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Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast | Email: [email protected]
Welcome back to the Audiobooks.com Podcast! We're wrapping up this year in audiobooks with the Best of 2015. We've coalesced this list of top audiobooks based on sales and public response and segmented them by fiction and non-fiction so we can dish it up for you with some color commentary.
You'll recognize several titles on these two lists from previous discussions on the podcast. We talked about Elon Musk in episode 2. Why Not Me, Go Set a Watchman and Girl in the Spider's Web in episode 12. And even though Addy has been struggling to read a Stephen King novel, we got a voicemail from a listener encouraging her to give it another go!
Reflecting back on 2015, we see trends amongst the most popular books. One is gender flipping, such as with Grey by E. L. James, when an author, who has written from one gender’s point of view, writes another novel in the voice of another gender in the original, or a novel that jumps between the point of view of a man and a woman.
Another trend is comedians writing autobiographies, or otherwise works of non-fiction. In addition to Aziz Ansari and Mindy Kaling on the non-fiction list below, 2015 also saw books from David Spade, Rainn Wilson, Tim Hawkins, Amy Poehler, and Judd Apatow. We’re not complaining!
The final trend is similar to the second but even more, indicative of how much our culture is changing. YouTubers and Bloggers are also writing books, which brings us new authors like Miranda Sings, Shane Dawson, and Jenn McAllister, amongst a shocking number of other book deals from the visual internet mediums.
Without further ado, here are the lists! Let's see if they match up with your top 10 of 2015!
Fiction
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Grey by E.L. James
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll
Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz
Finder's Keepers by Stephen King
Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham
See Me by Nicholas Sparks
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
Non-Fiction
Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
Down the Rabbit Hole by Holly Madison
The Wright Brothers by David McCullogh
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitana by Erik Larson
Why Not Me by Mindy Kaling
Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology by Leah Rimini
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Road to Character by David Brooks
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear Elizabeth Gilbert
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Books & Resources Mentioned
The Girl on the Train by Paula HawkinsGray by E.L. James Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee The Nightingale by Kristin HannahLuckiest Girl Alive by Jessica KnollThe Girl in the Spider's Web by David LagercrantzFinder's Keepers by Stephen KingRogue Lawyer by John GrishamSee Me by Nicholas SparksSeveneves by Neal StephensonModern Romance by Aziz AnsariDown the Rabbit Hole by Holly MadisonThe Wright Brothers by David McCulloughElon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic FutureDead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik LarsonWhy Not Me by Mindy KalingTroublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology by Leah RiminiBetween the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi CoatesThe Road to Character by David BrooksBig Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert -
Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast | Email: [email protected]
A love of a particular book arises for many reasons. A premise, a concept, a theme often draws us to the book, but an author’s imagination is usually what makes us stay. This week on the Audiobooks.com Podcast, we speak with an author who has that envious and covetous imagination which brings books to life in a multidimensional sort of way. Lee Stephens, author of Dawn of Destiny, part of the Epic series, created a full production audio drama out of his first novel and joins us for a little chat!
To give you an idea of just how involved and exciting the audiobook is, we play a short clip of his epic science fiction adventure. In this clip we hear both the description of the action and the sound effects that accompany it. We hear unique voices for each characters. And, most importantly, we hear the result of four and a half years of commitment to a project Lee believed in and wanted to share with the world.
The plan for the Epic Universe is an 8-book series. Four are currently available, but only Dawn of Destiny is available in audiobook form. The fifth book, Lee promises, is nearing completion. We asked Lee if he has plans to turn the other books into the same type of audio drama as he did with the first one. You’ll have to tune in to the podcast for the answer!
The story featured here in this podcast, Dawn of Destiny, follows a young man heeding a call to war. Earth has been invaded by three alien species, and Scott Remington is one of a handful of young men that lead outstanding excursions onto the battlefield, coming up with the impossible, and igniting an action-packed story. This book explores though-provoking themes about the human condition, about God and faith, and about what it means to answer a call on one’s life.
A huge thank you to Lee for being on the show this week! Take a moment to go check out Lee’s website, epicuniverse.com, and then show him some love on Twitter: @epicuniverse. His first, and only, audiobook (thus far) is available at Audiobooks.com! Check out the Books and Resources section of this post to be redirected.
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Books & Resources Mentioned
Dawn of DestinyEpic Universe -
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Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast | Email: [email protected]
In 2012, the world was made aware of a strange, desert town in the Southwestern United States. Details of this town were provided through advertisements and news segments on a bi-monthly basis. The name of this town? Night Vale.
This week on the Audiobooks.com Podcast we had the pleasure of speaking with the creative minds behind Welcome to Night Vale, the very podcast that made Night Vale one of the most popular fictional towns in the world. Or, at least, on the Internet. Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor developed and released Welcome to Night Vale in June of 2012, providing bi-monthly installments since then, and became the most-downloaded podcast of 2013.
In the ongoing wake of the podcast’s popularity, the men wrote a novel which hit our hungry bookshelves in October 2015. Set within the same town, but narrated by two characters fans of the podcasts will recognize, the novel is for new fans and seasoned fans alike! We catch up with Joseph and Jeffrey just a couple months after the book’s release to learn about their motivation for writing it, their creative process and storytelling techniques, and how the book has been received by fans.
Joseph and Jeffrey, as well as many of the Night Vale cast members, belong to the New York-Neo-Futurist performance organization, which is known for its long-running show Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. For 50 weeks a year, the Too Much Light family puts on a different show, consisting of 30 plays in 60 minutes. The show format is quick, comic and light, the audience gets involved, and the plays are written by the performers. Both men say that they borrowed significantly from their experiences writing for a variety of people and styles, week after week, to make Welcome to Night Vale into what it is today. If you’re ever in New York, catch a show!
A huge thank you to both Joseph and Jeffrey for their time with us this week! Go show them some love on Twitter and Facebook. And then, listen to the book!
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Books & Resources Mentioned
Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey CranorHow To Be Both by Ali SmithBridge of Birds by Barry HughartWelcome to Night Vale podcastToo Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind -
Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast | Email: [email protected]
Can you handle the truth? The Real Brian and the One and Only Addy serve it up on a silver platter in this week’s installment of the Audibooks.com Podcast! We had the great privilege of speaking with Neil Strauss, author of 2005 New York Times bestseller The Game and the newly released The Truth. From an elite player in a secret society celebrating the artistry of picking up women to a father and committed monogamist, Neil tells us about the amazing journey of writing The Truth that lead him away from being a monogamy nay-sayer.
Having already exposed his pick-up methods and encounters in a very detailed manner throughout The Game, and later Emergency, we were interested in learning about how his approach to the new book differed from his approach to the earlier ones. How did the writing process change for him? Did he continue to learn more about himself as he put it into words?
To our great surprise and interest, Neil says that he started out writing The Truth as a means to redefine relationships and speak out against monogamy, coming at the book with all sorts of research that exposed the inefficiencies of that lifestyle. But at one point, while re-reading his own words, he reflected on the voice coming from the page and thought he sounded like a man scared of intimacy and commitment. This reflection redirected his course and turned The Truth into what it is today, an uncomfortable book about relationships.
Neil leaves us with some excellent advice that corresponds directly to the wonderful conversation we had in the course of getting to know him and his new book. He gives this advice: “Lovingly and compassionately question and challenge yourself, question your presuppositions and the bases on which you have your thoughts. Challenge yourself to break habits and routines, to get outside your comfort zone.”
