As I noted in my previous post, I finished my file last week. I took the holiday weekend off, just because I really needed to.  But now I’m ready to get back at it!

The question is, back at what?  I’ve been recording/editing/recording/editing for so long, I really had to stop and think about what comes next.

I started by calling my sound engineer and figuring out what format he wants the book in.  Final verdict: ~5 minute tracks, wav format, 16 bit, 44.1kHz. Five minutes so that you can skip chapter through it, rather than having to rely solely on fast forward or rewind, as you would for an old audio cassette tape. 

 You know what?  It takes a very long time to cut up a file like that.  It’s not as simple as chop it every five minutes;  you have to search through and find “natural” break points.  In my case, Advent doesn’t have chapters or sections, so I had to look for the beginning of paragraphs.  Then you have to export each mini-file or track one at a time, keeping track of disc and track numbers.  It’s not hard, just a bit tedious.

But at least that part is finally done. 

And now I’ve sent the whole thing off to the Baha’i Review Office, so hopefully I’ll hear back soon. 

I also need to give the whole tracked book one more listen to make sure I didn’t screw anything up while I was doing all this.  There’s lots of little steps, and if you enter one number wrong, you could mess up a track, by a little or a lot.

After that, I’m not completely sure.  We’ll all have to just wait and see!

Ecco la classifica degli audiolibri più venduti in Italia su iTunes Store dal 23 al 30 novembre 2009.

01. Scopri le tue potenzialità – Come trasformare le tue potenzialità nascoste in talenti con il coaching e la psicologia positiva, di Luca Stanchieri, 2009, Good Mood Edizioni Sonore, 2h 48′, 12.95 €.

02. Dracula, di Bram Stoker, 2009, Good Mood Edizioni, 2h 59′, 9.95 €.

03. Il Manifesto del Partito Comunista, di Karl Marx, 2008, Meravoce, 1h 36′, 0.95 €.

04. Il Ritratto di Doryan Gray, Oscar Wilde, 2009, LibriVivi Media Srl, 4h 10′. 17.95 €.

05. Racconti italiani di Natale, AAVV, 2009, Il Narratore, 2h 15′, 7.95 €.

06. Sun Tzu L’arte della guerra – Riletto a uso dei manager, di Livio Buttigno, 20008, Good Mood Edizioni, 2h 6′, 11.45 €.

07. Le avventure di Sherlock Holmes Vol. I, di Arthur Conan Doyle, 2009, Good Mood Edizioni Sonore, 1h 03′, 9.95 €.

08. Canto di Natale, Charles Dickens, 2009, Good Mood Edizioni, 17′, 4.95 €.

09. Le avventure di Pinocchio. Storia di un burattino, Carlo Collodi, 2009, Good Mood Edizioni, 29′, 5.95 €.

10. Notte di Festa, Cesare Pavese, 2009, Il Narratore, 1h 05′, 6.95 €.

“Llegó con tres heridas” de Cancionero y Romancero de Ausencias, de Miguel Hernández

Pueden leer, escuchar y descargar este poema visitando:
http://albalearning.com/audiolibros/hernandez_llegocontresheridas.html

TODOS los audiolibros y libros (audio y texto) en:
www.albalearning.com

No olvide consultar las últimas incorporaciones a Audiolibros y Libros: http://albalearning.com/#ultimos

You can now learn Spanish, French and English by doing online quizzes and following the vocabulary with sound files. It’s free.
Ahora usted puede aprender Francés, Español e Inglés haciendo ejercicios interactivos en línea con vocabulario y sonido. Es gratis. C’est gratuit.
Visit http://albalearning.com/ejercicios

Vocabulario Básico:Vocabulary page- Página de vocabulario – Page de vocabulaire : http://albalearning.com/ejercicios/voc

Noticias en Español (News in Spanish with Quizzes Online to test your understanding): http://albalearning.com/ejercicios/noticias

Todos los ejercicios (All online quizzes): http://albalearning.com/ejercicios/index-ejercicios.html

Listening (Courtesy: OCAL on Clker.com)

Once was audiobooks were used primarily by visually impaired people and travellers, but with the rapidly increasing miniaturisation of audioplayers, audiobooks are now being “read” by people going on walks, working out in the gym, doing housework, sitting on public transport, or even working at their computers. In other words, people listen to audiobooks pretty well anywhere that they can. I am not, however, one of them. In fact, I can count on one hand (excluding snippets heard over the years on radio) the number of audiobooks I have “read” (or is that listened to?). Do you “read” an audiobook? How differently do you experience a book when you listen to it versus read it?

