Listening

I thought that listening to books on CD while cross-stitching was a very good idea. However, it really has turned into listening to books while driving to and from work. How restful, relaxing, and engrossing this has been. It all started with Emma.

This is one of the Jane Austen novels that I had not read, but recently I saw the BBC mini-series version and it was fabulous. The CD was too. Listening to books you "read" differently. I heard things I might have passed while reading.
Next was a book I had read. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri. I loved this book of short stories when I read it and it was on my Top 10 list that year. Listening to the stories after reading them was so interesting. It really sealed my opinion that the first short story in this book needs to be the basis for a novel. The main characters are a father and his daughter. I found them to be endlessly intriguing.
So, after finishing Unaccustomed Earth I went back to the library and browsed through the books on CD. I was kind of looking for something "easy" to listen to and something set in modern day. Maybe something by Harlen Coben.

I saw the title The Painted Drum. I had not read anything by this author Louise Erdrich, but having recently become very interested in Native American culture I thought I would give this a try. I mean, what did I have to lose?

It turns out that listening to The Painted Drum was one of the best "reading" experiences I ever had. The story was wonderful and the characters were endearing. I really would have liked to stay in their company much longer. The author is a superb writer and I hope to read all of her books now.

The reader on this CD was Anna Fields. Wow. Wow. Wow. She was fabulous. She did all of the characters; and her reading of the male characters' parts was just genius. Her accents were so interesting. As I neared the end of the CDs her reading made me feel the story deep in my soul. Her description of the mother/daughter relationship had me sitting in the car with tears running down my face before going into work one morning.

I so wanted to send her an e-mail to let her know what her reading meant to me. I looked her up on the internet and was so shocked and so very saddened to learn that she had died in 2006 at the age of 41. I was really shaken up by it for the rest of the day. I so wanted to let her know how I felt about her.

Reading, writing, listening, talking about books, feeling the feelings they all engender..........what a miracle of life.