We want to thank Neil for being a guest on our show this week and hope that you will too! You can find him on Twitter, @NeilStrauss and keep up with his latest projects by visiting his website, neilstrauss.com. Check out his available audiobooks in the Books & Resources section in this blog post.
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Books & Resources Mentioned
The Game by Neil StraussThe Truth (An Uncomfortable Book About Relationships) by Neil StraussThe Painted Bird by Jerzy KosinskiLife Is Elsewhere by Milan KunderaAsk the Dust by John FanteIf On A Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino -
Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast | Email: [email protected]
What better way to close out the month of November on the Audiobooks.com Podcast than with an author, and a book, that would make for a great Christmas gift! By the next time we’re streaming into your ears, we’ll be beyond Thanksgiving and into the season of shopping and of gift giving. For children, and for those with childlike imaginations, we recommend the novelette The Tale of Nottingswood by J.R. Young.
To help seal the deal on this gift, we had the wonderful opportunity of speaking with Justin himself, who, before writing this book has made a name for himself in acting, voice acting, and public speaking. We get to ask Justin about how he made the leap into writing, what the process was for turning his book into an audiobook, and the aftermath of releasing both.
The Tale of Nottingswood is written in verse and, as Justin says himself, needs to be read aloud. Deeply thought provoking, moving, and enlightening, the tale follows a boy and a girl, twins, who live in a land which cast out their majestic guardian, built a wall to block out the sun, and find contentment in decay. But then this brother and sister stumble across a Creature who changes their lives forever, and thus The Tale is born
We play a clip from the audiobook, which Justin recorded himself, to give you a quick glimpse into just how wonderful this story is. If you end up giving this gift as a Christmas gift, please follow up with us after the book has been opened and read and share the experience you had while reading it aloud or listening to it! Based on the feedback Justin has received thus far, and the opportunities it’s provided him to speak with schools and students, we have no doubt that great conversations can be had from that experience.
Get in touch with J.R. Young! We encourage you to reach out to him, buy his book AND audiobook, because the illustrations alone are a sight to be seen, and share your experiences with the book with him. Justin says the best way to keep in touch and be updated on what’s going on is to visit Nottingswood.com. He can also be found on Facebook.
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Books & Resources Mentioned
Ready Player One by Ernest ClineArmada by Ernest ClineStarship Troopers by Robert HeinleinThe Tale of Nottingswood by J.R. Young -
Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast | Email: [email protected]
Welcome to the Audiobooks.com Podcast! Every week we have the great privilege of chatting about the audiobooks industry, sometimes talking about what we’re currently listening to, other times getting to speak with people on the business side or authors or avid book lovers. The spectrum of guests has been enlightening and rewarding and we look to continue that streak with this installment, featuring special guest Sanjay Singhal, CEO of Audiobooks.com! Our conversation with Sanjay covers everything from where Audiobooks.com started from to where the industry is headed and to what is currently in his audiobooks queue.
Meet & Greet
We’re getting an inside look this week from the man who devotes his livelihood to anticipating and innovating the future of the audiobooks industry. It is both encouraging and exciting to hear about the passion Sanjay has for the industry, and audiobooks in general, because it only means good things to come our way in the future.
Inspired by Netflix and the methodology of delivering entertainment to the doorstep of a consumer, Sanjay and his business partner launched Simply Audiobooks in Canada back in 2003 with monthly fees and an assortment of titles in their collection. After sticking with the business despite a rocky first year, audiobook rentals have exploded into a lucrative and evolutionary business.
Looking at the last couple decades of audio, it’s amazing to see how the preferred medium has transformed the delivery; from cassettes to CDs to digital media, our methods of consumption have changed tremendously, and industry leaders like Sanjay have been on point to meet new needs as they arise. As the escalation of technological advances shows no sign of slowing down, the format of audiobooks will no doubt continue to change as well.
Watching the market, watching technology, and listening to the consumer base helped Sanjay to guide the delivery of audiobooks in a transformative way. This same attention, and same passion for making audiobooks accessible to everyone, is now leading audiobooks into the next phase of life as interest and competition increases.
Finishing Well
Lately, we’ve been talking about some peripheral topics surrounding reading and listening to books, and this week we approached the question of whether it’s imperative to finish a book once you’ve started. Brian is reading a book that he considers mostly review for him for where he is in his career, but isn’t quite sure how he feels about quitting on the book.
What do you think? When is it appropriate to set a book aside, with no real interest in completing it? Do you have a rule you follow when you find yourself in these situations? Send us an email and let us know your perspective!
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Books & Resources Mentioned
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael LewisEnder’s Game by Orson Scott CardGood to Great by Jim Collins -
Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast | Email: [email protected]
From Tamara Ireland Stone to Fred Godsmark to Tucker Max, we’ve had a lot of authors and audiobook business persons featured on the podcast, so this week we get back to the receiving end of audiobooks. Welcome business coach and audiobook lover Ellory Wells to the discussion! Ellory lends us his perspective on the listening experience and gives us a lot of recommendations for audiobooks to explore.
The Experience
We’ve discussed on the podcast before the differences between listening to an audiobook for entertainment purposes versus listening to an audiobook for reasons of time constraints or circumstance. It is much easier, and safer, to listen to an audiobook while stuck in traffic, for example, than reading a hardcover book! If the purpose we have to listen to an audiobook is entertainment, then the narrator contributes a great deal to that experience.
The book series that Ellory is currently reading, Undying Mercenaries written by B. V. Larson, keeps him engaged largely because of the narrator, Mark Boyett. Earth is visited by visitors from another galaxy in this book series, and instead of being exterminated, mankind joins with their visitors and go on adventures in space. Ellory says they’re easy reads, but are engaging and he enjoys the way Mark Boyett brings the characters to life. The entertainment value is high.
The same goes for The Martian, a book and audiobook we’ve discussed previously on this podcast, and one that continues to receive good reviews. The narrator for The Martian does a fantastic job of conveying Mark Watney’s, the main character, personality. Heavily sardonic, but an articulate intellectual, who has been well trained to survive in circumstances that normal people do not face. The narrator brings charm to Watney’s voice and a deep emotional connection with the man living alone on Mars.
Is It Cheating to Listen?
Does the method of consumption contribute to the legitimacy of an experience? Do we lose something by listening to, rather than reading, a book? This is one of the questions we ask Ellory, and his response is very interesting! We’re going to let you listen to the podcast to hear his perspective, but in the meantime, let’s take another look at this concept.
It should come as no surprise that in our modern, 21st-century culture, scientists have explored the differences of effects between reading and listening to books when it comes to how the brain processes and absorbs information. Researchers have done studies for decades about listening comprehension versus reading comprehension and their correlation to different personalities and different learning styles. But even through all of this research there seems to be inconclusive evidence that a person absorbs or understands better either through reading or listening.
A well-known phrase, coined by Marshall McLuhan in his 1964 book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, says this: “the medium is the message.” One of his first objectives is to demonstrate how the content of a particular medium is also a medium. In the case of audiobooks, if we were to ask what the content of an audiobook is, the answer might be “book”, whereas we’d say the content of a book is “the written word”.
The question of whether it is cheating to listen to a book becomes a little different in this context because there is a degree of separation between the written word and the way it is absorbed. If scientists can’t find conclusive proof that we, as humans, understand better through reading or listening, then it’s difficult to say that listening is straight up cheating. There is certainly something to be gained by various learning styles from listening to audiobooks, but it can also neither be a blanket statement.
