Sense and Sensibility started

[asterroc]

seekingferret will be interested to know that, as predicted, I don't actually much mind "Sense and Sensibility" (that is, the writing style) in audiobook format. I'm on Chapter 9 right now, and while I will admit that the first two chapters with their plethora of characters were a bit confusing, but when I've done Jane Austen books in the past I found them ridiculously dry and boring. While some of the change may come from increasing maturity on my part, I really do think most of the difference is the audiobook format. If an audiobook is slightly dry, I can tune out and listen with half an ear, doing something else like washing dishes or knitting, and come back in when it gets more interesting.

This particular production (the male Libravox narrator) leaves a bit to be desired, in that it's distributed as a podcast (so my iPod stops at the end of each installation, which is a chapter, around every 10-15 minutes), each "episode" starts with a 30-second boilerplate, and the narrator's voice is relatively toneless, but it is not bad - in fact I would call it a couple small steps above tolerable.

So, I don't much mind the writing style (though I probably would not choose a repeat of this author, I can definitely get through this book), but I have to say the content is somewhat boring. It's a pre-women's lib. soap opera. Maybe it'll get better, we'll see.

Comments

[allandaros.livejournal.com]

Don't know if you're aware, but you can set podcasts to avoid the auto-stopping at the end of each installment. Select the individual file, go to "Get Info => Options" and deselect "Skip while shuffling."

Deselecting this will mean that your audiobooks will sometimes wander into your regular music if you just put your iPod's audio contents on shuffle, but you can get around this by making playlists (and judicious use of the Skip Track feature). I've found turning this feature off to be incredibly helpful for listening to audiobooks and podcasts.