Mark David has recommended The New Yorker Fiction Podcasts to me for a while. In fact he has written a post on it last month. But only last week after he shouted at strongly encouraged me to try one when I talked about Borges’s The Library of Babel,  did I manage to listen to two of them.

In each episode, a contemporary writer reads a short work by a classic writer. There’s a bit of talk and discussion before and after the reading of the story. I loved the discussion parts of the podcasts, but I’m not sure if I got much out of the two stories being read. I’ve mentioned before how I’m a poor listener, and it doesn’t help when the story is not very listen-able. (We have word for readable! How about listenable?)

Without further ado, the two I picked were:

The Gospel According to Mark by Jorge Luis Borges, read by Paul Theroux

I’m not sure if I got it. I repeated the ending about 5 times and each time it made me go “huh?”. But I continued on and luckily Paul explained more about what’s going on in the story. Originally published in 1970, it is about a young man who visits a friend’s holiday house in Argentina. He meets a family of illiterate workers to whom he reads some books, but the only one they’re interested in the most is an old Bible. He reads the gospel of Mark which contains the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness He granted to the world. When he was found to lay with the daughter of the family, well…

Paul Theroux actually read to Borges when he was alive (and blind). And that’s awesome because Paul is a fantastic reader. I’d never heard of him before this. Apparently he has written many novels and travelogues. After quick wiki-ing, I found that he won James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1981 for The Mosquito Coast (join win with Salman Rushdie’s Midnight Children) and Whitbread Prize for Best Novel  in 1978 for Picture Palace. Have you read any of his books before?

My Russian Education by Vladimir Nabokov, read by Orhan Pamuk

I feel kinda bad to say this, but most of the words read by Pamuk went over my head, because I had problem with his accent. Therefore I’m unable to rate this in any way. But I’m sure I will (re)read the story in text format in the future, because it’s Nabokov’s autobiography, though published as fiction. The story is based on how his father was shot dead. It was originally published in 1948 by the New Yorker and it is one chapter out of 12 that was later published in 1951 as a book titled Speak, Memory (My Russian Education is Chapter 9 in the book).

I loved to listen to how Pamuk loved Nabokov. I always love the whole writers speaking very highly of other writers. It’s very adorable. I read Lolita by Nabokov in 2008 and I really admired how Nabokov used English language. Sure, I didn’t understand a lot of the passages, but that’s beside the point… because I admired the ones that I did understand! :)

Did you read any short story this week?

To trace back a little, I am never a good listener. As in I often miss what people say in general, even in my first language (not that I’m not patient to listen people talking — I’m good that way). Studying English in school, I scored lowest for Listening, in comparison to Grammar, Reading, and Speaking. If only I found audiobook when I was in high school!

I approached the podcasts with apprehension, but I was hooked since the first episode! Andrew Sachs is such a fantastic reader! It’s so wonderful that I found him as my first narrator. The down side of it is that after I listened to more audiobooks, all the readers (especially male readers) are pale in comparison. With Andrew Sachs, it doesn’t feel like he’s reading text. It feels like he’s talking to you out of his head.

Andrew Sachs, my new love <3

Corduroy Mansions is I’d say typical of Alexander McCall Smith’s: cozy, safe, adorable, lightly humoured. We are presented with a quite large number of characters that live in the mansion, some their friends or family members who live somewhere else. There is very little plot. It’s mostly the musings and interaction of the characters.

The podcast is only about 6-7 minutes each, going for 100 episodes. It’s just perfect for me to listen to walking from the bus stop to my office. I listened to only a couple of episodes each day, which seemed to work very well. It’s not plot heavy, so you don’t want to rush through it, and allow to characters gradually sip in. With my listening problem, I even listened to each podcast twice until about halfway through the 100 episodes. After that I had started to build up my listening stamina, and only needed to listen once (most of the time :).

To be honest I don’t know if I would like the book if I read it instead of listening to it. But as audiobook, it’s almost perfect! Not to mention that it’s free! Thanks to Jackie @ Farm Lane Books Blog who I first knew about the podcasts from!

Have you read/listened to the book? Who’s your favorite character and who you liked the least? I actually liked a lot of the characters, even the supposedly least likeable one like MP Snark (he amused me). My least favorite is Terence Moongrove, the air-headed old man who just sounds impossible that he has lived that long in the world. My favorite characters are probably (unavoidably) Freddie de la Hay the dog and his owner William French. They’re both just so adorable.

2008, 13 hours

The second book is now available, titled The Dog who Came in from the Cold. It’s up to chapter 77 now, so you can still catch up! I just started the second season a few days ago and am at chapter 8 now. Podcasts of the first book is no longer officially available, but there’s this telegraph xml link from where you can download them (get them quick before they put it down :).

I’m a very late follower of podcasts since I was never a fan of listening to anything. Sure I like some music, but I never really have to listen to them. But once I found these book podcasts I was absolutely hooked! I listen to them walking outside, before sleep, waking up, getting ready for work — it’s crazy!

One that I absolutely love and have been listening like nuts is Books on the Nightstand by Ann Kingman and Michael Kindness. I’d been to their websites a couple of times before but somehow never tried the podcasts. I tried them about 2 weeks ago, and now can NOT stop. I’m now happily going through the 50+ podcasts that are available from the very first episode. There’s a new one every fortnight and they started it some time last year. The last podcast talks about women writers which ties nicely with the Women Unbound challenge. It’s like listening to your friends talking about their favorite books. Except that they know so much since they breathe books for work.

Second is Alexander McCall Smith’s online novel: Corduroy Mansions which I am absolutely crazy about as well. The link I gave you features the second instalment of the series which is still going (The Dog Who Came in from the Cold), but I’m still halfway through the first book. One chapter is only about 6-8 minutes and it’s just perfect length for me to listen walking from bus stop to and fro my office. The first book is officially no longer published, but I have the rss link which contains links to all 100 chapters (download them quick because they can take it down anytime :). The book has very little to no plot, but it’s just so cozy with quirky characters having adorable thoughts of random things. Because of that, I suggest you listen to no more than a couple of chapters a day rather than rush through it.

Third is ABC’s First Tuesday Book Club which is very Australian, featuring Australian guests and often Australian authors. The podcasts are video podcasts and they have a new one only every month so I don’t have many to go all over. But I thoroughly enjoy the new one every month. They often discuss books that I never heard before, and yet sound very interesting! Do you also feel that sometimes book bloggers read the same pool of books? Well with these podcasts, I get to know about even wider range of books! (which what the Books on the Nightstand does as well)

Last one is the New Yorker Fiction podcasts. Now I haven’t tried them yet, but they definitely look interesting. It was recommended to me by Mark David. It features contemporary authors reading shorts by older authors. I see lots of big names there!

Would you share your favorite book podcasts too? I’m dying to find more! :D