Sat 10 Mar 2007
One of the chief joys of my daily walk and possibly responsible for extending its length is listening to audio books. This is something I was never before tempted to do but in God’s providence it has been a way for me to keep reading this year in spite of extreme circumstances.
So far my audio books have come from either Audible or my local library. Our library has free audio downloads.
The books I have downloaded from my library have all been light fare:
The Innocence of Father Brown
3 or 4 Alexander McCall Smith books
Three Men in a Boat
My Audible selections have been longer and deeper. I just finished David McCollough’s Mornings on Horseback
Unfortunately, the Mornings on Horseback audio is abridged but I can hardly remember ever hearing a more engaging book. This book is the perfect marriage of fascinating subject to skilled writer. I only hope my neighbors were not looking out their windows while I was listening to the account of the death of Mitty, Theodore’s mother and Alice Lee, his wife, on the same day in the same house. I could not help the flow of tears even though I had heard the story many times and knew it was coming in the narrative. I cannot recommend this book highly enough and I thank Patti for her recommendation. Of course, I now plan on buying the unabridged hardcover of this book!
Listening to the Shakespeare bio on the heels of the Roosevelt one while I am also reading Greg Wilbur’s life of Bach
Nothing like a biography to put things in perspective.
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I read Mornings on Horseback a year or so ago, and was captured hook, line & sinker. I couldn’t put it down, and that’s saying something for me when it comes to a biography! We are quoters in this house, and Theodore’s “Hasten forward quickly there!” is among my favorites! I’m glad you’re enjoying the audio version.
Comment by Copper's Wife (March 10, 2007 @ 1:29 pm )
I have one disc left of Mornings on Horseback!
I planned to read and listen while I exercised, but my son was captured and we ended up listening together while cleaning and cutting hair. Besides, the abridgment raised complications with my audio visual plan. I’m eager to dig into the book.
I have such a high regard for David McCullough’s writing.
Comment by Carol at MagistraMater (March 10, 2007 @ 3:23 pm )
That was such a funny quote!! I think the context was that the cowboys in the badlands couldn’t quite figure him out.
Comment by Cindy (March 10, 2007 @ 3:32 pm )
Emma read MOH just last month and she didn’t tell me about their sad day!
I’ll ask her when she wakes up. Yeah.
Saturday afternoon nap.
What a life!
Comment by Miz Booshay (March 10, 2007 @ 5:21 pm )
If you check the link for custom tracts that Lora gave in the second part of her interview, you will find some interesting ones with pictures of TR on them :-). I’m very tempted to order some.
Comment by Carmon (March 10, 2007 @ 7:13 pm )
I’m glad you like it, Cindy! I recently read the book on Winston Churchill in the series you’ve mentioned before–Leaders in Action or something like that–and I think I know what it is that bothers me about those books. It certainly was a very well-written book and very inspiring–but the problem was that the majority of the book is author interpretation, and there just isn’t enough information to gauge whether the author has interpreted thing correctly. It gives me unease to read it. I remember in the book on Robert E. Lee that there was a specific interpretation the logic of which was circular. I thought about the Churchill book as compared to something McCullough would do. He offers much more evidence for the interpretations he makes. I feel much more secure in them.
Comment by Patti (March 11, 2007 @ 12:40 am )
I understand that, Patti. I think I look at the Leaders bios as brief introductions to a life, not meant to be definitive like the McCollough books.
One thing I like about the Shakespeare bio is that Ackroyd gives the evidence, which for Shakespeare is often shakey, then sometimes tells us what he thinks and why and sometimes just puts it on the table. That has cleared up a lot for me about Shakepeare without giving me erroneous information.
Comment by Cindy (March 11, 2007 @ 7:29 am )