I've been experimenting with audiobooks, not only because they may one day replace the tree-eating variety, but also because I like the idea of listening to a book while performing other less entertaining tasks. Meetings fit that definition but turn out not to be good candidates for other reasons.
My brain has two main data input ports: my ears and eyes. Of the two, my ears seem to be the least utilized. However, I didn't know if I could listen to a book and chew gum at the same time so I decided to test the idea out before I made a significant investment. I visited my public library's audiobook section to see what books are available and in what format.
It turns out that finding a device that will play them is much more difficult than it should be.
Apparently, iPods don't let people listen to free copyright-protected books. The library had a list of devices that could play most of the files but in the end, you have to buy one and try it. So, I bought the cheapest MP3 player ($39) on the list. It played the files but would start over at the beginning every time you stopped it. This is, of course, unacceptable for an audiobook. So, I searched the internet to find the best audiobook player and came up empty. What a mess. I finally stumbled upon a comment somewhere describing how to get a cheap MP3 player to hold its place. You turn it off without hitting stop or pause first. Never hit a button other than "off" or you will be starting all over. Interesting enough, this fact was not divulged in the operating instructions. The first one I bought also stopped working so I exchanged it. I fully expect this one to stop any day now as well.
The sad state of standardization and the low quality of the cheaper players aside, I am happy to report that I am able to listen to a book while doing other things. Not all things mind you. I can't read, talk, write, or watch TV while listening. But that's about it. I find that I can do engineering type stuff while listening. I have always listened to music while doing those things and apparently an audiobook is similar. My brain is using a different area for those tasks. Most brains are pretty adept at parallel processing like any modern computer, as long as you are using different parts of your brain.
Following are the books I have listened to in the past three weeks while going about my business, along with a short synopsis of each:
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
This Wiki article sums the book up nicely. It's fun to read stuff from the past. This book was written in 1985 while Reagan was president. The cover has a close-up of Reagan wearing a clown nose. Before television, nobody cared what a president looked like. They just wanted to know what he thought. Back in the 1860's debates lasted for hours. People brought food and drink and cheered like it was a sports event. Television debates are not debates at all. They are more entertainment shoehorned into television formats and time slots.
Home computers had just entered the market. He predicted that they would become just another means of amusing ourselves. He had no idea. I can't imagine how much time is being wasted on computer games by our young. On the other hand, he also did not envision the rise of the Internet or that it would spawn the abomination called a blogger.
Apocalypse 2012 by Lawrence E. Joseph
One of the things I love to do is read between the lines to extract information the author did not mean to expose. This guy played with a jewel-encrusted sword as a child. It had been given to one of his ancestors by Napoleon. He was educated at Brown. My conclusion is that he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. The book ostensibly uses science to prove to us that the world is coming to an end in 2012. He also mentions at least half-a-dozen times that his wife has just left him.
He was commissioned to write the book, which gave him the freedom to travel all over hell's half acre to gather material. This is a tried and true method used by publishers to make a book into a travelogue in addition to whatever else it is supposed to be.
He spends a lot of time trying to convince the reader that he is not just another end-of-the-world nut job. However, he failed to convince this reader. I rolled my eyes so much it gave me a headache. He either truly thinks the world is going to be in deep shit in 2012 or he is just claiming he thinks so to get people to buy his book.
The Art of War translated by John Minford
Human nature has not changed in the last few thousand years. Chinese warlords acted just like any modern day businessman.
The Assault on Reason by Al Gore
Gore documents the almost unimaginable incompetence of the Bush administration. He is also acutely aware of the power television has over Americans. That is why he created Current TV, which I need to check out one of these days.
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
I really enjoyed this. It gives you a peek into America at the time of its enlightenment. It was a time when everybody wanted to read books. Franklin describes some of his many errata (big screw-ups) as a youth. For example, he mentions the time he made an advance on the wrong woman (attempted to get into her pants, or more likely, up her hoop skirt) and practically gets run out of town as a result. He had a lot of close calls, both life threatening and financially threatening. Had any of these close calls come to fruition, we would never have heard of him today.
He came from a modest background, although not a poor one. He was a deist and referred without malice to the many proliferating religions of his time as sects, which is what they are. Today that word has taken on a negative connotation and is reserved for use by dominant religions to bash small ones. Our wise founding fathers allowed all sects so that no one sect could get a stranglehold on our government thanks to competition among them. All through history warlords have had a similar problem until some charismatic leader comes along capable of uniting them for one big spasm of destruction, mayhem and collapse.