For me, the experience is so different that when I am in a listening situation I prefer radio and music to books. And here is why (but please, this is a purely personal thing – it is about how I like to enjoy books and is in no way intended to be prescriptive about how everyone should enjoy books):

• I like to see the words – know how they are spelt and so on – partly, but not only, because this can be critical to my understanding (particularly with authors who engage in wordplay).
• I like to stop and think as I read – ponder about a phrase or an idea, and even flip a few pages back sometimes to check a link that I think the author is making.
• I like to make notes as I go and, if I own the book, I do this in the book - making notes helps me remember what I’m reading, and helps me write a blog or prepare notes for later discussion.
• I don’t want to miss visual clues – some authors, and particularly post-modern ones, use visual clues and games to add to their text, but there are other more subtle visuals in “normal” books that you miss in an audio version.
• I don’t particularly like it when a reader acts out the voices in a book – it distracts me from my own understanding of the text. The reader for the audiobook of Ruth Park’s Swords and crowns and rings (link here is to ANZLitLovers review), for example, irritated me intensely with her voices and dramatisation, though as she wore on I got used to her because it is a great story!
• I like the physicality of the book (though I can probably relinquish this in the same way that I am pretty happily converting from CDs to iTunes for my music).

All this said, I have enjoyed a couple of audiobooks. The outstanding one was Roald Dahl reading his own Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Authors readings their own works can be a hit-and-miss affair, but Roald Dahl was perfect. I heard snippets of Barack Obama reading his Dreams from my father on the radio and thought he also read his own work beautifully. On another tack, I enjoyed hearing Mary Durack’s memoir Kings in grass castles when we did a long long family trip several years ago.

Audiobooks clearly have their place. They work best for me when they are memoirs or simple plot-driven books rather than literary fiction, and so on the next very long trip we do I’ll probably seek out some memoirs. I also know that I will be very glad of their existence when (or, hopefully, if) my sight fails me. But, otherwise, I will be sticking to reading rather than listening…and this means that the technology that is likely to attract me is the eBook. I can see myself trying them in the not too distant future.

Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin

I wasn’t quite as hooked by this one as I was by Mistress of the Art of Death and The Serpent’s Tale, but still a compelling combination of history and forensics. The plot didn’t feel quite as tight as the first two – there were many, many small mysteries to solve along the way which stole some of the excitement from the finale. Listening to the audiobook, I kept thinking “there are really three discs left? What on earth can happen?” Still, fans of the first two books will want to give it a read or a listen.

View all my reviews >>

"La zorra y el cuervo gritón", Fábula de Esopo

Pueden leer, escuchar y descargar esta fábula y otras muchas más (siempre gratis) visitando:
http://albalearning.com/audiolibros/esopo/fab-025.html

¡¡Nuevo!!! New!!

(Para niños y estudiantes de Español) Compruebe su nivel de comprensión de la historia! (For children and Spanish Learners)Check your comprehension by doing the "build the story" exercise!
http://albalearning.com/ejercicios/fab/025_build.htm

Ahora encontrará ejercicios interactivos en línea para comprobar su nivel de comprensión. “Build the story”, construya la historia y compruebe su nivel de aciertos!
Index_Online Quizzes_Aesop’s Fables (Indice de los ejercicios interactivos de las Fábulas de Esopo) : http://albalearning.com/ejercicios/fab

Todos los libros y audiolibros siempre gratis y sin registrarse en:
http://albalearning.com

¡¡¡Especial Navidad!!! Historias para leer, escuchar en línea y descargar para escuchar cuando y cómo quiera.

