The American Spectator : On Becoming a Book Listener

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On Becoming a Book Listener

By G. Tracy Mehan, III on 3.8.10 @ 6:07AM

First, trade in your clunker for a new car.

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Yes, this is a retro view given the rise of digitized publishing. But look how long it took me to migrate from cassettes to CDs. I am not exactly an early adopter. In fact, I did not get a CD player for the house until a visiting in-law called out to his children one Thanksgiving: "Hey, kids! Did you ever see a turntable?"

There are a lot of topical or contemporary subjects that make for good audio book listening. These are books you don't need to master, but you just want to have a general appreciation of their content. Politics, management, the Wall Street meltdown, a guy who like to climb Himalayan mountains to drink tea with tribesmen -- that sort of thing.

Books of classic fiction are also good, but contemporary fiction is usually pretty depressing. I am presently listening to one about a 61-year-old guy who gets fired, mugged, is widowed and divorced and alienated from his children. He suffers from partial amnesia and is drawn to a young woman who is a sympathetic, if pathetic, figure. Hmm. I am not sure I am going to get through this one.

Maybe I should start learning a foreign language.

G. Tracy Mehan, III, is a consultant in northern Virginia and an adjunct professor at George Mason University School of Law.

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About the Author

G. Tracy Mehan, III served at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the administrations of both Presidents Bush. He is a consultant in Arlington, Virginia, and an adjunct professor at George Mason University School of Law.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (25) | Leave a comment

Lullaby's, Legends and Lies| 3.8.10 @ 8:38AM

MR Mehan: The good news for you is, if the VCR ever makes a comeback, you'll be on the cutting edge again. You'll be the only person on your block, who'll be able to stop that damn flashing 12:00, or understand had to program it, to record a show (5 minutes before & 5 minutes after). I'm only goofing on you, because I still have a working cassette deck in my Lincoln, and I still listen to them too (old 80's mixed tapes-flock of seagulls).

Welcome to the 21st Century, it's scary I know, but it's all about the 1's and 0's now, not the 2's and 3's (they're out). But what you really need now for your commute, is Serius or XM radio, it gives you more than "old" radio, and cost a lot less than buying a new CD each week. And if you get tired, you can turn on a Liberal station, and get all pissed off, and find the energy to make it home, plus you'll scare everybody who passes you by. So it's the old two for the price of one (I have Serius myself, because it has Howard on channel 100). And he still makes me laugh, 25 years later.

foggynoggin| 3.8.10 @ 8:44AM

Welcome to the world of books on tape (CD) in which I have dwelled for the past 15 years. This method of filling the hours behind the wheel has been greatly facilitated by the evolution of local library systems which now contain impressive quantities of B'sOT, reservable and renewable online. Long live the public library system - one of the few public services I actually get a benefit from. I would be more than willing to pay a user fee for this service in this age of local services cutbacks.

jjv| 3.8.10 @ 9:12AM

Dear Mr. Meehan:

I have the same problem and found the same solution. However, I work right next to the Fairfax Library. They have both cassette and cd books galore. I have not had a library card in 25 years but do now. There is no doubt one near you and it will save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars.

MOS was 71331| 3.8.10 @ 10:08AM

I was about to make the same suggestion, but jjv beat me to it. My local library in Colorado Springs has a decent collection of books on CD, and you can get additional titles on interlibrary loan. My only problems occur when multiple titles or popular books arrive together. The ILL books usually can't be renewed, and neither can books with a waiting list.

Libraries also have DVD movies available. The local checkout periods are shorter, one week rather than three, and the renewal policy is the same. You can even find "classic" DVDs in ILL. Just about every library system has GWTW and Casablanca, but other older movies are less widely available. I'm still hoping to find "Reach for the Sky", a 1950s film about Douglas Bader, a Brit fighter pilot who lost both legs in a prewar plane crash yet commanded a Hurricane squadron during the Battle of Britain. (The movie's available in the UK, but Brit DVDs use a different encoding scheme. Their DVDs won't play on US DVD players.)

Sea-Bass| 3.8.10 @ 10:13AM

It's called an IPod...get one, they are great for audio books. You go to ITunes and find the book of your choice and you download it to your IPod. If you have a car radio with a USB jack all you have to do is plug the IPod in and you can listen to a book through your cars audio system. Some vehicles do not have a USB jack, but you can purchase an aftermarket radio that does…This is the one I purchased; it even has a DVD player…

http://www.pioneerelectronics......H-P3100DVD

I realize most do not need a DVD player…but what the hell! You can find cheaper radios that come with the USB jack…Oh, it even charges the IPod while plugged in. Hope this helps!

Greg| 3.8.10 @ 10:30AM

Check your local library. Mine has an ENORMOUS collection of literally thousands of audio books that can be downloaded from their website. You might need a DRM-enabled MP3 player (digital rights management), but it's well worth it when you figure how much you'd otherwise be spending on CDs...

harry Rauner| 3.8.10 @ 10:30AM

great article Tracy.

