. I worked through the audio section systematically, checking out each audiobook in alphabetical order. It took me about six years. But by my sophmore year of high school, I’d listen to every single audiobook the Lake Oswego Public Library had to offer.

During that six years of hard core listenage, I also managed to graduate from tutoring. That happened when I was 12. At that point in time I knew everything there was to know about phonix and could sound things out well enough to survive. Meaning I could sound things out well enough to read the assignments on the board, or to write myself a note and then read it again later. I read about as well as the average second grader. But I didn’t read books. Why would I want to do that? I was listening to an average of 200 books a year. Who had time to read amidst all that listening? Certainly not me.

Joke of the Day

Dyslexics of the world UNTIE.

Listen Up - Part 1

Even though this is supposed to be a blog about dyslexia, it seems to mainly be a blog about all the books I read. That may seem odd, after all dyslexic’s aren’t supposed to read. But I am very good at listening, and often listen to five or six audio books per week. I’ve mentioned listening and audio books in past posts. But I’ve never really blogged in detail about the act of listening. This is mainly because I have a lot to say on the subject. So I’ve decided to dedicate this entire week to the topic of listening. Here we go…

I am a very audiotory person. The things I hear have a much larger impact on my thinking and understanding than the things I see. Sometimes, I almost feel blind. Not that I can’t see. But that I hear like a blind person. I see things with my ears. To me, noises matter – a lot. This isn’t because I have vission problems. I am nearsited, but wearing glasses has never felt like a dysablity, it’s more of an excessory. No, my sensitivity to sound is definitely linked to my late onset literacy.

If I had learned how to read when I was six like a normal person, I would have developed normal listening habits. But I didn’t learn how to read in first grade. And when all my friends were busy memorizing their ABC’s, I was busy memorizing absolutely everything I heard. I was so desprate to stay afloat without reading, that I forced my ears into overdrive. Now as a fully literate adult, that can and does read on a regular basis, I’m still incapable of turning off my ears.

I was diacnosed with dyslexia at the beginning of third grade. This may sound relatively early, many people make it into high school or even adulthood before getting diacnosed. But I’m actually amazed that I tricked people for that long. My older brother was also diacnosed at the beginning of third grade (when I was just starting first grade). At the time, my parents were told that dyslexia is genetic and there was a very good chance their daughter was also dyslexic.

So what do I remember about the beginning of first grade? I remember all the discussions about whether or not I should skip straight to second. NOBODY knew that I couldn’t read. My father, brother, and several extended family members are all dyslexic. Dyslexia was on everyones raydar. And I had them all fooled into thinking I was some kind of child prodigy or something. It’s so crazy, I often find myself questioning my own memories.

But this is one thing I do remember. I always listened very carefully. I listened to everything, but especially books. My mom read me a lot of stories as a kid, and I memorized all of them. I didn’t just know the words. I knew when to turn the pages, and even how fast to track my finger across the squiggly lines. So why couldn’t I properly identify all 26 letters in the alphabet at the start of third grade?

This is another thing I remember. I didn’t want anyone to know. Now, it seems like admitting to my kindergarden and first grade teachers that I couldn’t understand anything they were saying would have been a good idea. But back then, my inability to read was my deepest darkest secret. I had to fake it. I had to keep the myth alive. I had to let everyone believe that I could read. And the only way to do that, was to listen. So I did. I listened so hard and so long that I couldn’t stop. It’s no wonder I listened to eight audio books last week. But more about that tommorrow.

Joke of the Day

A biology teacher begins his lecture, "Today we are going to talk about DNA."

A dyslexic student in the second row gets a confused look on his face. The teacher notices his expression and asks, "Jimmy, do you have a question?"

"No," says the student. "I just can't figure out what the National Dyslexia Association has to do with biology."

Library Love

I can't remember the last time I checked a "book" out of the library, but I'm guessing it probably contained more pictures than words. But that doesn't mean I don't frequent my local public library. I've just somehow convinced myself that all those books filling 90% of the space don't exist. Instead I focus solely on the audio section. Free audio books, can someone say paradice.