No olvide consultar las últimas incorporaciones a Audiolibros y Libros: http://albalearning.com/#ultimos

New!

You can now learn Spanish, French and English by doing online quizzes and following the vocabulary with sound files. It’s free.
Ahora usted puede aprender Francés, Español e Inglés haciendo ejercicios interactivos en línea con vocabulario y sonido. Es gratis. C’est gratuit.
Visit http://albalearning.com/ejercicios

Vocabulario Básico:Vocabulary page- Página de vocabulario – Page de vocabulaire : http://albalearning.com/ejercicios/voc

Noticias en Español (News in Spanish with Quizzes Online to test your understanding): http://albalearning.com/ejercicios/noticias

Todos los ejercicios (All online quizzes): http://albalearning.com/ejercicios/index-ejercicios.html

Pubblichiamo oggi il booktrailer dell’audiolibro Gli uomini vengono da Marte, le donne da Venere, di John Gray, uno dei bestseller pubblicati dalla Good Mood Edizioni nella collana Libri in Auto.

W grudniu 2007 roku miała miejsce kampania reklamowa promująca Audiobooki. Agencja SERVICEPLAN z Monachium/Hamburg (Niemcy) wykorzystała motyw metra, by pokazać nowe, szybkie i  “techniczne” rozwiązanie dostępu do literatury i jej przetwarzania. Plakaty w metrze, ilustrujące do tego “sieci” komunikacji, są ciekawym pomysłem. Na bilbordzie przedstawione są zwyczajne linie metra, a na dole obrazu umieszczony został napis hasła kampanii oraz adres strony z audiobookami www.luebbeaudio.de.

Hasłem kampanii jest zdanie “Audiobooks shorten the time”.

Nasuwa się w związku z tym pytanie, czy wszyscy życzą sobie skrócenia czasu w kontakcie z literaturą?

Metro Berlin

Metro Monachium

Creative Directors: Ekki Frenkler, Joachim Schoepfer;

Art Directors: Sinja Faerber, Tina Einbrodt, Nora Rothenari;

Copywriter: Ekki Frenkler, Joachim Schoepfer;

What is the attraction of reading books you’ve already read once before?  The slightest inference to Pride and Prejudice in conversation earlier this week sent me loading this old favorite onto my ipod to listen to during work even though I know every quip that Elizabeth Bennett makes by heart.  I’m constantly thinking about how many books I should have read by now.  It seems counterproductive to read something once, twice, or, in the case of Pride and Prejudice, six or seven times.  I should be reading something new!  But the lure of old friends is persuasive.  So, I’m listening to it at least one more time.

The mood in my house was so dower tonight that I longed to perch my nose into a book and escape.  Where else would I want to go, but deeper into the world of Darcy and Elizabeth!  So, I searched my shelves for a book I bought, but never started reading, An Assembly Such as This by Pamela Aidan.  It’s a retelling of Pride and Prejudice from Darcy’s perspective.  Now, I know what you’re thinking… Oh Tiffany.  Are you really going to read such time-wasting trash! My sheepish response is yes! Reading Darcy and Elizabeth spin-offs is my secret shame!

In fact, I decided to download and listen to one that I read several years ago, too.  It’s Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife by Linda Berdoll.  I can remember thinking when I physically read the book that it was grossly erotic at the beginning, but evened out in the middle.  I can barely remember the ending nowadays, but I know I feverishly began the sequel, Darcy and Elizabeth: Nights and Days at Pemberly immediately afterwards.  I usually find that listening to a book I’ve previously physically read is like having a brand new experience with the book.  I look forward to starting this book tomorrow morning, but it will take me several days to listen to it.  It’s about 26 hours long.

I’ll let you know what I think.

Best,

Tiffany

Here’s a sampling of what’s new today in audiobooks. Click an image for availability.