In Understanding Media, McLuhan argues that a medium translates content. While reading a book, the written word translates the story for our brains to absorb; while listening to an audiobook, the narrator translates the story for our brains to absorb. In both cases, our brains still achieve direct access to the story; our mind’s eye must still create the story in our imaginations or our intellect must process the information for application.
Is it cheating to listen to audiobooks? Science and social theory may never be able to give us a direct answer to that question. Perhaps that question is tied into a deeper social issue of the modern age as we witness other mediums fade into the category of obsolete technology. Whether we use technology as an excuse or a crutch to avoid a tedious task is also called into question. In the end, we love audiobooks for the similar reason we love the theater, or a film, or a rock concert: it is another medium through which we can absorb, learn, grow and be entertained.
Get In Touch!
As always, we would love to hear what you are currently listening to and what is in your queue! Send us an email or hit us up on Twitter. And while you’re at it, send Ellory a quick thank-you for talking with us this week!
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Books & Resources Mentioned
Other works by B. V. LarsonAndy Weir’s The Martian started as a series of blog postsEllory Wells -
Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast | Email: [email protected]
Welcome back to the Audiobooks.com Podcast! Halloween has passed, November is upon us and we can finally start thinking about Thanksgiving here in the United States. No more being shy about ordering pumpkin spice lattes, it’s now a shameless request. There are a lot of fantastic autumn beverages that often get overlooked, though, like Masala Chai and apple cider. If you have a favorite autumn beverage that gets overlooked, write us and tell us what it is!
We have a very special treat for you this week as we invited entertainer and entrepreneur Tucker Max to join us. The truth is, every week is a special week, every guest is a special guest, but we are excited to share this interview with you because of the unique change Tucker has brought to the world of books and audiobooks.
Google and Wikipedia will tell you about the Old Tucker Max, the one without a wife and a son, the one who wrote I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell, and the one who basically helped form the genre fratire. What they don’t spend a lot of time describing is the New Tucker Max, the one who we got to chat with in this interview and the one who is re-inventing what it means to author books.
As much as we celebrate audiobooks on the appropriately titled Audiobooks.com Podcast, we also celebrate the opportunity to consume knowledge from those who have the expertise and experience to provide it. Unfortunately, by the nature of that position in life, a book containing that knowledge often ends up being compiled in a memoir. The relevance of its content, upon release, is already losing its criticality and is thus treated by the media and public as more of a biographical work.
Book in a Box is changing everything. Tucker Max and his business partners have developed a method which enables a person with expertise to get relevant knowledge out to its target audience while it is still critical. As audiobook lovers, we can appreciate the time it takes to either read or listen to a book, which says nothing about the time it took an author to write it. The greatest aspect to Book in a Box is that it does not take a person with this critical knowledge more than 12-16 hours over the phone! Time, as a caveat to producing relevant content, is almost negligible.
This process has amazing potential and we are excited to see the products that result from it. Check out the links below for more information on this enterprise, as well as the books that Tucker Max has written! Then, send him a thank-you for taking the time to chat with us.
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Books & Resources Mentioned
Book in a BoxMate by Tucker MaxI Hope They Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max -
Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast | Email: [email protected]
"All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream." — Edgar Allen Poe
We’ve all heard of H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allen Poe, Stephen King, and Dean Koontz, but this week on the Audiobooks.com Podcast we’re talking with the founder of Audio Realms, Fred Godsmark. As Halloween is just a couple days away, we thought it appropriate to bring on an expert in the field of horror, someone knowledgeable about the books and audiobooks currently popular in the genre, and get some insight into current trends and demographics surrounding fans of horror.
Niche Books
There are fans, and then there are true fans. The dedicated masses. The fanatics. The ones that will paint their faces, dress up like a mascot or character; the ones that go to conventions, host themed parties, and follow the object of their fanaticism around the country. These kinds of fans undoubtedly inspire companies like Audio Realms to not just exist, but to thrive.
These kinds of fans, in fact, create companies like Audio Realms! Fred himself is an avid reader of the horror genre and dedicated to bringing the authors and stories he loves into the light. He mentions that stories by H.P. Lovecraft sell just as well now as they did 10 years ago, but he also says that new authors come about every year with fascinating stories to tell that don’t get nearly the same attention as the pop culture horror authors do.
To remedy this, Fred gives us a ton of recommendations to get a more thorough look into the genre of horror! At the forefront of his mind are Wolfland by Jonathan Janz, The Things That Are Not There by C. J. Henderson, and The Guns of Santa Sangre by Eric Red.
Getting a Taste
Audio Realms is currently working on a series of short story collections. Historically, Fred shares with us, the medium for horror was predominantly short stories. People would line up to buy these “old rags”! One such collection Audio Realms has produced is called Out of Tune, which has a really cool theme. They’ve taken a series of old ballads and wrote short stories to accompany them, and also a short explanation of the ballad. This collection was edited by Jonathan Mayberry.
We’ve talked a couple times on the podcast about how the length of a podcast can be difficult to fully embrace. It’s true that listening to an audiobook is often faster than reading it, but audiobooks that are 20-30 hours long is a big commitment. When it comes to a road trip, the longer the better! Short stories, on the other hand, are ideal for commutes that aren’t quite of the same degree as a road trips. It could take 45 days to listen to a 30-hour audiobook, if your daily commute is 40 minutes. That’s over 2 months!
If you’re someone who enjoys completing a task more quickly than that, then perhaps looking into Audio Realms’ short story collections is a good idea for you! Watch for new collections from Audio Realms to get a taste of horror for yourself.
What Are You Listening To
We’ve heard from Fred, now we want to hear from you! What was on your audiobooks playlist for the advent of Halloween?
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Books & Resources Mentioned
AudioRealms.comCastaways by Brian KeeneThe Things That Are Not There by C.J. HendersonLimbus Inc. by Joseph Nassise, Brett J. Talley, Anne C. Petty, Jonathan Mayberry, Benjamin Kane EthridgeAuthor Jonathan JanzThe Guns of Santa Sangre by Eric RedStillwater by Maynard SimsScares That Care -
Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast | Email: [email protected]
We are so excited to share this week’s installment of the Audiobooks.com Podcast! Last week, Addy gave us a preview into the new novel by Tamara Ireland Stone entitled Every Last Word and this week we have the honor and privilege to speak with Tamara and the woman who read the audiobook, Amy Rubinate. It was such a pleasure to speak with both women about their journeys, hear the stories that have inspired them to do what they do, and, in turn, to be encouraged and inspired by their experiences and advice.
Prior to becoming an author, Tamara owned her own marketing strategy firm. But her true calling has always been writing. Now her bibliography includes three novels. In addition to Every Last Word, which centers around a young girl with OCD, she also wrote Time Between Us in 2012 and Time After Time in 2013, both exploring an unlikely romance between a girl from 1995 Chicago and a time-traveling boy from 2012 San Francisco. The author is very active on social media, including Twitter and Tumblr, so we encourage you to connect with her and thank her for the time she spent with us on the Audiobooks.com Podcast!
From behind the pen to behind the mic, we get a glimpse into where Amy got her start as well. Amy actually began as a cabaret singer, then migrated into voiceovers before falling in love with audiobooks and finding a niche in that industry. Since getting involved with audiobooks, and starting her own audiobook publishing company called Ideal Audiobooks, Amy has recorded dozens of books and received the AudioFile’s Earphones Award.
As much as it is a treat to hear both of their stories, it is even more incredible to hear about the relationship and rapport the women have developed since their paths crossed following the release of Tamara’s first book. They hold deep respect for one another, and the industry of books and audiobooks, out of which comes an invigorating passion in the way they talk about their craft.
