Ears to paper (day 338)

I listen to many audio books.  I have a twenty minute walk to work so that means I usually get forty minutes of listening per day.  That's not a whole lot given that most books are somewhere around 10 hours.  It's slower than reading but it can be multi-tasked and builds listening skills.  Currently on my listening roll are:

• Woody Allen - Side Effects and Mere Anarchy (both collections of short stories authored and narrated by WA).
• Kathryn Stockett - The Help (period piece performed by many different readers...so far engaging though not particularly lyrical or insightful).
• Mary Shelley - Frankenstein (a favourite which I've read and have in print)

I alternate between these.  Three books at a time is a bit much and puts me at risk of leaving one behind but they are each quite different so hopefully that mitigates the risk a bit.

I just finished:

• Barbara Kingsolver - The Lacuna (wonderful historical novel set in Mexico and America)
• Kazuo Ishiguro - Never Let Me Go (amazing thoughtful, dreamy, tragic story)
• E.M Forster - The Machine Stops (great prescient short story about tech dependence written in 1909)

When I get tired of listening to longer books, I switch to podcasts.

There's only a few things annoying with listening instead of reading.  I can't underline, physically remember where in the book something was, quickly scan for a particular line or phrase, or easily transcribe and reference.  I also get fuddled when trying to refer to something in a book I've listened to.  Typically one says "this reminds me of something I read by..."  which is misleading and leads to somewhat embarrassing clarifications when someone follows up with "I'd love to borrow that book!"  Audio books are not easily shared.  They should be but they are not.

I have a wish list to make audio more integrated with writing culture:

• Give me the opportunity to buy the physical book at a reduced price if I've enjoyed (and paid for) the audio book.
• An easy way to 'bookmark' a bit of a book I found interesting.
• In addition to bookmarking, the ability to add audio or written notes to particular sections.
• A 'transcribe' button that automatically transcribes audio or video I'm listening to.  This could be time-limited to allow for fair use regulations to be respected.  I would also love to have that ability on youtube or vimeo.
• Integration with reference collection tools like Zotero.  For example, if I've bookmarked something I can easily add that bookmark to my list of references.
• The ability to share my audio book with anybody for specific lengths of time.

 A song for this post.