Franklin was a player, the consummate businessman. Everything he did was calculated for potential future gain. Once his printing business was well established and being run by a competent partner he became a man of leisure, which freed him to do more tinkering and thinking. The printing press was equivalent to today's Internet. We are living in great times.
The Map That Changed the World by Simon Winchester
Great book. We learn about the father of modern geology, William Smith. His work probably led to Darwin's epiphany. Smith was not a wealthy man and was thwarted and abused by rich but dumb blockheads who plagiarized his work and prevented him from becoming a member of the Geologic society. Sound familiar? Rich blockheads can do a lot of damage.
The Trial and Death of Socrates by Plato
A classic example of what often happens when a critical thinker gets in the way of powerful interests. Socrates was a poor man. No one is sure exactly how he made a living. Condemned to death in 470 BC, but given a chance to escape, he chose death rather than break the laws of Athens. He mentioned the great Kings of Syria, and Egypt. The Battle of Thermopylae along with the destruction of Athens took place 10 years later.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass -- An American Slave
A first hand account of the life of an American slave who escaped to the North. He was born 47 years before the end of the Civil war. Lots of interesting details of life at that time. Apparently mixed race children were becoming very common. He speculated that given enough time, the difference in races would disappear. Slave owners were actually enslaving and beating their own children. Things got worse as you moved south, giving rise I have been told to the term "being sold down river." Douglas also had more than a few criticisms of certain sects of religion. Slavery will come raging back if ever given the chance. There is a pretty fine line between a demeaning, grueling job in the baking sun for a pittance and slavery.
Next up: The Political Brain by Drew Westen
So what is carbon anyway?
Ask Umbra on paperback writers
Comments
View as Flat
caniscandida Posted 5:35 am
31 Dec 2007
Books, unlike children,
should be heard and not seen. Typically in antiquity, literature was received as a kind of performance, like music, drama and dance: one person read aloud, before a more or less intimate, more or less large gathering of listeners.
To a large extent that had to do with the fact that books were rather rare and expensive items, and it could not be expected that in many places more than a single copy of most works was available. But more importantly, it had to do with the understanding that literature is a treasure of the commonwealth, a valuable part of one's community's cultural heritage.
Christians of Late Antiquity, the ancestors of the various modern Oriental, Orthodox and Catholic churches, naturally preserved this sense and function of literature. Hence, liturgical services regularly include "lessons," readings aloud by a single reader to a congregation of listeners. And in monastic houses in the Benedictine tradition, and perhaps among others too, it is the regular practice for the religious to take their meals together, themselves keeping silence, but listening to one of their number reading aloud from a book selected for everyone's edification by the community's superior -- an early example of BioD's literary multitasking.
But it was also those early Christians who established the modern practice of retreating singly and privately with a book, and reading in silence, for some personal benefit. Saint Augustine of Hippo recounts in his Confessions how startled he was when he, as a young teacher of oratory, well educated in the classics, went to visit the elderly bishop of Milan, Ambrose, in order to ask him questions about Catholicism, and discovered him in his study alone with a book, reading silently, without even moving his lips!
So the prevailing modern sense of "reading," i.e. our normal, typical experience of literature, as a vision-based, silent encounter of the mind of the secluded reader with the words of an author written on a page, was known already in Late Antiquity. But that was not by any means the only way in which "reading" took place. Even into the modern period, as late as the 19th century, and perhaps here and there the 20th, it was common for families and friends to entertain one another by listening to works of literature as they were read aloud.
As for BioD's audio book experiment: Leave it to BioD, that valiant engineer, to characterize eyes and ears as "data input ports." But probably the Borg came up with the idea first.
Three quibbles:
Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.
Permalink
Biodiversivist Posted 6:39 am
31 Dec 2007
Canis, you can come up with some interesting
observations. Your digression on the flounder and Chameleon got me to chuckling. I'm also not as young as that bike video seems to suggest. Books are marvelous things, audio or otherwise.
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
Permalink
caniscandida Posted 6:49 pm
01 Jan 2008
multitasking vs. attentive listening
By the way, BioD, are these errors of yours in connexion with Socrates, which I just noticed, typical of what happens when we listen to a book instead of reading it?: Socrates was tried and put to death in 399 BCE, NOT 470; the confrontation between Spartans and Persians at Thermopylae, followed by the Persian destruction of Athens, took place in 480 BCE, NOT 460; there was one and only one Great King of the Eastern Mediterranean coastlands and the Middle East all the way to India and Central Asia, including Egypt and Syria, viz. the King of Persia.