Ray Spitz| 3.8.10 @ 10:46AM

The solution to playing the audio books was far cheaper and easier than buying a new car. You should have bought a cheap MP3 player (not an iPod) and ripped the books, then loaded them on the player. Problem one solved.
Problem two is the audiobooks themselves. Yes, they are very expensive. DON'T buy them. Go to the library. Most libraries have a fairly large selection available.
Also, there are free audiobook sites on the web, such as LibriVox.com. Most of the readers are not professional, but some of them are darn good.
Problem Three: Book choices. Choose books that you are "interested" in, but would never waste your rare and precious reading time actually reading. Its very rewarding. I have listened to Liberal Fascism (very enlightening!), Freaknomics, Freedomnomics, The Numerati, Empires of the Sea, and a number of others.
Audiobooks turn a lonely commute to a vaguely tolerable experience.

the permanent newbie| 3.8.10 @ 10:58AM

As a public librarian, I want to proclaim a big loud THANK YOU VERY MUCH to all you library-using Spectator readers! Let's get the word out on one of the few government services that actually benefits everyone who wants to access it! (BTW, see if your local system offers free databases and magazine/newspaper archives - you'll love them....)

Copyleft| 3.8.10 @ 11:01AM

Or, you could take the fast, cheap, and efficient public transit system which has done such a great job of reducing congestion and rush-hour traffic... oh wait, you've been fighting AGAINST any such programs, haven't you?

Then enjoy your traffic jam, wingnut. You earned it.

Margie| 3.8.10 @ 12:21PM

Wow. You're SO informative, CopyTalkingPoints,
I had no idea taking public trans was a "program!" Awesome dude!

bob s| 3.8.10 @ 3:06PM

Copyturd... do you really believe all the drivel that you spout? You caome across as a spoiled, ignorant child.

Rob Roth| 3.8.10 @ 11:04AM

I am an old vet of books on tape who graduated to CD's. The library is an invaluable resource and I have found that I can get most best sellers there with a little patience on the waiting list.
A source that I have used for years is Audible.Com. They have a wide selection of books for download at a modest price, typically $15.00 for a unabridged book of 10-15 hours narrated by consummate professionals.
My wife and I listen extensively when we travel by car.
Welcome the 21st century!

Leroy Hurt| 3.8.10 @ 12:56PM

Public libraries have lots of free audio books, and firms like Recorded Books rent them for reasonable rates.

JeaMar| 3.8.10 @ 2:23PM

Try Recorded Books LLC. You can rent a book for 30 days at about the same or less for buying a hb copy. I taught advanced high school Am. Lit. and was embarrassed to admit I had never read "Moby Dick" although I started it three or four times. I got 13 tapes from Recorded Books with a wonderful reader and listened on the way to & from work. I loved the book and the experience.

JeaMar| 3.8.10 @ 2:29PM

Ted| 3.8.10 @ 3:51PM

I learned French while driving all night for my job. And don't forget podcasts: Radio France has many excellent programs, as does the BBC.

ABP| 3.8.10 @ 3:55PM

Wow, you went exactly the wrong direction. For audiobooks, iPod's are far superior to CDs, and the best way to play your iPod in the car (unless your car has a built-in USB or stereo input) is through a cheap cassette adapter.

Tom| 3.8.10 @ 5:07PM

Lectures on CD from The Teaching Company are also great companions, and help make otherwise wasted time useful. They have LOTS of courses, and when they go on sale, the courses are reasonably priced.

Cincinnati Whig| 3.8.10 @ 8:43PM

or you could get a cheap boom box that records from CDs to cassette

Andy| 3.8.10 @ 10:11PM

I started doing this about 2 years ago and it has been a great way to use my commute time. I have found the company simlyaudi0.com to be a good complement to the library. It is like netflix for books on cd where a $17.00 gets you one book at a time and $25.00 gets you two.

I also use my time at the gym to listen to books on my ipod. It is another way to work two muscles at once.

Johnny Knuckles| 3.8.10 @ 10:28PM

My Sienna had both a cassette and CD. I liked the cassette because cassettes would politely wait at the spot you stopped the player. Unlike CDs, cassettes wouldn't automatically start at the beginning every time you turned on the car. It's okay for that to happen with music, but not when you're you're halfway through a book.
My new car has an onboard hard drive and plays MP3 DVDs. (Several books on one disk.)
But I still miss the cassette deck.

Lavrenty Beria| 3.9.10 @ 6:02AM

I can heartily recommend anything by the Teaching Company. They don't do novels so much, but they have a huge range of excellent college level courses on CD or DVD. I've focused on ancient history, but they offer math, science, philosophy, as well as later history. Anything you always wanted to learn about but never had the time.

Derek Leaberry| 3.9.10 @ 8:55AM

I have made my commutes bearable by listening to audiobooks for about sisteen years. Blackstone Audiobooks used to rent them out for years until they stopped doing so about two years ago. Blackstone began as a site for conservative audiobooks but expanding to recordings of many classic novelists, from Dickens to Orwell to Conrad to the Brontes to Walker Percy and Patrick O'Brian. Now that I can't rent any longer, I have found buying cassettes and CDs on ebay to be rather inexpensive. I have just finished Glaathaar's "General Lee's Army" and Ian Fleming's "For Your Eyes Only" and now have started O'Brian's "Ionian Mission." Better than listening to Howard Stern or the rants of Sean Hannity or Mark Levin.