	True Compass by Edward M. Kennedy Edward M. Kennedy is widely regarded as one of the great Senators in the nation’s history. He is also the patriarch of America’s most heralded family. In this landmark autobiography, five years in the making, Senator Kennedy speaks with unprecedented candor about his extraordinary life.
	Pursuit of Honor by Vince Flynn When a wave of violent attacks strikes Washington, D.C., counterterrorism operatives Mitch Rapp and Mike Nash take the bull by the horns. They don’t ask for permission-they just do what needs to be done. In the aftermath of the explosions; however, bureaucrats are ruffled over Rapp and Nash’s decisive initiatives. While Nash struggles with shock waves still rippling from the atrocities of the attacks, Rapp swats aside these pests and vigorously pursues the terrorists, who remain elusive and a threat to national security
	I, Alex Cross by James Patterson Detective Alex Cross is pulled out of a family celebration and given the awful news that a beloved relative has been found brutally murdered. Alex vows to hunt down the killer, and soon learns that she was mixed up in one of Washington’s wildest scenes. And she was not this killer’s only victim.
	City of Glass by Cassandra Clare In search of a potion for her dying mother, Clary sneaks into the City of Glass and is immediately caught up in a life-and-death battle. As the children of the Moon (werewolves), Night (vampires), and Faerie gather for a war that will rend the heavens, Clary calls upon her untrained powers to control an angel who will save or destroy them all.

Plot synopses from Amazon.

“Desde hace mucho tiempo la tierra te conoce…” de Pablo Neruda perteneciente a “100 Sonetos de Amor “

Pueden leer, escuchar y descargar esta poesía visitando (Parallel Text included Spanish-English):

http://albalearning.com/audiolibros/neruda/soneto015-sp-en.html

TODOS los audiolibros y libros (audio y texto) en:

http://albalearning.com

No olvide consultar las últimas incorporaciones a Audiolibros y Libros: http://albalearning.com/#ultimos

New!

You can now learn Spanish, French and English by doing online quizzes and following the vocabulary with sound files. It’s free! .No registration needed!

Ahora usted puede aprender Francés, Español e Inglés haciendo ejercicios interactivos en línea con vocabulario y sonido. Es gratis. C’est gratuit.

Visit http://albalearning.com/ejercicios

Vocabulario Básico:Vocabulary page- Página de vocabulario – Page de vocabulaire : http://albalearning.com/ejercicios/voc

Noticias en Español (News in Spanish with Quizzes Online to test your understanding): http://albalearning.com/ejercicios/noticias

Todos los ejercicios (All online quizzes): http://albalearning.com/ejercicios/index-ejercicios.html

Segnaliamo la recensione apparsa oggi su Il Mattino di Padova, La Tribuna di Treviso e La Nuova di Venezia-Mestre, di Sugarpulp, l’audiolibro pulp/noir pubblicato da Good Mood Edizioni nella collana Libri in Auto.

I’m done!  I’m done I’m done I’m DONE!

Well, I’m done editing, but that’s pretty darn HUGE!

The final track is 3 hrs, 50 minutes.  About 2.5 minutes per page, which is about right. 

I’ve already sent it off to the Review Board, so we’ll see what happens next.

I also have to contact my recording engineer to see if he can help me master it.

I can’t believe I’m finally done editing!  I know if I listen to it again, I’ll just find more little things to fix, but I think all the big stuff is done.  

I feel like celebrating, but it’s 12:30 in the morning, and everyone’s asleep.  I guess that’s where I should be, so I’ll leave it there for now. 

Did I mention I’m done?

At the risk of being redundant, I am going to pass on to my readers what I learned over at Semicolon:  audible.com is offering a FREE audiobook download through Thanksgiving, November 26, 2009, at 11:59 P.M. EST.  I’ve tried it and it works!  The free titles include several children’s or classic works of literature, including Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, Pride and Prejudice, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and A Christmas Carol.  I chose The Secret Garden, and we have already listened to the first three chapters.  It’s a great recording, and FREE just can’t be beat!  All I had to do was set up an account, which did NOT include entering a credit card number, etc.  This is my first experience with audible.com, but I think I might be a repeat customer.  Audiobooks are a daily staple here at the House of Hope, and if you’re in the least interested in adding to or starting your own collection, this link is worth a look!

