Dances With Audiobooks

I'm rediscovering, for about the fifth time in the past two years, the joys of listening to audio books. One of the resolutions I made for myself this year was that I would try to read more. I usually have at least two different books on the go at a time, but I'm a slow reader. Finding time to read more is challenging at best.

That's where the beauty of audio books come in. I spend about 45 minutes a day walking and driving to work. That is time I usually spend listening to podcasts, many of which are usually writing related podcasts, and thus time well spent. But, between podcasts, instead of listening to music on my mp3 player, I've started trying to find books that I already own and have had on my "to read" list for a long time, and starting to listen to them.

Late last week I started listening to the audio version of the Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child novel Dance of Death. I got a signed copy of it two years ago and it has sat, since then, on my "to read" pile. (Okay, not technically on my "to read" pile since the pile is imaginary - it has sat on the "signed books" bookshelves) When I was at the library last Thursday night with Alexander and browsing around I discovered a book on CD version of Dance of Death read by Rene Auberjonois (known to most sci-fi geeks like me as Odo on Deep Space Nine -- however, I also fondly remember him in his role on Benson and more recently on Boston Legal (yes, alongside William Shatner, yet another Star Trek collision).

In any case, Auberjonois, a diverse and seasoned actor who has appeared in countless different roles over the decades, has a phenomenal voice that is pleasing and steady and he does a fantastic reading of the novel. I am enjoying this novel far better than the previous Preston/Child novel I read (Still Life with Crows). Perhaps the writing and story are better in Dance of Death or perhaps it's due to the superb reading by Auberjonois keeping me in complete suspense.

In any case, I've rediscovered the joys of listening to books and figure I'll be able to at least double my consumption of books in the next twelves months. I have already reserved copies of 3 different books on CD that I've wanted to listen to for a while now -- methinks that despite my obsession of buying books non-stop, I might actually make a small dent in that ever growing "to read" pile.