Between the ages of 10 and 15 I systematically listened to every audio book available at the Lake Oswego Public Library. Listening to an average of 200 audio books a year definately affected my education. It also helped me fall in love with the public library system, even if I couldn't read any of the books housed inside.

I took a eight year sabatical from audio books after I graduated from college. Somehow, I convinced myself that I'd never learn how to read for myself unless I went cold turkey on audio. Since I didn't have class related deadlines, I could labor through actually books. The process wasn't as painful as I'd expected. The love of literature sparked by all those audio books in my childhood, gave me the drive to break down and start reading.

About a year ago, I decided that enough was enough and it was time to start listening again. This decision came when I realized I'd somehow gone from listening to 200 books a year, to reading 20 books a year. If I wanted to get an idea of market trends, and important part of any writers life, I had to start listening again.


Remembering my orderly processes through the LO library goinig in alphabetical order by author, I set myself a goal of listening to every audio book available in the Hillsboro Public Library. Well, I've been attacking the library for a year now, and figured I'd give an update. In the past year, I have listened to about 70 library books. I have also listened to about 35 other books (through audio bookworm) and read about 35 books (e-book and paper). 140 books a year is pretty good. I no longer feel like a slacker.


But I'm not working through the library in any kind of systamatic order. My new found ability to read means that I can read jacket covers and reviews and try to pick out books that I think I'll actually enjoy. I currently have eight audio books checked out from the library and six more on hold.


Still there is a mild fear hiding in the back of my mind. What will happen when I get through all the books in the library? It took me about six years as a kid, and I listened to a lot of stuff that I didn't particularly enjoy. I expect it will take me two or three more years to get though all the library books I'm currently interested in. Then I'll have to haunt the new releases and/or start spending more time/money at Powell's.

What about you? Do you frequent your local library? Have you ever tried to read all the books inside?

Joke of the Day

Why is the alphabet in that order?

Is it because of the song?

Spreading the Gospel of Audio Books

I know that some people have a hard time processing information heard aloud, and that audio books aren’t for everyone. But I expect there are a lot more people who could beniffit from audio books than are currently listening. So I’m just going to step up on my soap box for a moment and tell you how much I love them.

As a dyslexic, I have listened to thousands of audio books in my life, and read hundreds. At least 95% of all the books I’ve expereinced were read alloud to me – either by a teacher, parent, or audio book reader. Audio books taught me how to love literature long before I was able to read books for myself.

Now that I can and do read, I still spend a lot of time plugged into audio books. In 2009 I consumed 115 books. But 83 of them came to me in audio. If I limited myself to paper and e-books only, I’d never be able to read more than 50 books a year. There just isn’t enough time in a day.

For people new to the world of audio books, let me share some good audio book sorces. The absolute best place to get audio books is RFB&D (recordings for the blind and dyslexic). This service is only available to people with a print related disability. It is a result of the American Disability Act and provides every book with a isbn number registared with the library of congress in audio – including text books. If a book is not available in audio, the library of congress will hire someone to record it for you. There is no way I ever would have survived college without RFB&D. If you’re blind or dyslexic and aren’t a member of RFB&D, you are selling yourself short.

If you don’t qualify for RFB&D, the next place to look for audio books is your local public library. Libraries always have an audio book section. Even the standard print reader can check out an audio book or two and listen to it in the car. Author, Steven King, admits in his memoir ON WRITING that he listens to about 10% of the books he “reads” while driving. Do you really think you’re better than Steven King?

If you live in Oregon and want to up your listening anti, you can utilize Library 2 Go. With an Oregon State library card, you can check out up to six audio books at a time and load them directly onto your I-pod. At the end of the check out period the files automatically deleate from your computer. My father, who is also dyslexic and enjoys a good audio book just as much as the next guy, just went out and bought an I-pod because he was jealous of all the great books my brother and I were listening to. If you don’t live in Oregon, you should check with your own library. I expect many other states provide similar services.