If you are as much a book and audiobook nerd as we are, you are going to love the detail that Tamara and Amy go into about their respective trades. On Tamara’s side, we get a look into how she begins writing, how she develops characters, and that routine she has when starting out on a new idea to get inside the heads of her characters. On Amy’s side, she tells us about how she goes about bringing a voice to the story she narrates, both in resonating with the characters and with the author.
The stories and experiences these women share are so wonderful and we’re always just so thankful to speak with individuals in the industry who are eager to see the medium thrive. When we have the chance to hear authors and narrators genuinely fawn over what they do, and also express a genuine love for the craft, it is equally as transdimensional as it is to be immersed in a book or audiobook. They transport us to this dimension where all that exists are fictional stories that enable us to depict deep truths in relatable ways, and we really felt that throughout this conversation.
Thanks for joining us this week! We encourage you to reach out to Tamara and Amy on social media and thank them for their time. Be sure to check out Tamara’s other books, as well as the ones Amy has narrated. And then, let us know what you thought of the interview. What inspired you? What did you learn? Let us know!
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Books & Resources Mentioned
Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone | Narrated by Amy Rubinate
Ideal Audiobooks
Tamara Ireland Stone on Twitter
Amy Rubinate on Twitter
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Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast | Email: [email protected]
Welcome back to the Audiobooks.com Podcast! We’re so glad you’re joining us for this installment where we take a step back to check in on what we’re listening to and review a couple recently completed audiobooks. In addition to finally discussing Ready Player One, Addy also gives us a synopsis of and her reaction to Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone. Hopefully this will be a great segue into next week because we have the distinct privilege of speaking with the author of Every Last Word herself! We hope that you will join us for that interview.
Popular, But Bad?
Before jumping into our reviews of Ready Player One and Every Last Word, we explore a handful of books in popular culture that have been categorized as overhyped. Many books receive a lot of attention or a lot of praise either by the media or by a particular subset of people, but it doesn’t necessarily indicate a work of excellent fiction. In fact, in many circles, book lovers might classify these books as bad!
We fully acknowledge that judgments of this sort are highly subjective. Books on this list include the likes of Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games series, and Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret, which all have enormous fan bases and have received critical acclaim in certain respects. It is interesting to see what people are reading, what is trending on the New York Times’ Best Seller List, and contrast that with the opinions and reviews of those books elsewhere.
We found a surprising number of classics that often fall under this banner as well. One such book is Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, originally published in the U.S. in 1958. Shortly following its release in the United States, a columnist for the New York Times wrote a rather harsh review of the book, not just highly critical of the book’s content, but also critical of the snobbish intellectuals who gave the book so much momentum following its release in Paris several years earlier. At one point, the reviewer wrote: “There are two equally serious reasons why it isn’t worth any adult reader’s attention. The first that it is dull… The second is that it’s repulsive.”
A contemporary of this reviewer for The Atlantic, had nearly the exact opposite reaction. He closes his review by stating: “It is one of the funniest serious novels I have ever read; and the vision of its abominable hero…brings into grotesque relief the cant, the vulgarity, and the hypocritical conventions that pervade the human comedy.” As Addy states on the podcast, it’s important to take each review and recommendation with a grain of salt, to understand the reviewer’s general interests and to understand the subtext of taste. For every person who raves about a novel, there will be someone else to cut it down.
Another classic that got its start with a bad review is Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, originally published in 1936. The reviewer found it riddled with convention—conventional dialogue, conventional characters—and yet states that Mitchell’s style is rather unconventional for an early 20th century female novelist. The reviewer leaves the reader with a notion of puzzlement, as he praises the efforts of the author but has no distinct praise for the story. Now, over 75 years later, the book is regarded often as one of the greatest books of all times. In 2011, for the 75th Anniversary of the book’s publication, TIME Magazine published an article that claimed Gone With the Wind has transcended criticism, along with Star Wars, in that it will never lose its relevance.
Shaping Our Time
Despite the critical or common reviews of books in popular culture, it is clear that these are the books shaping our times. Books like Ready Player One might not be literary masterpieces, but they are highly indicative of modern culture along the projected continuum of human history by presenting realistic peeks into possible futures. Given a certain set of scenarios, and a little imagination, we get a raw look at what could happen. Perhaps we won’t see a future exactly like the one Wade Watts experiences in The Oasis, but the internet has certainly connected us to a virtual reality that is quickly becoming more fibrous than the physical world.
The last century of books has brought with it an uptick in disturbingly possible dystopian future scenarios. Brave New World in 1932. 1984 in 1948. Fahrenheit 451 in 1953. A Clockwork Orange in 1962. The Giver in 1993. And then, more recently, cultural phenoms like The Hunger Games and Divergent. As much as our society can produce visionaries that seek to find solutions to the earth’s problems, we also have novelists to paint word pictures about unpleasant futures that seem to be a direct result of humanity left unchecked.
All of the dystopian novels listed above are currently available for your listening pleasure at Audiobooks.com! What is your favorite dystopian novel of the last century?
Halloween Cometh
We’re just a few weeks away from Halloween, so we want you to be ready to freak yourself out! Check out one of our recommendations for seasonal listening: The Edgar Allen Poe audio collection, Dracula, and The Invisible Man. What are you listening to for the Halloween season? Let us know so we can pass along the tips!
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Books & Resources Mentioned
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone
The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection
Dracula
The Invisible Man
Audiobooks.com App: iOS click here | Android click here
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Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast | Email: [email protected]
It’s officially Autumn! Grab a pumpkin spice latte, queue up an audiobook, and breathe in the sweet scents of the season. But before all that, we have a great installment of the Audiobooks.com Podcast to share with you. This week we had the opportunity to speak with Michele Cobb, the executive director of Audio Publishers Association (APA) and owner of MLC Consulting, a PR, sales, marketing and business development service for the publishing industry.
With an extensive background in directing and entertainment, Michele brings a unique perspective and knowledge set to the podcast, sharing insight into the demographics of audiobook listeners today as well as why audiobooks have seen an increase in popularity over the past decade. Once again, we get to hear about the power of audiobooks to entertain and educate and how they are becoming a vital tool in our society.
Listener Demographics
As the realm of audiobooks expands, it’s interesting to see how the core demographic of audiobook listeners also fluctuates. Michele presents us with some observations from a recent consumer survey that captures a snapshot of the current listener base and in addition to seeing that audiobook listening is on the rise, also sees that listenership is increasing amongst younger audiences. While the typical expectation is that the dominant listener base is in the 45 and up range, they are seeing significant growth among listeners in the 25 to 45 range.
Based on other statistics and observations Michele provides, it’s becoming easier to see why there is increasing growth in this area. Not only are audiobooks becoming more widespread, not only are they better produced and better funded, but they’re also becoming more accessible. In the last five years we’ve seen the creation of smartphone apps and the availability of borrowing digital audiobooks from a library, both which cater to that younger audience.
Building the Industry
If you’re reading the show notes for this podcast, we assume, at a minimum, that you are aware of the existence of audiobooks. But possibly a more accurate assumption is that you are more invested than most in the lifecycle, health, and growth of audiobooks. For as much as we love audiobooks here on the podcast, it’s amazing to think that many people don’t know about their availability and ease of access. But that is still the case in many cities around the United States!
Last summer, APA kicked off its largest consumer awareness campaign in the form of an AudiobookMobile designed to draw attention to the audio format of books and introduce listeners to the medium. Michele said that this campaign was both fun and informative, as it provided a unique opportunity to engage with people in local libraries about the benefits of audiobooks and their place in education, not just for entertainment purposes.
