Photo credit: felicia.day / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA
I have never had a desire to listen to an audiobook. I have always believed that reading is an intensely private experience and I have never wanted anyone to invade that space.
The first time I thought it might be fun to listen to an audiobook was when I happened to see something online where someone said they enjoyed listening to the audio book of Amy Poehler’s “Yes Please” because it felt like Poehler was chatting with them over the phone. I thought that sounded pretty cool and started toying with the idea of listening to a memoir by a celebrity I not-so-secretly want to be BFFs with.
Then Book Riot challenged me to listen to an audiobook this year, and since I had otherwise almost finished the challenge, I decided to go for it.
I HAVE NOW FINISHED BOOK RIOT’S 2015 READ HARDER CHALLENGE! WOOT!
I ordered the sound recording of this book by Felicia Day from the library weeks ago, but it still hasn’t come in, and when Thanksgiving came around, I decided to bite the bullet and buy the audiobook on my phone (which wasn’t even that expensive: less than $20, and totally worth every penny). I did that because I wanted to have something to keep my brain occupied while I spent the day baking. Even the length was perfect because it took almost exactly the same amount of time to do all my baking as it took to listen to the audiobook.
I would actually advise listening to the audiobook over reading this one. Day does vocal sound effects and breaks into song throughout the book and that definitely made the experience so much more enjoyable. And I can’t help but think that hearing her inflections and knowing every word she wanted to emphasize and the way she dealt with the asides added to the experience (although, since I haven’t read the print book, I can’t say that for sure).
And yes, listening to this audiobook totally felt like Felicia Day was just hanging out with me, regaling me with her life story while I was running around my little kitchen all day. And it was everything I dreamed it would be. *contented sigh*
And it is a beautiful story. There were literally times when I laughed out loud and other times when I was almost in tears. Day covers everything from her home-schooled childhood to her move to L.A. to pursue a career in acting to the whole Gamergate fiasco.
I thought she did an excellent job of covering the controversial topic with empathy and sympathy. I don’t remember her expressing a lot of anger at the Gamergate douchebags (although that could just be the fault of my memory). Instead, she focuses on how sad she is that a few bad apples have turned a culture she loves into such a hostile environment. She expresses this sadness along with the fear that kept her from speaking out for as long as it did. And of course, when she finally did speak out, she experienced everything that had kept her from joining the “conversation” before.
It’s an excellent book that is funny and sad and poignant and I highly recommend you read/listen to it!
What did you guys read/listen to this week? Anyone else out there new to audiobooks? I want to hear all about your experiences with them!