If you want to actually pay for all your audio books. Audible is an on-line bookstore connected with Amazon that features downloadable audio books. I don’t find ethical issues in frequenting the library and have never actually used this service.

One for cost audio book service that I do use is Audio Bookworm. This site is a netflix for books on cd type service. For $28 per month, you can recieve up to two audio books at a time. Audio Bookworm doesn’t have as large of a total selection as Library 2 Go, but they do have more recent best sellers. Also since you don’t have to worry about books being checked out by other patrons it’s easier to get the titles you crave. The one downside of Audio Bookworm is that the most books are 8-12 CD’s long and need to be shipped in a small package, so they spend a lot of time hung up in the mail.

If you to are an audio book fanatic and get your audio books from another sorce, please let me know what it is. I’m always on the prowl for a good listen. And if you aren’t a listener, WHY NOT? You are definitely missing out.

Joke of the Day

A person who speaks three languages is called tri-lingual.

A person who speaks two language is called bi-lingual.

A person who speaks one langauage is called American.

To Read or Not To Read

Yesturday, Natalie Whipple over at Between Fact and Fiction had a post about how everyone can and should be a reader. Her message was that people who don’t think they like to read, just need to hunt more diligently for a book they will love. Her post reminded me of an experience I had when I was 16 years old.

Let me set the scene for you. I was an uber-dork – took all honors and AP classes, captain of the mathletes, ect. Except that I read at a second grade reading level, so I was stuck in bonehead English instead of honors English. I got all my text books on tape, and I also listened to three or four books for pleasure per week. At the time I filled all my audio book needs via RFB&D (recordings for the blind and dyslexic). This meant that I had to know the author and title of a book before I ordered it from RFB&D, so I was always on the lookout for good book recomendations.

Now enters my friend Nathan. Nathan was also an uber-dork – took honors and AP everything (including English), captain of the chess club, ect. For some reason I thought since Nathan managed to get a hire grade than me in Physics, he might be a reader too. So I asked him, “have you read any good books lately?”

His answer, “I like reading Calvin & Hobs, does that count?”

I was floored. Nathan was smart, he probably taught himself how to read when he was four or something. But he didn’t do it. He didn’t read. He just did his homework, and then built robots and stuff like that in his spare time. I couldn’t understand why anyone who could read wouldn’t want to. There was nothing in the world I wanted more than to be able to read. I just couldn’t get it.

Now let’s fast forward about fifteen years. I am now married to yet another uber-dork. He is an electrical engineer by day, and in his free time he enjoys fishing, woodworking, restoring antique farm equipment, and inventing zany new contraptions in his shop. The guy is definitely smart, and way to productive for his own good. But he doesn’t read. In the six years I’ve known him, I’ve seen him read exactly one book – and I wrote it. He doesn’t like watching movies either, and the only TV show he likes is Mythbusters.

When we go on long car trips, my husband never complains when I subject him to audio books. His problem with reading is simply that it requires sitting still, which he hates to do. So I write books, and my husband invents new fangled fishing loors. We are both entertained, so it shouldn’t really matter that we have different hobbies. Still, when I read a really good book that I know he would love it always pains me a little bit – knowing that he will never read it.

And as for me. I’m still a dorky engineer who is constantly plugged into audio books. Only now I am capable of reading dust jackets and usually do a pretty good job of finding titles to keep myself entertained, without depending on the recomendations of the non-reading computer nerds I live with.

Joke of the Day

Once there was a lady in on an airplane with a poodle. The man sitting next to her was smoking a big cigar, even though they were on a no smoking flight. The lady was seated in an exit row, so she opened the airplanes door and threw out the man’s cigar. The man then grabbed the poodle and through it out the door. The pilot saw what had happened and quickly did a loop-d-loop and the poodle landed on the wing of the plane. In the poodles mouth was the brick from Monday’s joke.

October Reads

My audio book adiction has not subsided. I may have read/listened to 19 books in September, but that was nothing. In October I read/listened to 24 books. The exact numbers are 18 audio books, 3 e-books, and 3 paper books. Here is a quick review of each.

