Mailbox
Monday is a weekly meme started by Marcia at Mailbox Monday in which bloggers
can ramble on about the books they received/bought/stole over a given
week. Each month a new blogger hosts the meme, and this month it’s
Jennifer Donovan at 5 Minutes
For Books.
This
week I only got one book, and that was an audio book from the library. It’s for the best, though. Like I always say, I’ve got way more books
than I can reasonably read. On the other
hand, this lib’ary monstrosity of mine isn’t going to help me get through my
to-read stack. More on that below.
--- The Books ---
A
Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin – Oh my Gawd, why didn’t anyone tell me this
thing was so long? I’m not scared of
long books, mind you, it’s just I’ve never seen an audio book that was twenty-freakin’-eight CDs long. I’m on disc
3. Of 28. Yeah, definitely going to have to renew this
bad boy… maybe twice. So what’s the
story behind this epoch of a read? Well,
as everyone knows, A Game of Thrones is about as popular with the nerds
these days as Ryan Lochte is with the ladies.
I had to find out for myself what it was that had gotten all my nerdy-brethren
salivating so much. So far, so
good. It’s an understated, gritty, and
extremely thoughtful, but at the moment, I’m still waiting to be blown
away.
And now that I’ve showed you mine, it’s time to
show me yours. What did you get in your mailbox this week?
I haven't read GOT, but my husband did, and he's giving you express permission to skip some. :) He said the book has about 1000 names you'll never need to remember. :)
ReplyDeleteHappy listening, and I hope you can renew a few times!
-Dawn, 5M4B
LOL, tell your husband I appreciate the advice. It's kind of hard not to skim a bit, especially when the book is this massive.
DeleteThanks, Dawn, and happy reading to you, too.
I'm tempting to buy this one. A couple of guys told me that I'd like it.
ReplyDeleteHere is mine
If you like long-winded yet stunningly crafted stories, you'll probably find it entertaining. The characters are very well rendered, and the world is pretty low fantasy, of which I'm a fan. And if you don't want to drop the money on it not knowing if you'll like it, you can always check it out at the library :)
DeleteI have the whole series books I mean not audio and really need to get to it. End of this year or early next I'm hoping to read it. Hoping. Maybe I'm delusional.
ReplyDeleteYeah, probably. :)
DeleteSo has the little man in the dash finally finished reading this one to you yet?
DeleteMy son read that book in print and loved it. I hope you do too!
ReplyDeleteI'm crossing my fingers. Thanks for stopping by!
DeleteI love your snowy mailboxes, but not looking forward to any snow after this beautiful, hot summer. :)
ReplyDeleteENJOY your book.
Elizabeth
Silver's Reviews
http://silversolara.blogspot.com
Hot and Beautiful summer? What are you smokin', girl? Mild summers are where it's at. Hot is no bueno, 'specially down here in the south. ;)
DeleteHeard a lot about this one,hope you like it.
ReplyDeletehttp://tributebooksmama.blogspot.com/2012/08/mailbox-monday.html
Me too, thanks TB Mama!
DeleteLoving the snowy mailboxes - over here in the rainy UK we're painting the post box in the hometown of our Olympic Gold Athletes..wait for it, yup Gold! The officials have already painted the wrong post box in the wrong town haha.
ReplyDeleteOut of interest, if you review audio books, how do you conducts your reviews given that there's the extra element of the narrator? I'm trying to come up with a format but I'm conscious that I'll approach it like I would a radio play rather than a book type audio format.
Thanks for posting comments over at my blog, sorry I haven't got back to you, am now following you on Twitter so should be easier to communicate :D
Sophie (Verdict)
LOL, well you guys have a lot to be proud of this year. Mopping up on the medal count, especially considering how big your population is compared to some of the other countries. Congrats!
DeleteWhen I review audio books, I generally don't comment on the narration unless it's spectacularly good or spectacularly awful. I just review it as if it was a print book. Most folks I know don't really care about audio books, so I figured I would skip out on that and speak to the literary qualities of the book--so that, if they want to read it themselves, they won't think that the review applies only to the audio book. I know that's kind of a convoluted answer, but does it make a kind of sense?
And don't worry, it's no problemo. I'm going to follow you back on Twitter just as soon as I can. Thanks for reading.
Nice snowy mailboxes. It's between 35 and 41ºC here right now so I'm very jealous of how nicely cold they look.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read A Game of Thrones yet, even though people keep telling me to read it. I started watching the tv show though but I still don't know what is supposed to be so great about it. It's a good series but not as amazing as everybody is telling me.
I don't know how people can listen to 28 CDs. I can't pay attention long enough to finish one.
Me too! I'm longing for Fall right now--for football season and apple picking and above all, cooler weather.
DeleteAs for the TV show, I've never actually seen it. I just know that the books have gotten rave reviews. And honestly, if a fantasy book is good enough to spawn its own series, it at least deserves a look. I can't promise I'm going to read anything else in the series, but I at least wanted to see what it was about.
Well, I gather that you don't drive where you live. See, I spend an average of an hour on the road each day going back and forth to work, so I get a lot of dead time I wouldn't otherwise be able to use for reading. And then, when I'm doing something boring at work, I can usually listen to a book on CD and complete my tasks, doing both pretty efficiently. I think they use different parts of the brain or something. Now, when I'm writing or reading, I can't do it. The words just go in one ear and out the other. But luckily, my job takes a lot of reading, writing, and critical thinking, so I don't have that much mind-numbing stuff I need the audio books to help me through.
My husband and son love Game of Thrones. I'm waiting till the series is finished before committing the time to reading them all.
ReplyDeleteHere's hoping I love it, too. Thanks, Sheila. And tell your boys to rock on. ;)
DeleteI always hear people saying the HBO show of this book is awesome so I'll be interested in seeing your review once you're done. I can't believe it's 28 discs though. That's just insanity. But at least you'll never be bored while driving lol. I think the longest audio book I've listened to was like eight discs.
ReplyDeleteI know, right? I guess that's the great thing about being an established fantasy author. You can write however long a book you want... and, well, Martin really is a skilled author. There's a lot of story to tell, so I can understand why they let him go on for as long as he did.
DeleteBy the by, up until this point, my longest audio book "read" was Duma Key by Stephen King. That one was 19 discs, but it was so engrossing that it didn't seem like it went on that long. Just a testament to King's prowess as an author.
I'm reading book three at this very moment (thus the silence at my blog). These things are like crack and I hate fantasy.
ReplyDeleteAnd here I thought you didn't like fantasy. I guess GRRM is skilled enough to turn even the most ardent hater. :p
DeleteGood luck! I just picked up Oscar Wilde's short story The Canterville Ghost...it is one CD. Also Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, 5 or 6 CDs. More my speed at the moment. lol
ReplyDeleteVer nice. Anything by Oscar Wilde is pretty good. Enjoy!
DeleteI found you through Mailbox Mondays. Wonderful blog!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the audio book, I've yet to listen to a book on audio. Lol about the Lotche comparison :)
Thank you so much Naida, and right back at you. Audio books are awesome for boosting your annual book count, especially if you're a busy parent (as I see you are). Give one a try sometime and see how you like it.
Delete