In addition to raising awareness, APA is also concerned with the internal health of narrators, publishers and authors. For the last several years, APA has sponsored a conference, the Audiobook Publishers Association Conference, which is dedicated to networking and education its members. The conference is their opportunity to have the face to face interaction with one another to discuss best practices, to hear insights from other people in the industry, and come into a common mind about the direction of the industry.
In Queue
Michele shares a couple audiobook suggestions with us before signing off! Her favorite audiobook, she says, is Blindness by Jose Saramago. This book is narrated by Jonathan Davis and runs 12 hours and 30 minutes. The uniqueness of this book, Michele says, is that it has very little punctuation and can be very difficult to read. But Davis, the narrator, does a very good job at bringing it to life.
Recently in her queue is Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, a work of historical fiction and romance originally published in 1938. This book is narrated by Anna Massey and runs 14 hours and 15 minutes.
What’s in your queue?
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Books & Resources Mentioned
Blindness by Jose Saramago
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Audio Publishers Association
Sound Learning from APA
Connect with Michele Cobb
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Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast | Email: [email protected]
Welcome back to the Audiobooks.com Podcast! This week we have a very different show for you, but one we’ll hope you’ll enjoy as a book lover. To start things off, we discuss some of the audiobooks that were recently released and our interest in them, then get into some of the books we’ve been listening to.
The core of our discussion revolves around some controversies occurring right now in the book industry. Many of the decisions that have been made surrounding these incidents bear a significant impact on the creative side to the business of books and audiobooks, and we wanted to take the time to explore some of these issues. Taking a serious look at them, we believe, makes us better consumers and equips us with the knowledge we need to make informed decisions and support those who need to be supported. Exercising our consumer rights can be the loudest weapon we have against the creative types who are being manipulated by the money-driven machine that fuels them.
ON THE RADAR
Mindy Kaling’s newest book, Why Not Me, was released on September 15, 2015. She reads much of the book herself, but also has other voices making appearances on the audiobook production, including Greg Daniels (known for his work on Saturday Night Live and The Office) and B. J. Novak (writer and fellow co-star on The Office).
Kaling’s first book, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), which was released in 2011, received mixed responses amongst critics. As her writing style ranges from prose to a more blogging-feel, Mindy herself reads the audiobook, with help from Michael Schur, and brings it to life with a more conversational tone. She covers topics from recounting experiences in Hollywood to childhood memories.
Why Not Me is a collection of humorous essays of Mindy’s mission to find a balance of fulfillment and joy in life, from love to weight loss. And we hear it is one heck of a chuckler!
Also on our radar is a book from singer-songwriter Jewel, entitled Never Broken: Songs Are Only Half the Story. As far as typical celebrity memoirs go, this one is on the longer side. The audiobook is 10 hours and 30 minutes long, but it is read by Jewel herself.
We are familiar with Jewel’s early albums, such as her debut Pieces of You from 1995, but the singer has been releasing albums almost every year or two throughout the 2000s. This memoir isn’t the first publication Jewel has released. She published a book of poetry in 1998 entitled A Night Without Armor, and then an autobiography in 2000 called Chasing Down the Dawn, which chronicled her journey from Alaska to the world’s stage.
Never Broken seems to be Jewel’s second stab at an autobiography, but one that is already being met with great reviews! We’re excited to check it out.
Putting Up Guards
Here at Audiobooks.com, we’re all about supporting the creative geniuses behind the books and materials we enjoy. As consumers, we have the poignant power to show publishing companies our opinions through choosing to purchase, or not purchase, a book or audiobook instead of complaining. However, we’re neither advocating nor supporting a boycott in these situations we bring up, rather we want to bring to light that when the creative process is mistreated by someone intent on making a sell, we have the opportunity to respond to that in kind.
The two controversial situations we examine at length are Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman and the late Steig Larsson’s The Girl In the Spider’s Web. While some books are currently receiving heat for their accuracy, such as Wednesday Martin’s The Primates of Park Avenue, these books are brought to our attention because of the publisher’s role in releasing a creative work that the author, arguably, had no say in due to death or mental acuity.
What makes matters difficult for fans, we think, is a desire to respect the creative process of an author while still having an insatiable curiosity to discover what the book holds. Fans of the first three novels released by Steig Larsson under the Millennium Series are no doubt anxious to read the rumored 7 books that remain. Following Larsson’s death in 2004, the hope of reading any further seemed to be dashed.
In that same vein, Harper Lee’s 1960 novel To Kill A Mockingbird was an immediate success, winning Lee a Pulitzer. But the reactions by Lee and her family, following the books release, make it difficult to justify reading the book. How much of the book was changed from Lee’s original manuscript? Did she have a say in the changes that were made? Is this book really deserving of Lee’s name under the authorship?
When controversy like this arises, what is your response? Do you find yourself interested to read the final product of a long, legal battle, or do you pass on the newly published work in favor of respect for an author? Or is there an option C? We’d love to hear opinions on this, because we’re at a crossroads over what the right course is to take.
Coming Up
Brian is still making his way through Ready Player One, but we promise that a full review of that audiobook is coming up soon! In the meantime, Addy is still learning Italian, so we may need a translator in an upcoming episode for when she becomes fluent!
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Books & Resources Mentioned
Audiobooks.com Book Sale
Mindy Kaling’s Favorties
Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling
Never Broken: Songs Are Only Half The Story by Jewel
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
The Girl in the Spider’s Web
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Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast | Email: [email protected]
Welcome back to the Audiobooks.com Podcast! This week we are joined by Amy Robles of Think Enriched, a podcast dedicated to money management. As a self-described former spender, Amy attributes the motivation to getting a handle on debt largely to some very influential audiobooks. We are so excited to share Amy’s insight into the unique experience audiobooks afford and her recommendations for books in a new genre.
MONEY MANAGEMENT
The spectrum of a single genre is tremendous and we love to explore new realms of those spectrums here on the Audiobooks.com Podcast. This is the first opportunity we’ve had to dive into the money and wealth management genre, but it is interesting to see how relevant previous discussions have been to where the conversation takes us this week. Coming off of audiobooks like Do the Work by Steven Pressfield and Purple Cow by Seth Godin, Amy’s experiences with money management books is familiar.
Although books and audiobooks relate the same core material, the experience we have while absorbing the information can be extraordinarily different. The most obvious differences are factors like the act of listening versus reading or having someone else manufacture intonation of the narrator and characters, but there also is the factor of sharing the listening experience with one or more people.
Amy shares a great story about a long drive home after a vacation, shared with a close friend, in which they listened to a chapter of You’re Broke Because You Want To Be by Larry Winget. Her story is such a great example of how sharing the experience of listening to an audiobook can both help pass the time and instigate conversation that might not happen otherwise. There is something about that shared experience that creates a different level of conversation than a typical book club.
We love hearing stories about how listening to an audiobook opened up opportunities for discussion. Got one to share with us?
BRAIN CANDY
We absolutely love this new genre of books Amy introduced to us! Brain candy books, as Amy describes them, are books that can help pass the time while performing tedious tasks. In her situation, she had taken up quilting and in one week made it through all four Twilight books. Imagine all the books we could listen to while doing basic household chores! From mowing the lawn to vacuuming to dishes, pop in an audiobook and make those multi-tasking braincells do some work.
The mention of Twilight got us talking about a host of fantasy and science fiction brain candy books! While neither Amy nor Addy are big science fiction fans, they can appreciate books like Twilight and Harry Potter, even if their preferences are in other genres. And, as Amy says, it’s okay to like what’s good for you!