Ecco la classifica degli audiolibri più venduti su iTunes Store in Italia dal 16 al 23 novembre 2009.

01. Il Manifesto del Partito Comunista, di Karl Marx, 2008, Meravoce, 1h 36′, 0.95 €

02. Gli uomini vengono da Marte, le donne da Venere, di John Gray, 2009, Good Mood Edizioni, 1h 48′, 11.95 €.

03. Racconti italiani di Natale, AAVV, 2009, Il Narratore, 2h 15′, 7.95 €.

04. Dracula, di Bram Stoker, 2009, Good Mood Edizioni, 2h 59′, 9.95 €.

05. Scopri le tue potenzialità – Come trasformare le tue potenzialità nascoste in talenti con il coaching e la psicologia positiva, di Luca Stanchieri, 2009, Good Mood Edizioni Sonore, 2h 48′, 12.95 €.

06. Cappuccetto Rosso, Fratelli Grimm, 2005, Good Mood Edizioni, 13′, 3.95 €.

07. Le avventure di Sherlock Holmes Vol. II, di Arthur Conan Doyle, 2009, Good Mood Edizioni Sonore, 1h 03′, 9.95 €.

08. Sun Tzu L’arte della guerra – Riletto a uso dei manager, di Livio Buttigno, 20008, Good Mood Edizioni, 2h 6′, 11.45 €.

09. Manuale d’uso per la mente, di L. Ron Hubbard, 2003, 53′, 5.95 €

10. Storie di fantasmi per il dopocena, di Jerome K. Jerome, 2009 Il Narratore, 1h 05′, 5.95%.

"Tú eres" de Cancionero y Romancero de Ausencias, de Miguel Hernández

Pueden leer, escuchar y descargar este poema visitando:
http://albalearning.com/audiolibros/hernandez_tueres.html

TODOS los audiolibros y libros (audio y texto) en:
www.albalearning.com

No olvide consultar las últimas incorporaciones a Audiolibros y Libros: http://albalearning.com/#ultimos

New!

You can now learn French Spanish and English by doing online quizzes and following the vocabulary with sound files. It’s free.

Visit http://albalearning.com/ejercicios

Ahora usted puede aprender Francés, Español e Inglés haciendo ejercicios interactivos en línea con vocabulario y sonido. Es gratis. C’est gratuit.

Visite:http://albalearning.com/ejercicios

Vocabulary page- Página de vocabulario – Page de vocabulaire : http://albalearning.com/ejercicios/voc

Recorded Theater Productions

Listen Alaska audiobook download service features audio recordings of live theater productions published by L. A. Theater Works.  The following selections are good stories that are lively, funny, and the settings are easy to imagine.

To go to listenalaska.lib.overdrive.com, click on the Advanced Search option on the sidebar. In the Advanced Search box use the Publisher drop down box.  Select L. A. Theater Works and click on search.  You will get all the audio recordings of theatrical productions published by L. A. Theater Works.  Enjoy!

Barefoot in the Park by Neil Simon/Publisher L. A. Theater Works

A brand-new lawyer and his bride have returned from their honeymoon and are moving into their new apartment. Once there, they find the place is bare of furniture, the paint job is wrong, the skylight leaks and wacky neighbors keep popping up! This is a hilarious classic!

Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward/Publisher L. A. Theater Works

This classic comedy is set in the charming home of Charles Condomine, a remarried widower. A witty and convival evening party among friends is transformed when a séance conjures the ghost of Elvira, Charles first wife, who delights in wreaking havoc among the living. This is a delightful comedy!

Anna Christie by Eugene O’Neill/Publisher L. A. Theater Works

The passion of a coal barge captain’s daughter and a rough-hewn sailor takes a tumultuous turn when her secret past is revealed. Nobel laureate Eugene O’Neill won the second of his four Pulitzer Prizes for this heroic classic.

Wild Amerika by Erika Schickel/Publisher L. A. Theater Works

Erika Schickel takes us on a Darwinian exploration of mating, monogamy and motherhood. This hilarious and touching examination of the miracle of human evolution will leave you wondering how we’ve survived as a race!