How To Be Popular by Meg Cabot – YA – Exactly what you would expect given the name. It is a predictable story with very one dimentional characters. Fun, but not overly thought provoking.

Ordinary Ghosts by Eireann Corrigan – YA – A teen boy who deals with lots of teen issues in a very different manner than what is commenly found in YA books for girls. Longer review here.

That Summer by Sarah Dessen – YA – Another great Sarah Dessen novel. This one is about a girl whose sister gets married shortly after her father gets divorced and her idea of family is turned upside down. Longer review here.

Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen – YA – This YA adventure is about a girl whose best friend is pregnant with her dead boyfriends baby. At the same time the MC breaks out of her overprotective parents clutches by dating a reble. Longer review here.

Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen – YA – One of my favorite Sarah Dessen novels. This one is about a loner girl who spends the summer with her aunt and ends up finding herself in the process. Longer review here.

This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen - YA - A mean girl who regarlaly uses and abuses he men in her life is tamed by the love of a kind hearted boy. Longer review here.

Before I Die by Jenny Downham – YA – A sixteen year old girl with terminal lucimia works her way down a list of things she wants to do before she dies that aren’t normally provided by the make-a-wish foundation.

Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven by Fannie Flag – Women’s Fiction – Overly preachy, gave up half way through. Continuation of Elmwood Springs story. Longer review here.

The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman – Non-Fiction – A fairly dry account of the current economy. Insightful, but not as entertaining as I was hoping.

The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner – Historical Fiction (faint hints of steampunk) – A fast paced story about the French Revolution and the love between a mistical gypsy boy and a doomed aristicratic girl.

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale – Fairy Tale – A heartwarming remake of a Brother’s Grimm classic. A princess who's finds herself and her ability to lead after her title and power are stollen.

Olive’s Ocean by Kevin Henkes – Childrens – A unique view of children dealing with death as one 12 year old girl processes the death of one of her friends.

Animal, Vegitable, Miricle by Barbara Kingsolver – Memoir – An interesting account of a family that spent a full year eating no food grown more than 100 miles from their home. Longer review here.

Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner – Non-Fiction – An interesting take on economics that is more peculiour statistics than economics. Very similar to Malcolm Gladwell books.

Number the Stars by Lois Lowery – Children’s/Historical Fiction – A touching account of the nations of Denmark’s mission to smuggle all their Jewish residence to Sweeden during WW2, told from the point of view of a ten year old girl.

The Host by Stephanie Meyer – Young Adult/SciFi – Another gripping forbidden love story. This one is an invating alein falling in love with a human, as opposed to Meyer’s better known human/vampire love story. I actually like the Host better than Twilight and am looking forward to the release of the next book in the searies.

Paradise Lost by John Milton – Classic – Reading this felt way to much like homework. It may be the grounding of a lot of modern western thought, but it still reads like a text book.

Adventure Capitalist by Jim Rogers – Travel – I would love to go on a three year vaccation through 158 countries, and the economy lesson was somewhat insightful. But for the most part this book made me more jealous than inspired.

I Like You by Amy Sedaris – Hospitalty/Humor – Laugh out loud funny! Amy Sedaris may be even more entertaining than her brother. And it sounds like she throughs great parties.

Naked by David Sedaris – Humor/Memoir – I actually like David Sedaris’s early stuff better than is more recent stuff. It is hard to sympathis with a guy wining about being a gazillionair. But a fat guy hanging out at a nudist colony is pretty funny.

Masterpiece Comics by R. Sikoryak – Graphic Novel – A marrage of classic literature and classic comics that is highly entertaining. Longer review here.

Saving Fish From Drowning by Amy Tan – Women’s Fiction – A gripping tale that sheads light on the country of Berma/Myamair. Unlike Adventure Capitalist, this story made me glad I was at home reading and not being held captive in the jungle.

A Mad Desire to Dance by Elie Wiesel – Literary – A glimps inside the pyschoanalys of a crazy jew. The story was interesting but it wasn’t exactly Night.

Counting on Grace by Elizabeth Winthrop – Historical Fiction – A touching account of a twelve year old mill girls strugle to obtain an education and fight for child labor laws.