TAKEAWAY
As usual, we ask our guest about what she’d spend that one credit on if she had it. In line with other recommendations like The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod, Total Money Makeover by David Ramsey and E-Myth by Michael E. Gerber, Amy pulls up a tasty morsel for us: The Wealthy Barber by David Chilton.
Go show Amy’s podcast some love and pick up an audiobook she recommended! Then report back and tell us how your experience was.
Show us some love!
Tweet this episode: http://ctt.ec/3eLZ5
Subscribing, rating and reviewing the show: iTunes
Books & Resources Mentioned
You’re Broke Because You Want To Be by Larry Winget
The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason
As A Man Thinketh by James Allen
The E-Myth Revisted by Michael E. Gerber
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
Dr. Wayne W. Dyer Books
Joel Osteen Books
Zig Ziglar Books
Star Wars
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Amy Robles - ThinkEnriched.com
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Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast | Email: [email protected]
This week on the Audiobooks.com Podcast, Addy and the Real Brian sit down to chat with Pat Flynn, author of the book Let Go, which was released in April of 2013 and narrated by the author, that shares the journey he took from architect to entrepreneur extraordinaire. What we love about this interview with Pat is the inspiration he is to countless people who find themselves in the same situation he was as depicted in his book. Now we have the special opportunity to ask him about his process, about his craft, and about what he is currently working on so that we get to share with you why his book is worth your credit.
THE WORK
An author, a podcaster, a business owner, a father, a husband, a friend. Pat Flynn wears many hats, but he’s making it work in a way he never could have imagined. Let Go is Pat’s very vulnerable, very authentic account of how he took his future by the horns and decided to either succeed or fail by his own merit. Doing so brought him through many trials, but ones that were necessary in order to get him to where he is now.
Where Let Go was a memoir, of sorts, Pat’s new project is more intentional about providing actionable value to his readers. There are a lot of books on finding inspiration for ideas in all aspects of creative or entrepreneurial endeavors, and then there are a lot of books on how to build that idea. But Pat saw a gaping hole between those two popular points of assistance, and that is in how to determine whether the idea you’ve come up will work out for you.
Pat says his superpower is being able to walk people through really complicated things in a simple way. By providing a series of thought experiments and metrics, he wants to enable his readers to analyze their current situation and walk away with a definitive plan of how to move forward. Whether that is giving yourself permission to pursue that idea, or to understand how the idea needs to evolve in order to move forward, he wants it to help people take action.
We’re huge fans of Pat’s first book and cannot wait for the second!
THE CRAFT
In addition to talking about his next project, Pat also goes into his own process for writing and concept development. Whether you’re an aspiring writer or just like to hear about writers behind the scenes, it’s a treat to hear how Pat utilizes post-it notes in order to outline and develop his book. As we interview more authors and narraters it’ll become more and more evident that everyone finds a process that works for them and it’ll often be drastically different from anything we’ve heard previously. And yet there is always a process.
Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft was hugely successful largely because of the popularity that King has seen with his fiction novels, but also because it is part memoir part exposé into his process of writing. Like Pat, King had to overcome obstacles in order to achieve his aspirations, and through it all he acquired knowledge, experience, and confidence which he chose to share in the form of this book.
Passion drives us to act, and it is authors like Pat Flynn who want to help us act. We are very grateful to Pat for taking the time to discuss his process, share what he’s working on, and talk a bit about his journey to where he is today.
PAT’S RECOMMENDATIONS
Because he spends so much time writing non-fiction, Pat uses audiobooks in order to escape reality. He’s recently listened to The Martian by Andy Weir and Ready Player One, which we’ve talked about many times on this podcast and will be reviewing in the upcoming weeks. However, Pat’s recommendation for spending a single credit actually lands on Dale Carnegie’s How To Win Friends and Influence People.
Go listen, and show Pat some love!
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Tweet this episode: http://ctt.ec/3eLZ5
Subscribing, rating and reviewing the show: iTunes
Books & Resources Mentioned
Let Go by Pat Flynn
Smart Passive Income
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
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Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast | Email: [email protected]
Welcome back to the Audiobooks.com podcast! We are so excited to share with you some of the items on our reading list, discuss a bit of how narrators have impacted our audiobook choices, and hint as to what's coming next. We hope that by sharing some of the things we are reading (or listening to), it will encourage you to read them as well so that we can have a discussion about these audiobooks.
There is plenty to discuss from a technical, or even entertainment, side of audiobooks, but here at the Audiobooks.com podcast we are avid book lovers. What good is discussing an audiobook without actually discussing what the book is made of?
NEWS
In August of 2015, Thug Notes: A Street-Smart Guide to Classic Literature was released. The book is written by Sparky Sweets, Ph. D., and the audiobook is narrated by Greg Edwards, running 6 hours and 19 minutes in length. Whether you know classic literature like the back of your hand, or you never have anything to comment on when the discussion is brought up in social circles, this book was written for everyone who has a funny bone.
The book is based off a web series from 2013, hosted by the author, and are still available on YouTube (search for Thug Notes, you’ll find it!). You might call it colloquial, insofar that it speaks in familiar conversation (depending on your definition of familiar), you might call it a parody, but it astutely finds its way to the heart of each piece of classic literature, makes the work appealing and comprehensible, and far less daunting. Maybe it’ll make you actually want to read Crime and Punishment!
UPCOMING
It’s still the beginning of September, but October is quickly approaching! As we finally start to bring out the sweaters and jeans, request pumpkin spice lattes at the cafe, and watch the leaves turn, it’s also time to start thinking about the season of reading. Next month we’ll be diving into some horror and suspense novels! The likes of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Chuck Palahniuk, Dan Simmons… Or if you want to go a bit further back, the father of horror H. P. Lovecraft or Henry James.
There are plenty of options, so stay tuned to hear what we’re reading, and send us an email if you have a recommendation!
IMPORTANCE OF THE NARRATOR
In talking about possibilities for our horror and suspense kick in October, Addy shares that she was just not able to get into Stephen King’s Finders Keepers, narrated by actor Will Patton. Patton has a very unique voice and is generally very crucial to the characters he plays on television and film. But this brought up a very interesting discussion of how a narrator can make or break a book. When a narrator’s voice is too unique, does it turn you off?
The face-off of narrators this week ended up being Wil Wheaton vs Will Patton, as Addy said it took no time at all to cruise through the first six chapters of Ready Player One narrated by Wil Wheaton. Brian expressed a concern, before beginning the audiobook himself, over whether he’d like Wheaton as a voice actor having enjoyed his presence in a little space odyssey you might have heard of… Star Trek?
THE CONFIDENCE CODE
In preparation for this week’s episode, Addy listened to The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance. The book was written by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman and released back in April of 2014. The audiobook is narrated by Sandy Rustin and runs 6 hours and 47 minutes.
This book comes highly recommended by Addy, for women and men. Though the book is directed toward women, its truths aren’t specific to women. Utilizing science and society’s understanding of confidence, this book breaks down the different layers that comprise the often ambiguous state of being. Confused either with arrogance, when used in excess, or self-loathing, when not used at all, this book’s usefulness comes in how it breaks down what confidence is, how our body uses it and interprets it, and why women use it so differently than men.