Title: Wintergirls

Author: Laurie Halse Anderson

Reading Recommendation: tough book (emotionally), but excellent pick if you are looking for a book that deals with eating disorders and cutting

My Reflection:

Having enjoyed the audio version of Twisted by Anderson, I decided to listen to Wintergirls next. I know that Anderson has a reputation for writing about some of the toughest teen issues, but this was a very difficult book to read. It wasn’t as much the topics–eating disorders, death of a friend, and cutting– that made it difficult as it was the tone; even Speak (about rape) had a humorous tone, a sardonic humor, but humor nonetheless.

That fact is not necessarily a flaw. On the contrary, Anderson writes with her typical powerful, vivid, and emotive language. So vivid that I had to keep my writing journal nearby and copy down phrase after phrase as inspiration. And I was eager to find out whether Lia would conquer all of her guilt, pain, and demons, so I found I was turning on my ipod at every chance. However, this is not a book that I would recommend simply for the sake of reading it; if it catches your attention and you feel you can cope with the dark story, read it. Or, if you are seeking a novel that deals frankly with the topics of eating disorders and/or cutting, it will certainly be worth your read.

anna karenina

the other day i was at my work – i am a public librarian – and a guy came to pick up the stuff he had reserved – he has downs syndrome and has a hard time communicating and he reserves audiobooks – anyway he was picking up a few things and one of the things with his name on it was anna karenina. so of course i thought well, this is a mistake but it turns out he likes lots of different things and he had reserved anna karenina in addition to other things. how did i know what he would get out of the library just becaause he has downs syndrome?

Here’s a sampling of what’s new today in audiobooks. Click an image for availability.

	Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly LAPD Detective Harry Bosch is off the chain in the fastest, fiercest, and highest-stakes case of his life. Fortune Liquors is a small shop in a tough South L.A. neighborhood, a store Bosch has known for years. The murder of John Li, the store’s owner, hits Bosch hard, and he promises Li’s family that he’ll find the killer.
	The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks Seventeen year old Veronica’s life was turned upside-down when her parents divorced and her father moved from New York City to Wilmington, North Carolina. Three years later, she remains angry and alientated from her parents, especially her father…until her mother decides it would be in everyone’s best interest if she spent the summer in Wilmington with him.
	U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton In 1960s Santa Teresa, California, a child is kidnapped and never returned …When the case is reopened after twenty years, a man – Michael Sutton – contacts private detective Kinsey Millhone for help. He claims to have recalled a strange and disturbing memory which just might provide the key to the mystery.
	The Scarpetta Factor by Patricia Cornwell The Scarpetta Factor, the seventeenth in the series, finds the familiar cast of characters together again in New York. Marino is working for the NYPD; Benton Wesley uses his forensic psychological expertise at Kirby and Bellevue; and Lucy continues to dazzle with her expertise in forensic computer investigations as she works yet another case with NY prosecutor Jaime Berger.

Plot synopses from Amazon.

On this week’s edition of Main Menu: David Tanner talks to us about the Book Sense from GW Micro. Main Menu airs on Saturdays at 1:00 UTC; that’s Fridays at 8:00 Eastern time in the U.S. Call the Main Menu comment line at (206) 338-7823. Messages may be played on the program and may be edited due to time constraints. Subscribe to the Main Menu podcast feed at: http://mainmenu.acbradio.org/rss.php

Main Menu for 2009-11-07
mainmenu@acbradio.org
Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:00:00 GMT

On this week’s edition of Main Menu: David Tanner talks to us about the Book Sense from GW Micro. Main Menu airs on Saturdays at 1:00 UTC; that’s Fridays at 8:00 Eastern time in the U.S. Call the Main Menu comment line at (206) 338-7823. Messages may be played on the program and may be edited due to time constraints. Subscribe to the Main Menu podcast feed at: http://mainmenu.acbradio.org/rss.php

Main Menu for 2009-11-07
mainmenu@acbradio.org
Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:00:00 GMT