Joke of the Day

Why did the librarian slip and fall?

Because she was in the non-friction section.

Fiction Vaccation

This summer I took a trip to Colorado to visit relatives and I went on several camping trips, but for the most part my vaccationing happened in my own mind. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day I read 30 books. Or more accurately, I read two paper books, and read six books on my Kindle, and I listened to 22 audio books. Here is a quick review of all 30 books.

The Hitchkier’s Guild to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams – SciFi – I found this book entertaining enough, but don’t feel the need to join its cult following.

Persuasion by Jane Austin – Classic – Got to love 200 year old chick-lit.

Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte – Classic – This book is very slow moving and it had little pay off at the end. I don’t recomend it.

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown – Thriller – Fast pased and gripping, but almost identical plot and layout as Deviti Code. Unless your a huge Dan Brown fan, there is no reason to read more than one of his books.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson – Non-Fiction – A must read for every nerd or people who wants to sound smart at coctail parties. A cliff notes of all scientific disaplines.

Avalon High by Meg Cabot – Young Adult – I really enjoyed this modern remake of King Aurtor. It made me think about a classic tale in a new way.

Sleepaway Girls by Jen Calonita – Young Adult – Not nearly as good as the YA book set at a summer camp that I just wrote. This book is very G rated and the characters are all very one dementional, but I’m sure I would have loved it when I was a tween.

Moonlight Becomes You by Mary Higgins Clark – Mystery – I guessed the right killerJ The story has enough twists and turns to keep it entertaining.

When it Happens by Susane Colasanti – Young Adult – The duel 1st person POV works well. The characters are properly complex and the story progresses nicely, though predicably.

Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen – Young Adult – I loved this book and look forward to reading the rest of Sarah Dessen’s books. The characters are all complex and believable and deal with real issues faced by teens. I highly recomend this book for children and adults alike.

The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans – Drama – A good story, but at times slow moving. Good but not great.

White Oleander by Janet Fitch – Drama – Very thought provoking, and protrayed difficult situations in an honest manner. Could have been shorter, overly literary with extranious descriptions.

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell – Non-Fiction – Typical Gladwell doctrine, makes you think and clearly well reserched, but I didn’t really come away learning anything new.

Playing for Pizza by John Grisham – Drama – Interesting characters and premis, but I would have preferred more conflict.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini – Memoir – Extreamly depressing, this book gave me nightmeres. Tragically it is non-fictions. I’m glad that I know about reality, I just wish it wasn’t real.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley – SciFi – Deserves to be a classic, still a poinent protrale of human nature and possibility. If you weren’t assigned to read his in HS English class, you should read it now.

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux – Drama – An entertaining story with a nice ballance of mystery, intreage, and complex characters. Entertaining even if when not performed on Broadway.

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer – Young Adult/Paranormal – A best seller for a reason, very gripping. Entertaining for wemon 13-40 (as opposed to the strict 13-18) but still not for everyone.

New Moon by Stephanie Meyer – Young Adult/Paranormal – Not quite as good as Twilight, but the story is so gripping it is still impossible to put down.

Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer – Young Adult/Paranormal – A good final battle (was originally meant to be final installment), continues to grip the readers.

Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer – Young Adult/Paranormal – If you loved the first three books, you will love this one too, but it contains vertually no real conflict and is basically just a 750 page happy ending.

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin – Non-Fiction – Fasinating story. I’m glad Greg Mortenson exists and I hope that his work continues to florish. An honost protral of middle eastern culture and politics.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov – Drama – This book is extreamly well written and deserves all the literary praise it has recieved, but it is still a bit difficult to stomach a novel told from the POV of a pedifile.

Evermore by Alyson Noel – Young Adult/Paranormal – Clearly trying to ride in Twilights wake, but I found Ever’s character more likable that Bella’s. So if you love YA Paranormal, this book is worth reading.

