How Do I Read Thee?

My twins are about to turn twenty-three this month! I can hardly believe it! But I remember when they were little we took a January Cruise with my large family - a Christmas gift from my mama. My twins spent most of their time in the pool while my oldest daughter and I kept eyes on them as we reclined on the deck reading. Serious reading! Most relaxing vacay I ever took. I think I went through half of Denise Swanson's Scumble River Series, and yes, I had packed all of the paperbacks into my suitcase. Good thing I hadn't tried to board an airplane! I was also blessed that my sweet hubby let me drag his little case behind me while he lugged mine around.

Of course those were the years before the e-book transformation. When that came about, my sis-in-law wanted a Kindle for her birthday. As happens from time to time, I procrastinated, thinking I could go to the mall and pick one up at Waldenbooks or maybe Sears. I was painfully out of the loop, but in my defense, Kindle was brand, spanking new. Instead, I ended up at Barnes and Noble where I got her a Nook. I liked it enough to ask for one myself for my next birthday, and I was so delighted to be able to pick up cheap books. At that point, I inhaled Mindy Starnes Clark's Smart Chick Mysteries (which I'm sorry to say don't seem to be available at this point!) Being that it was the early days of e-readers, I had to ignore digital glitches. In fact, on the last book of the series, which had been released just before I got it, there were few spaces between the words. Very few! The sentences were just long lines of letters that I had to sift through to get the words to make sense. But I was so enthralled with her stories that I couldn't put the book down even though it was so hard to read!

Shift to this summer. I confess, when I began editing about ten years ago, reading became my job and was no longer a relaxing past time. But I have been reading more this summer than in the last several years put together. I even took on a Goodreads challenge that I'm about to complete three months early! Yea! But then, the term "reading" is relative. Cause now, I'm more often listening to books. I've enjoyed some of the narrators on Audible like Suzanne Torren who does Joanne Fluke's Hannah Swenson Mysteries and Rachel Delude who did Patricia Bradley's Natchez Trace Park Rangers series and Lynnette Eason's Elite Guardian series. I also enjoy the way Reba Buhr reads Christy Barritt's Squeaky Clean Mysteries. I have to say, though, my all time favorite Audible book has been Rules of Murder by Julianna Deering and narrated by Simon Vance. I was so broken-hearted to find that it was the only one of her books to be put on Audible, though all of the Drew Farthering Mysteries are excellent.

To be sure, though, not all of the narrators are of that calliber. I've grimaced through some who read terribly slowly. Painfully so, with oddly placed pauses. It almost sounded like they were trying to create suspense, but I have a feeling, since they are paid by the length of the recording, that their pausing and slow reading rate are more an effect of their wallet than their attempt to create drama. And some other narrators decimate the pronunciation of perfectly plain words. I am a closet critic - no doubt about it. I'm pretty brutal about weathermen who can't pronounce Texas towns correctly, too, though. LOL!

But my disenchantment with some of the Audible narrators have turned me to using the whispersync on my Kindle fire. Yeah, really. I actually prefer the errors of the digital narrator to the errors of the live ones. And so far, I've had no trouble at all differentiating between the speakers in dialogue. At this point, I'm making my way through Robin Patchen's Coventry Saga using my Kindle Fire. (You can find my latest review on Goodreads!) I'm loving her books.

I have made quite the progression. I still have shelves full of books, though, and I will pick one up from time to time.

What about you? How do you like your mystery and suspense served? Are you one who likes to hold the book in your hands? Do you prefer to carry your library with you on an e-reader. Maybe you're like me and you'd rather listen to your stories. Is Audible or another provider your cup of tea, or do you dig the digital narrators?

I'd love to know your thoughts. So much so, that I'm giving away a free e-copy of Grime Beat to someone! Leave your thoughts in the comments and you just might be the winner of my e-book.