Hi Dave,

On Thu 2037-May-14 06:18, Dave Drum (1:124/311) wrote to Richard Webb:

 DD> Do you do audio books? Quite a lot of speculative fiction is



 RW> Rarely, preference for leisure reading is braille.  THis
 RW> computer chatters at me, and I'm very active with ham radio
 RW> stuff.  A lot of the commercially produced cassette
 RW> audiobooks for the public were condensed versions, don't
 RW> care as much for those.

DD> Ah HAH! I've never done the "books on tape" or whatever they are
DD> designated these days - even though I have a friend who drives long
DD> distances who urges them on me with a fair amount of regularity.
DD> When I read, though, I tend to lose myself in what I am reading ...
DD> which is not a good thing to do when you are aiming a three ton
DD> projectile down the road.


Yah I can see that too.  My dad liked them for that reason,
and he was an over-the-road trucker.  I can see why he
would.

I was reading a robert Ludlum novel from LIbrary for the
blind on those specialized format cassettes they use.  THese are standard
cassettes, but the players are half speed, and
4 track monaural instead of two sides stereo as are standard formatted
cassettes.  HEnce you played the tape twice its
assumed running time and flipped it twice to or at least
threw the switch.

sO I"m listening to this book when my lady gets home from
work, I've got it on the audio control room speakers, and
she gets into it, I mean seriously into it.  NExt morning
we're heading north 100 miles for her medical appointments.
sO, we get up, deliver our newspapers and make a thermos of
coffee to hit the road.

THe specialized format player for these runs on batteries,
and its batteries have charged overnight in anticipation of
bringing along the book  for on the road enjoyment.  I take
the player out to the van and connect it to the speakers for the ham
radios.  WE settle back and head north.

Later that day we're heading home, and as soon as we hit
city limits and are on the superslab I press play, and we're chasing the
bad guys through the Italian Alps in WW II and
not even on highway 218 in EAstern IOwa .


NExt thing we know it's about an hour later and reader has
admonished me to flip the tape over to hear more book, and
we come out of the fog to realize we're just about 10 miles
west of BUrlington, which means we've been flying a FOrd
Aerostar down the road from Iowa City at a pretty good clip.

Needless to say, my lady and I don't do audiobooks, even
from Library of COngress program for blind while driving.

DD> So, I pick a radio station that plays music that does not offend my
DD> earballs and pay attention to my driving. I do carry books in the
DD> vehicle for when I stop for meals, etc. But, that's a different
DD> thing.

WE do that, news or the ham radio.  ESpecially on long
drives finding somebody to chat with is sure nice.
eSpecially if the operator we find is a good
conversationalist.

DD> Now that I find that the audio books are "condensed" I believe that
DD> I shall continue to give them a miss. As one semi-famous personage
DD> once said ... "The devil's in the details" ... and so is the story. 
DD> Bv)=
Yep, I always have .

Regards,
           Richard
--- timEd 1.10.y2k+