Blue Moon by Alyson Noel – Young Adult/Paranormal – A major step down from the first book in the series. I liked Evermore enough that I still plan on reading the 3rd book when it comes out in November, but the protagonist became extreamly stupid in this book and I started hating her.

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult – Drama – Interesting characters and a unique premiss. I loved the first 90% of the book. Unfortunately the ending is HORRIBLE.

The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan – Children’s/Fantasy – The final installment in the Percy Jackson series. I highly recomend reading all 5 books. A fun adventure story based in Greek Mythology but set in moddern NYC.

Othello by William Shakespeare – Classic – It’s Shakespeare, how much more do I need to say. Interesting look at race and deseption. I hope to believe that we have evolved enough that this tragety couldn’t happen today.

Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet – Memoir – Very interesting life story of an Autistic Savant. This is a “comp title” to the memoir I’m currently writing. But I will never teach myself Icelandic in a week.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak – Young Adult/Historical Fiction – Interesting look at WW2, told from the POV of death. Every thoughtful teen/tween should read this book.

E-Reading

For my 30th birthday (two weeks ago), my husband gave me a Kindle. I am very excited about this gift. Especially when you consider that my husband gave me a broken leaf blower that he purchased at a swap meet for my 29th birthday. I did ask for a Kindle, but I really wasn’t sure how much I would like it. I normally listen to two or three audio books a week, so I didn’t know how much time I would have available for e-reading.

It turns out that I love my new Kindle. And I expect as time goes on I am only going to learn to love it more. The thing that I am enjoying most isn’t actually reading books on my Kindle, but reading free sample pages. Amazon does have the “look inside” feature on most of the books they sell online. This enables you to read two or three pages online before you buy it, so you know it is a book that you actually want to read.

This feature manifests itself on the Kindle with the ability to order sample pages for free on any book that is available on Kindle. This sample is usually about two chapters. This is just enough to get a good idea of a writers voice and narative style, even if I don’t learn the entire plot of the story. I am also able to gage the stories hook and determine how quickly I am emersed into the fictional world I’m reading about. I now feel a bit like an agent requesting partials from already published authors. As a writer, I know how crititcal the first two chapters of a book are, so I have gone about ordering the free sample pages of every single book in the genre I’m currently writing that is available on Kindle. Yeah, I know, I’m totally OCD.

What can I say. Obviously, I’m loving this wonderful new toy. Some of the books start out very boaring. Other’s have a great voice, but don’t seem to be going anywhere. Some are extreamly timely, meaning they will be extreemly outdated in a few weeks. Then there are a few story beginnings that are simply magical. Those are the books that I turn around and buy. So now all of a sudden I am reading the books that I wish I had written. Really amazing books that I love even more with each turning page.

I am still listening to two or three audio books a week too, just because I’m me and it’s painful for me to not spend the majority of my time listening to audio books. A few of the books that I’m listening to are ones I started on my Kindle, than turned around and ordered in audio. But my listening que and my reading que tend to be two different lists.

This extream focus on books beginnings, has also forced me to think a lot more about book endings. When I do break down and read/listen to an entire book, I have an expectation to like it. The books I don’t think I will like, I quit after reading the free sample. So when a book comes to an unsettling ending, it really pisses me off. In the past five days I have read/listened to four books (two audio and two on my Kindle). Two of these four books had horrible endings. One seriously pissed me off and made me all of a sudden hate a book that I had been loving up until about the 90% complete mark. The other book just ended without any point or conclusion and made me feel like I had waisted an entire day reading it. There was no point, just a few mildly interesting characters with unique enough voices to make me want to read more than the first chapter.

Hopefully as I continue to play with my wonderful new e-reading machine I will magically learn how to write not only great book openings, but also great book endings. Plus, I’ve had a lot of people come up and ask to see my Kindle while I’m reading on the train. So I’m making friends and planting X-mas gift ideas in people’s heads at the same time. A double win.

Audio Bookworm

I know this is my third post about books on tape in five months. But I just love the things so much, I can’t stop talking about them. On February 10th, I mensioned that wonderful entity called RFB&D. I can honestly say that RFB&D not only enabled me to make it through college, they also kept me highly entertained for years. But you have to be blind or dyslexic to use there services, so the standerd reader is at a bit of a loss when hoping to make the cross over to listening.