But you got the basic gist about Socrates' predicament, and how he dealt with it, so far as his relationship with Athenian democracy goes. The Phaedo, which takes place on the day that Socrates drinks the hemlock and dies, was written by Plato a good bit later than the Apology, and contains some much more developed thinking about metaphysics, about philosophy as a quasi-religious way of life, and about how death is not to be feared. It is the favorite dialogue of many fans of Plato. I hope you were paying attention to that at least.
Thanks to your admirably honest offer of these mini-book-reports, we can see that listening to books being read while we are occupied as well in other matters is not always the most efficient form of data retrieval.
Fortunately, most of us are not forced to take quizzes to test our comprehension of what we have read, or claim to have read; so I guess it does not really matter, most of the time, if all sorts of details go by unnoticed, or get mangled, when we listen to books being read. The most successful kind of experience, having to do with listening to books being read, that I have heard of, happens during long-distance motor trips, on interstates or other uncomplicated roads. In that case, one very much wants to listen attentively to the book, as a relief from the relative boredom of the road.
Nevertheless, I would welcome the opportunity to use audiobooks more often, since I am a slow reader, who ponders and daydreams a lot. Also, hearing some classic such as Plato being read is an approximation to the way those books were originally appreciated. But I would not want to multitask; I would want to listen attentively, with no distractions, and be able to pause and consult a written text if I do not understand something that was spoken.
Ideally, what with e-books and audiobooks evolving, and the backward and inhumane laws concerning exclusive intellectual property hopefully tumbling down, this is an exciting age which may lessen our dependence on books made from killed trees. Nevertheless, it remains a very important consideration that true books have been with us for a long time, and remain the greatest information storage device ever invented, and, most important, require no power to access.
Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.
Permalink
bookerly Posted 9:22 pm
01 Jan 2008
The Web
Thanks BioD and CanisCandida, the information is interesting and well presented.
Let me toss in a couple of web sites that I give to my students (ever hopeful that they will reach out beyond class assignments... (grin)).
http://www.librivox.org/
and
http://www.etext.org/index.shtml
Librivox is a collection of people who have volunteered their time to read classic (royalty free, no copyright infringement possible) material and post it on line for others to share. What a wonderful web site!!! (There is also the Alexandrian project, but Librivox is my favorite right now). Note, typing as i did, i get the site without the www, but however you get there!
And Etext is one of several (Project Gutenberg is another) that aims to put written texts online. These are all texts from the public domain, available for free.
It is easy in this modern age to forget how little of our rich trove of human culture is accessible to us online, these folks and the others like them who are working to change this are my heroes.
patrick in Beijing
Permalink
Biodiversivist Posted 1:21 am
02 Jan 2008
Oh well
Audio books aren't perfect, and neither is my memory, apparently. You also can't use them for reference, and you sure don't want to listen to one while riding a bike.
I highly recommend "The political Brain" to anyone interested in political strategy (which I'm not but still found it very interesting). Parts of the brain light up under certain situations. Turns out that high emotions will always trump rational thought when it comes time to make a decision. 2/3 of all voters are split between Republican and Democrat and will not switch no matter what. The elections swing on the last third. You can offend and ignore the other 2/3 to try to swing the 1/3 and that explains why my favored candidates don't seem to be speaking to me. They aren't. I would not be surprised to see the author get hired as the Democratic presidential political stategist.
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
Permalink
amazingdrx Posted 2:20 am
02 Jan 2008
Yep, great stuff you two!
The internet a hopefull sign as revolutionary as the printing press? We'll see.
Franklin and socrates, we need them now.
Yes indeed, slavery is alive and well in most nations of this world. Disguised as prison labor or illegal immigrant labor (the sugar slaves of florida for instance, payed in crack by the Fanta brothers).
But the best deal for corporate citizens looking for cheap labor is not slavery. Slaves have some value on the open market and are thus kept alive. Low wage laborers are expendable, plenty are available, so employers don't need to provide a living for them. Maybe it ought to be called a "dying"?
Hmmm, no audio books while biking? Maybe trail running or skiing or biking? Usually one would rather hear the woods in those circumstances.
I still don't even own an mp3 player for music, yow. That must be a nightmare to operate as well. Isn't it strange how almost no manufacturers actually care if users can make their products work? Is apple different, that is what I've heard, but what about all the problems with the i-pod?
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
Permalink
Biodiversivist Posted 2:42 am
03 Jan 2008
It is a pain to use, DrX
My device is full of bugs, fragile and unreliable in general. The display screen is also minuscule, but hey, you get what you pay for.
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
Permalink