Fair warning, it’s a bit science-heavy. Technical terms aside, it’s interesting, at the very least, to be clued in to how involved all the processes are. If you struggle with confidence, like many do, this book provides some reassurance that what is happening to your body occurs for a variety of reasons and that those reasons are conquerable! This book isn’t a how-to, but it does assert that we are capable of learning to be confident.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Addy is learning Italian! Capitalizing on Audiobooks.com’s supply of Pimsleur audiobooks, she will be working her way through those language helpers. And, in the meantime, Rework by Jason Fried is also in her queue (narrated by Mike Chamberlain).
Brian is reading Ready Player One, as discussed, and we’ll be ready to talk about that book in a week or two! He also got interested in Thug Notes and wants to start that audiobook as well.
What’s in your queue? Let us know!
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Books & Resources Mentioned
The Confidence Code by Claire Shipman and Katty Kay
Finders Keepers by Stephan King
Thug Notes by Sparky Sweets PhD
Learn To Speak Italian with Pimsleur Learning Programs
Rework by Jason Fried
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
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This week on the Audiobooks.Com Podcast, Brian and Addy are joined by Patrick Lawlor, an audiobooks narrator with over 300 recordings to his name spreading across multiple genres. We had a phenomenal discussion with Patrick on everything from what he is currently working on, to his process of choosing gigs and recording an audiobook, to the highs and lows of his career.
NEWS
We don’t spend a lot of time in the news section of the podcast this week, because there is so much goodness to share from our interview with Patrick, but there is one exciting thing worth sharing. Michael Crichton’s Terminal Man was made into an audiobook! Released at the beginning of this month, the 1972 novel is 6 and a half hours long and is read by Luke Daniels. Check out our website for more details!
INTERVIEW
The past few weeks we’ve been discussing the books we’ve been listening to and talking about the saturated book market, in terms of just how many choices there are for audiobooks these days. Chances are that newly published books will also be getting an accompanying audiobook. At the end of episode five of this podcast, our guest host, Mark, told us he’d spend a credit based on a narrator, rather than a specific book. We hope that through interviews, such as the one in this episode with Patrick Lawlor, we’re able to provide you with the voice of a narrator that will help you narrow down your next audiobook choice.
Through Patrick’s chat with us, we hope you can get a great feel for his presence in an audio drama setting. Even though he is not the author, he is telling a story, and it lends a great deal of credibility, we believe, to hear about the narrator’s approach to reading a specific book. He has great, clear pronunciation and rhythm that lends nicely to a conversation about his craft.
It is clear that Patrick takes his job very seriously, both on the mic and off. We had the opportunity to ask him about how he stays healthy and prevents his voice from becoming hoarse and mangled after all that talking (he says he’s on a kick, churning out a book a week!). Patrick has some great tips for how he keeps his voice sounding and feeling good, some of the changes he’s had to make personally in order to achieve those ends, and then goes into foods and drinks and supplements to avoid that are particularly damaging to the throat and vocal chords.
Throughout the podcast, Patrick mentions several books and authors of which he is a fan, either through the enjoyment of recording the book himself or enjoying the audiobook as a fan. Patrick calls himself a mystery fan, cop dramas specifically, but also a romance fan. He mentions The Troubleshooters by Suzanne Brockman, a series about Navy Seals, private security, and the women who love them. He also mentions the Detective Jones series from author L. J. Sellers.
And though he’s not currently listening to any audiobooks, Patrick is interested in getting his hands on Go Set a Watchman, the follow up, and sequel, to To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This book is narrated by Reese Witherspoon and the book itself rocked the New York Times best-seller list the week of its release this summer, selling 1.1 million copies.
It was a pleasure to speak with Patrick and chat about his experiences in the audiobook narration realm. We certainly learned some unique aspects to the side of a business we don’t often hear about. One comment he made in particular that resonated with us was pertaining to the question of whether he reads the books before he begins to record them. Patrick says he does for a couple reasons, but one big reason is this: “In order to get some place successfully, you need to kind of know where you are going.” And, he says, it helps to read the book ahead of time.
The full list of audiobooks that Patrick has read can be found at Audiobooks.Com!
Show us some love!
Tweet this episode: http://ctt.ec/3eLZ5
Subscribing, rating and reviewing the show: iTunes
Books & Resources Mentioned
Connect with Patrick Lawlor on Twitter
Elvis and The Underdogs
Merles Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog by Ted Kerasote
Warriors by George R.R. Martin
Go Set a Watchman
Carl Hiaasen Books
L.J. Sellers
Suzanne Brockmann
The Troubleshooters Series
The Brave Ones
Life in a Jar
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Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast | Email: [email protected]
Welcome back to the Audiobooks.com podcast! This episode of the podcast was released on September 1, 2015 and, as such, we take a look at the season, the challenges and excitements of the upcoming months, and what we look forward to most! (Pumpkin latte, anyone? Not yet? Ok.)
Once again, Addy and Brian chose to review very complementary audiobooks in the business and personal development genre. Addy reviews Do the Work by Steven Pressfield, while Brian reviews Purple Cow by Seth Godin.
News
Girl on the Train is being made into a movie! (Note: this is not the 2013 thriller starring Henry Ian Cusick.) The psychological thriller published in January by author Paula Hawkins was optioned by DreamWorks and is already getting some buzz over the casting of the characters. One major change already rumored in the course of the book's adaptation is that the film will likely take place in upstate New York, as opposed to the English backdrop of the story. As this change does not seem to cause the author to lose sleep, it shall be interesting to see what The Help's Tate Taylor will do with the film.
The audiobook for Girl on the Train is narrated by Clare Corbett and Louise Brealey and is 11 hours long.
The penultimate book in the Lorien Legacies series, The Fate of Ten, is scheduled for release September 1, 2015. The first book of the series, I Am Number Four, was released back in 2010 and subsequently had a film adapted in its honor, starring Alex Pettyfer and Timothy Olyphant. Neither the box office numbers nor the critical response of the film were anything to get excited over and the sequel was shelved.
The six books thus far in the Lorien Legacies series have one narrator in common, Neil Kaplan, but use an array of narrators for different voices. Each book hovers around the 10 hour mark.
Audiobook Reviews
Often called a manifesto, Steven Pressfield's Do The Work is an action guide that helps readers address points of resistance along the road to the completion of a project. Interestingly, the foreword is written by the author of the book that Brian listened to, Seth Godin, and in it he writes: "It will help you understand why you're stuck; it will kick you in the pants, and it will get you moving."
The book was originally published in April of 2011 is a follow up to Pressfield’s 2002 non-fiction book The War of Art (not to be confused with The Art of War by Sun Tzu, which Brian reviewed last week). Both books address the enemy of creativity and how to empower oneself to rise above the fear often accompanied by participating in a world where criticism and roadblocks abound. Whether you're a creative type or an entrepreneur, this book can bring you step by step through the process of overcoming that fear and resistance in order to produce your desired result. And Pressfield does it all in 1 hour and 26 minutes!
Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin follows a very similar vein, but is pleasantly complementary to Do The Work. The 2003 book is 3 hours in length and, like Do the Work, is also narrated by its author.
The phrase purple cow comes from a 1895 poem by Gelett Burgess:
I never saw a Purple Cow,
I never hope to see one;
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one.
The short, quippy poem became popular very quickly and Burgess actually came to regret writing it. He wrote a follow up poem in 1897, the last line of which reads: "I'll Kill you if you Quote it!" Most authors would kill for that kind of popularity, not kill because of the popularity.