In February, at about the time I made that post about RFB&D, I set a goal for myself of listening to every single audio book available at the Hillsboro Public Library. I listened to all the books at the Lake Oswego Public Library when I was a kid. How hard could it be? Before I even began, the method of systamatically working through all the audio books in alphabetical order seemed fool hardy. I know how to read, and am perfectly capable of reading the dust jackets and picking out books I think I might possibly enjoy.

I have managed to listen to a few good books this way, but the really great books are always checked out. I go to the library about once a week and look over the audio section. There are quite a few books that I’ve noticed once, then never again. Sure I could put them on hold and add my name to the waiting list. But if my goal is to listen to every book, settling for a book that’s actually there feels a lot easier.

I haven’t completely abandoned reading. In the past six months, I’ve “listened” to 22 books. I have also “read” 7 books. Most of the books I really want to read aren’t available in audio format at the library, so I’ve just been borrowing them from friends, or picking them up at Powells. But now I have a new format for aquiring audio books, and I am stoked. I recently joined audio book worm. It is basically netflix for books on cd. You put together a que of books you want to listen to, pay a monthly fee, and the audio books are mailed to your house. When your done, you just mail it back and they send you the next book.

I love this new program and am of course coming up with titles to add to my que much faster than I can listen to them. Audio Book Worm doesn’t have every book ever published in audio format. They only have like 300,000 titles. When I searched the winners of the national book award for the last five years, none of them were available. Apparently there aren’t that many listeners interested in good literature. But they do have the Twilight Series, so I’ll finally be able to hold my own in discussions of pop culture.

Is Listening the same as Reading?

Nathan Bransford is a literary agent for Curtis Brown who writes a very informative blog about the publishing world. Since that is a world I hope to one day break into, I tend to read his blog. Yesturday, Nathan posted a question that caused me to think. He asked, does listening to an audio book count as reading a book. The vote count came in almost dead even on the yes/no votes. I voted “yes” but as a verasious listener, my thoughts about audio books are more complex than most readers.

I currently listen to about twice as many books as I read. When a book comes out that I really want to read, I usually buy it in the paper form. But when I visit the library I don’t even look at the paper books and instead focus solely on the audio section. The popular best sellers are almost always checked out, so most of the books that I listen to fall into the classic literature sector. Listening to Jane Austin, Charles Dickens, and William Faukner is a slightly different experience than reading David Sedaras and J.K. Rowling. But both are enjoyable. I consider the books I’ve read and the books I’ve listened to the exact same way. If someone asks me if I’ve read any good books lately, I’m not going to disregard the books I’ve listened to when making a recomendation.

I think that my current ability to read has a lot to do with why I now think of listening the same way I think about reading. When I couldn’t read, and listening was the only literary outlet available to me, I knew that I was different. As a teenager, I would have described myself as “well read”. Most of my friends off in AP and Honors English would come to me for reading recomendations, and I think they probably would have admitted that I’d read more books than they had. But as I sludged through remedal English with the aid of my audio books, I knew I wasn’t actually reading. At that I’m I would have been more likely to say I hadn’t “read” any books, before addmitting that I didn’t know how to read.

The physical experience of listening to literature on fast forward while playing video games is very different from that of currling up on the couch with a well loved paperback. The information still enters your pscyche, it still penitrates the sole, but it gets there by a different path. My college roommate definately didn’t think I was reading. ‘Cause tetris wasn’t a part of her homework assignment.

I still remember listening to great books like “The Long Walk to Freedom”, “A Prayer For Owen Meeny” and “The Chosen” as a teenager. Those books became a part of me and filled me with hopes and desires. More than ten years later, I could still tell you not only the major plot points, but also the way I felt while I became a part of those stories. So did I read them? Or did I not know how to read?

What do you think? Does listening to an audio book count as reading? Or do illiterate idiots like me have to admit the truth and only say, “I heard a great book the other day, you might want to listen to it.”

