CV Rick

Saturday Meme - What's On Your Reading List?

My work season is gearing up.  Starting tomorrow - yes, Sunday - I don't have a day off until mid-May.  To that end I've been preparing my audiobooks for the work season.  That's quite a process for someone as OCD as I am.  The first thing I do is decide which of the hundreds of books I have in my library ought to be next on the list.  I narrow the list down until I have a range of genres, both fiction and non, that I think I'm going to enjoy.  Then I copy those into a folder and divide the book-length files - yes I have some single files that are over 40 hours long - into 30 minute segments with a program called mp3 Surgeon.  Then I apply a randomization algorithm to the directory so I'm not listening alphabetically or by size or whatever.  I do keep series together and in order, of course.  Once this is done, then I place an episode of This American Life between each audiobook to give myself a bit of variety during the day. 

Here are the books that are coming up next on my list, in the order that I'm going to hear them:

1.  On Writing by Stephen King. 

I've read this one in print a couple times and listening to it read by Stephen King is going to be wonderful I know.  It's part writing advice, part motivation, and mostly memoir about his life, career and even the terrible accident he survived.  A really great read.

Reader: Stephen King
Length:  7 hours 45 minutes

2. March to the Sea by David Weber and John Ringo.

This is the second book in the Empire of Man series.  I don't much like Weber and Ringo's politics and I surely don't like most of their rabid military sci-fi fans, but I have to admit they really know how to spin a gripping tale.  To me this is candy reading.  It's not very deep, it's fast paced, and it's filled with cliche characters and dialogue.  But I'm listening anyway, aren't I?

I listened to book one last year and as is my habit, if I like the first book I'll listen to the rest of the series in subsequent window washing seasons.

Reader: Stefan Rudnicki
Length: 19 hours 14 minutes

3. March to the Stars by David Weber and John Ringo.

This is book 3 of the Empire of Man series.  See the above description.

Reader: Stefan Rudnicki
Length: 17 hours 34 minutes

4. We Few by David Weber and John Ringo

This is book 4, the final book, of the Empire of Man series.  See the above description.

Reader: Stefan Rudnicki
Length: 16 hours 03 minutes

5. 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke.

I decided to revisit this classic after Dr. Clarke's passing several weeks ago.  It just seemed right to do, and there are few stronger stories in the genre than this masterpiece.

Reader: Dick Hill
Length: 7 hours 20 minutes

Group Reading Experiment

I'm going to keep this post on top for a week while I try a reading experiment.  Scroll down to the next post if you've already read this.

Great Fiction - Free Reading and Listening

Today I'm plugging some great writers you probably don't know about - For free.

Audio story - Terminal by Chaz Brenchley.  Listen to it via Starship Sofa.  It's been nominated for the British Science Fiction Association Short Story award.

Audio collection - Five and a half hours of great stories by Robert Martin, Harry Harrison, Larry Harris, Frank Herbert, Robert Wicks, R.A. Lafferty, Larry Shaw, S.P. Wright, and Roger Dee.

Perfect listening while you take your dog for a walk.  If you don't have a dog, come on over and take mine for a walk, he never tires of that.

Finally for Audio Stories, here's Jeremiah Tolbert's story, Instead of a Loving Heart.

If audio isn't your thing here's another link that is just a treasure trove of fiction.  It has links to free versions of nearly all the stories, novellas, and novelettes that are up for this year's Nebula Awards in Science Fiction. 

These are great exposure to writers that might not be getting the attention at book stores, but are producing high quality fiction nonetheless.

Enjoy . . . but be careful, audio is addicting (as is all great fiction).

- rick, reader and listener.