Despite the author's backtracking, the poem has a unique nuance in modern culture. It can be read as embracing the idea of sticking to the status quo because sticking out is harder than fitting in, but Godin takes a different approach. Godin embraces the heart of this poem by pointing out that, as a society, we are saturated in choices that have few differences. The status quo, the traditional marketing techniques, no longer cut it in our fast-paced, mostly-online culture, and this idea of putting a purple cow into everything you do embraces the idea of being different. In one interview, Godin says: "Purple Cow is about the inexorable decline in the effectiveness of advertising and what to do about it." It's not effective to be status quo; don't see the purple cow, be the purple cow!
Start with Pressfield's book, learn to overcome the fears that hold you back from achieving your dreams, then read Godin's book to discover how being the purple cow of your industry will produce the type of results you're looking for! Then report back and tell us how you did!
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Books & Resources Mentioned
Do The Work by Steven Pressfield | Narrated by Steven Pressfield
Purple Cow by Seth Godin | Narrated by Seth Godin
The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins | Narrated bu Clare Corbett, Louise Brealey
I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore | Narrated by Neil Kaplan
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Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast | Email: [email protected]
Welcome back to the Audiobooks.com Podcast! In this installment of the podcast, Addy and Brian discuss some exciting developments happening in the book world, then jump into reviews of audiobooks they’ve recently listened to. Whether it was intentional, or a happy accident, they both review an audiobook that have a theme of understanding other people.
In The News
Back in the beginning of July, the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team won the World Cup for the first time in 16 years. It was an extremely exciting time for the United States and for soccer fans in general. The U.S. has a talented squad and was able to secure a win for the USA against Japan, which was the first World Cup rematch in the history of the women’s competition, as the USA faced Japan, and lost, in the 2012 World Cup final.
A major component to that successful drive was Carli Lloyd, the starting midfielder for the U.S. Women’s National Team. Not only did Carli Lloyd record a hat trick (three goals) in the first 16 minutes during the World Cup final, she was involved in five very important goals that catapulted the USA from the last game in the knockout stage into the quarterfinals against China, and then semifinals against Germany.
After Carli Lloyd scored her third goal in the 16th minute of play in 2015 Women’s World Cup final, one of the commentators said, “That’s not a fluke, that’s not luck. That’s Carli Lloyd.” But who is Carli Lloyd? The 33-year-old from New Jersey has become a household name after more than 200 appearances in international games for the United States over the last ten years. Her journey to that success is about to be explored. Lloyd recently signed a book deal to scratch out a memoir about her life and career. Lloyd has an incredible story to tell about commitment, about dedication, and about realizing that not everything in life can be solved by natural talent and ability. The memoir is certain to be inspiring!
In other news, the author of Ready Player One, Ernest Cline, released a follow-up book to his first success this summer entitled Armada. Like his first book, this one is also narrated by Will Wheaton. Cline has already signed a huge deal for a third book, but in the meantime, Steven Spielberg will direct the film version of Ready Player One, due for release in December of 2017.
The Art Of War
Brian listened to The Art of War by Sun Tzu and narrated by Michael Scott. This book often gets a lot of attention in popular media, almost as a book of proverbs for businessmen and strategists. The book was written over 2,000 years ago and originally in Chinese, so Brian fought his way through the old-style language and funny narration to give us an idea of whether or not we should spend a credit on this book.
The lessons from the book seem to have value in certain contexts, business and military strategy being among the most frequently cited. Reading the book simply for pleasure is not out of the question, particularly if you enjoy reading about strategy and understanding opponents, but it seems like much of the book’s value comes out of reading it in context. Having in mind a situation to apply its lessons to, such as a desire to understand one’s role as a leader or to improve one’s ability to understand and analyze a business opponent, could prove to be very valuable when choosing this audiobook.
The Five Love Languages
Also in the theme of understanding others is the book Addy recently listened to: The Five Love Languages written and narrated by Gary Chapman. Addy says Chapman has a great southern accent, but really flies through the book. She recommends that if you choose to listen to this book that you also buy a hard copy to reference and highlight.
The conversation Addy and Brian have about this book is very interesting. The title of the book was constructed in such a way that may initially turn people off to its material. Love languages? Why would I want to read about that? Addy has many reasons for you to take a chance on this book that go beyond its promise to reveal the secret to love that lasts. The topic of conversation in this book centers around understanding how to love others and how others can love you; to realize that there are many ways to show love and realize that even though we might prefer to be loved through, for example, physical touch (i.e. hugs, hand holding, or simply proximity), someone else may prefer to be shown love through words of affirmation. Addy and Brian give some examples of how these love languages apply to them, as well as discuss misnomers surrounding the topic’s approach to relational conversation.
Have you listened to a book recently that falls into the category of strategy or understanding relationships? Send us an email and let us know!
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Books & Resources Mentioned
The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman | Narrated by Gary Chapman
Art of War by Sun Tau | Narrated by Erick Abraham
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
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Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast Email: [email protected]
In the latest installment of the Audiobooks.com Podcast, The Real Brian and Addy sit down to chat with an audiobook fan who has a most interesting story of how he came to start listening to audiobooks. Mark Des Cotes, a graphic designer and podcaster, joins the fray and adds represents the science fiction and fantasy book lovers.
Mark is a great example of how audiobooks can encourage us to reach beyond the scope of our usual, go-to books. Like plays or radio programs, audiobooks are a dramatic performance and they seek to be entertaining, as well as interesting, informative, enlightening, etc. While Mark spent most of his teenage years, and possibly young adult life, reading mostly science fiction and fantasy, listening to audiobooks enabled him to take more chances with other genres. He soon grew to appreciate a wide variety of material.
One of the greatest examples Mark gives of this shift in genre preference has to do with a lifestyle change. Recently, Mark took the plunge into the world of podcasting, now owning his own podcasting company, Solo Talk Media. His attention since then has shifted largely from fictional books to self-help and business related books.
There truly are audiobooks for every kind of book lover! There will be audiobooks for when your tastes change, when your circumstances change, when you need a good laugh or a good cry, a good adventure or a good romance. How have audiobooks filled a niche in your life?
Many recommendations were made in this podcast, so let us break it down for you. First off, Mark recommends some fiction authors: Clive Cussler, Patricia Cornwall, Kathy Reichs, and Dean Koontz. Brian, who is a huge fan of oceans and ships, asked to learn more from Mark about his suggestions for a ship-lover, knowing that Cussler’s repertoire contains many maritime thrillers. Mark is quick to cite The Oregon Files, which got their start in the Dirk Pitt series. You’ll have to listen to the episode to hear Mark get into the details of why he recommends this series!
Last, but not least, Brian asks Mark the One Credit Question! If he had one free credit to spend on any book, which one would he choose? It’s difficult to choose a book, isn’t it? There are millions and millions of books. In light of this, Mark responds with a surprising, but very enlightening answer: he has favorite narrators and with that one free credit he’d look for a book narrated by Scott Brick.
A huge thank-you to Mark for taking the time to talk with The Real Brian and Addy! Are you like Mark and have favorite narrators? Leave a comment to give other listeners recommendations!
Show us some love!
Tweet this episode: http://ctt.ec/3eLZ5
Subscribing, rating and reviewing the show: iTunes
Books & Resources Mentioned
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card | Narrated by Stefan Rudnicki, Harlan Ellison
Star Wars
Shannara series by Terry Brooks
A Feast For Crows: A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin | Narrated by Roy Dotrice
A Touch of Dead: Sookie Stackhouse by Charlaine Harris
Clive Cussler
Michael Connelly
Patricia Cornwell
Kathy Reich
Dean Koontz
James Patterson
Stephan King
Connect with Mark De Cotes
The Under The Dome Podcast
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