Listen to Your Literature

I am concious of the fact that different people learn in different ways, and I should not judge vissual learners. Still I am beginning to wonder why anyone would ever want to read. The capability to jot oneself a note and then read it later definately has its advantages. Also the use of email can be more effective in buisness than telephone communication, because the conversation is more easily recorded. But I’m beginning to think the entire idea of reading books is a giant waste of time.

When I was a child I listened to audio books because I didn’t know how to read. I systimatically worked my way through the audio book section of my local public library, listening to every audio book available to me. I often listened to books at night before bed. I enjoyed being lulled to sleep with gentle words. I never had to worry about turning off the light once I finished a chapter. I simple listened until my mind drifted completely into sleep, often dreaming about the fictitional world I had been visiting while awake.

I would become so engulfed in my bedtime stories that I wanted to listen to them during the day as well. In order to keep myself awake, I started doing other activities at the same time. I did jigsaw puzzles, colored, or completed my math homework with classic literature rattling away in the background. As long as the activity I used to engage my hands and eyes didn’t envolve words, I had no problem focussing my attention equally on the story and the activity. Using audio books as a constant backdrop to my dayly life, I was able to listen to hundreds of books during my childhood. Had I know how to read, I likely would have experienced far fewer stories.

About the time I made it to the Z’s at my local library I joined RFB&D (Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic). Thanks to the American Disability Act, I was able to get every book ever published – including text books on tape. When a book I requested wasn’t available, the library of congress would hire someone to record it for me. The best part of the RFB&D system is that there books were all on four sided tapes. And the special tape player required to listen to them had a verying speed dial. Once I learned to always listen to books on fast forward my 2 or 3 books per week quickly transformed into 4 or 5 books per week.

When I headed off to college, I found that playing video games was a great activity to accompany listening to high speed text books. I became so addicted to many of the games I played that I would do additional unassigned reading – just so I had some background literature to accompany my games. Spending so much time listening honed my skills and kept my listening comprehension far above my visual comprehension. I never had to worry about taking notes in class – I could simply doodle in the margins of a notebook while I listened to my professors lectures.

When I graduated from college I made an unussual decision. I decided to stop listening and returned my magic tape player to the library of congress. I told myself that I would never become a compotent reader if I didn’t read. Since I no longer had deadlines associated with my reading assignments there wasn’t a pressing need to listen simply to save time. If I enjoyed a story enough, I could take the time required to read it. I have always loved a good story, and read numberous books over the next few years. Occationally I would grab an autio book to entertain me during a long road trip, but whenever possible I read my literature.

Recently reality has struck me. As a child I listened to a minimum of two or three books a week – aquating to between 100-200 books a year. Now as a functionally literate member of society I was rairly reading more than one book per month. The reason for my sharp drop in literature intake is simple – it is almost impossible to multitask while reading. Reading a book requires the use of ones hands and eyes, very few other activities can be done while the hands and eyes are engaged. I could read while sitting on a bus, listening to music, or eating (with mild dificulty). But it is foolhardy to try to read while driving, cooking, cleaning, playing a game, performing mathmatic calculations, or examining drawings. All those things can easily be done while listening though.

I included the last two items on the list because they are my job. I’m a structural engineer. Which means I spend eight hours each day performing mathmatical calculations and examining drawings. I used to listen to music while working. Recently I have found that my productivity is in no way affected by listening to audio books instead. Occationally I am forced to actually read something while doing my job. In such a case, I pause the book I am listening to and devote my full attention to the words I’m being paid to read. Even with these periodic breaks in my listening, I am once again listening to 2 or 3 books a week. I am glad that my reading skills have improved over the past few years, but I no longer see any reason to read books. Listening to literature is a far suppirior use of ones time. In a way I pitty the many literate people in the world who have completely missed the joys of audio books.

So much of life is missed if one spends all there time burried in paper. But the absence of literature in ones life is an equal tradigity. The only simple solution to this problem is to listen and live simultaniously. For your own good, I encourage you to put down your papers, and listen to your literature.