From Another Zero’s Takes and Future Posts About Authors and Books
I’ve been meaning to write about what I’ve been reading for a while, for various reasons.
The whole hullabaloo regarding audiobook versus physical “read” books is taking over the internet, and even though I’ve weighed in on the convos, I wanted to discuss it here because of the connection we have, dear reader, through these lines.
Mainly, this blog has been dedicated to the performing arts and the people in them. Yes, I have been sent a couple of books in the past for review, and they’re on here, but I do want to write about it more often.
The Reasoning
As many of you have seen on socials, I stepped away from reviewing theatre to rest, recycle, and come back better. I changed work paths a year ago, and while the choice is more “domestic”, having a steady paycheck has made a nice difference, but it takes a lot out of me. This work path took me to Warwicks Tea Time Book Recommendations, a joyful, happening Zoom meeting every Monday (or, well, sometimes there are days off, but practically every Monday) for one hour with Warwicks’ event extraordinaries Julie and Julia as reps from different publishing houses recommending books while discussing them, and it is just bliss. I started joining the Zooms practically a year ago, and I have not missed one since. Also, because if you do miss them, they upload them to YouTube.
In one of those meetings, the group was mourning the letting go of the Washington Post Literary Critic Ron Charles, which, for me, highlighted a commonality in theatre coverage: trends.
Do not get me wrong. I understand the meaning of Charles being let go as well as many theatre critics and journalists; not taking away from that, it is not about us, the writers; it is about the decision-makers and the trends.
Remember when I wrote about theatre and influencers? No? Well, here it is. Since I have always been the “little one”, “the indie”, ‘the grassroots”, “blogger”, before Influencers came to happen and the gravitation towards them, I feel I need to compete -when it is not a competition-, with the local newspaper or the local news division, to mention a couple of examples in order for my stuff to get out there. It all comes down to audience development and engagement, where the real trend should lie. But that, for another post.
This conversation prompted me to put my thoughts on what I read here in From Another Zero. I already share it in Spanish on my personal profiles, and lovely conversations have stemmed from those posts, since I was doing it for myself, away from the spotlight lol.
The debate between audiobook and physical book
Both my mom and my best friend are voracious readers. They always have 3-5 books on hand every week, and I just cannot do that as much as I would love to, and I envy them galore. Between my ADD and dyslexia, it is impossible for me to juggle that much. I can do a book in English and, at most, another in Spanish, and because I listened to The Art Thief by Michael Finkel (thanks to Warwicks), I went down the rabbit hole into the robberies and the people involved and found the thief’s book! Because, of course, Stéphane Bréitwieser decided to write his own book: Confessions d’un voleur d’art, which is only in French, and my French is more in the reading level of The Three Little Pigs; Still, I am up for the challenge! It is all Warwicks’ fault.
A couple of weeks ago, I saw Reese’s Book Club Instagram post “Listening is Reading,” and well, the heated debate…You can find my comment there, and the truth is, for me, if I want to get as many books as possible in, I have to listen to audiobooks. Also, there are books I prefer to read rather than listen to, but it is all about the feeling and then the practicality. Another person said, “Listening to an audiobook and reading a physical book are just two doors to the same room! ❤️ I can’t remember who said that, but it has stuck with me,” and I completely agree. Now that app thing that came out where you put your phone in the back of the book and a bot starts reading, no. The thing with audiobooks is that there is production, direction, and acting. And that takes you to another experience where the voice is totally off for the character in your head, or the opposite. I dabbled with a Book of the Month membership last year, and it brought my reading rhythm back, as I had been in a big rut. I read Mariam Rahmani’s book Liquid, and it took me through all the emotions. Mostly because I thought it was about a practical woman trying to find love, and it was a whole lot more with cultural context, different strokes, and paternal love. The unnamed Iranian-Indian American narrator goes back to Iran due to a death in the family. Each chapter is numbered in Farsi, and my heart just got big because my husband is Persian; it brought me closer to him and helped me understand better some of our different strokes. Anyway, you know I get carried away, dear reader, and talk and talk. That is why I have a blog. My point is that I saw Liquid’s audiobook while scrolling and I was TEMPTED. Tempted to hear the voice or voices they used, narration style, production, etc.
The opposite happened with both The Correspondent by Virginia Evans and Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson. Both books entail letter writing. In ‘Correspondent, Sibyl has been writing letters her whole life, and in ‘Museum, it is a letter exchange between Anders and Tina. I have cried with books before, but The Correspondent, my God, I cried through the whole thing! The production is absolutely beautiful with a lot of feeling to the point where I now want to read the book and then buy the version in Spanish (not Spanish version. Version in Spanish… this one for another post as well) for my mom and my best friend, La Corresponsal, the voracious readers, because I know they will love it as much as I did. I also bawled with Anders and Tina, but it was more of a moved cry, whereas with Sybil it was an ugly cathartic cry.
Book Views and Newsletter.
I am getting ready to launch my first newsletter, as I have seen some of you sign up. THANK YOU!
And I will start sharing my views on my reads as an added voice for authors and their work.
For my Spanish speakers, I just posted about Nuestras Madres, a moving, necessary read by Gemma Ruiz Palà about women born during the Spanish dictatorship (yes, here it is correct to say Spanish first because I am talking about Spain).
Here are the books I will be talking about in the next post or upcoming posts. What are you reading or listening to? Share in the comments.
