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Book Recommendation: How to Stay Alive in the Woods

By Bradford Angier

This book is a masterpiece for those interested in learning the simple facts of survival in the wild.  I've read many books on the subject and he has done a great job of simplifying it down to the essentials.

The artwork is perfect and the writing is the ideal balance between facts and storytelling.  He makes it interesting.

***** Five Stars Highly Recommend

How to Become a Writer and Make a Living At it

This is a great essay by James Altucher.  
Whenever I want to get motivated to write I read something by Altucher.  He makes you feel as if he can do it so can you.  I think it's because he bares his soul and tells you everything he did wrong and everything that most people would be embarrassed to tell about themselves.  His courage and honesty in this makes for great reading.

Read his books too.  I've read a number of his books.  Choose Yourself is one of his best.




Another Good Article

How you can make a million writing your own ebook.
This article gives you the rundown on E-publishing.  The main focus is on John Locke, another very successful author and E-publisher.

For Writers: How to Write Like Tolstoy

By Richard Cohen

Read this if you're a fiction writer.  It has some great insights and excellent quotes.

It will help you understand the thinking of many of the best writers of time tested fiction.

Recommend:  I was able to get through this in a week.  Considering it talks about other writers only writers will probably find this something they can stick with.

I actually think I'll go back to this book again someday after reading some of the books he mentioned.

Book Review: Imperium

By Robert Harris
12 CDs

I'm listening to another audio book you might enjoy, Imperium by Robert Harris.  It has great narration and a superb story about Cicero and ancient Rome.  It is my second one in this series by the author.  It is historical fiction so you are getting a dose of history as well as a very entertaining story.  It is written from the viewpoint of the lifelong friend and former slave of Cicero who was his secretary.   Though he had written a biography of Cicero it was lost with the fall of Rome, so this book is written as a novel that has some basis in historical events and people.

I love this series of books by Harris.  He's done a superb job of weaving history and fiction into a compelling story.

***** Five Stars - Highly Recommend

Book Review: Dictator

By Robert Harris
Read by David Rintoul

11 Discs :  Book on CD

I didn't know what to expect with this book and am pleasantly surprised that is an exceptional narration of a great book.  I presume that it fits the category of historical fiction since all the details as included cannot be known.  But, as I have found with many historical fiction books I've read in the past it makes it come to life and aside from details, the facts that are known are woven into the story.  This makes it not only readable and enjoyable, but seemingly there at the time of the events.

The death of Cicero and his life leading up to it during the time of Rome going from a Republic to a Dictatorship is what the story is about.  The events that surround this occurrence and the role of Cicero that eventually led to his killing are what concerns us in this story.  

The narrator has the appropriate voice for this story and makes it easy to want to keep listening.

I plan on checking out the author's other books now that I enjoyed this one so much.  Imperium, and Conpirata were listed as written by Harris as well.

***** Five Stars - Highly Recommend

Why I Love Audio Books and You Should Too

In Defense of Audio Books

As an argument I'd say that audio format books fall within the oral tradition and therefore I can say that especially in historical classics they were audio long before they were written, so they have become audio again.  The stories of Greek Mythology come to mind among others.  So listening to a book is no less valuable than reading it and with great narration I'd submit it is better.

Why I now prefer to find audio if available.

The truth is that between my eyes and time available I find that books on audio have become a mainstay for reading the books that I want to read, but cannot find the time to spend doing so.  In the case of this book I listened to it while doing other things like checking email, browsing the news, and making food.  When I am in a car that has a CD player I would spend all driving time doing the same since it is much less stressful than listening to the radio for political talk.

I used audio books to get through many college literature classes that I couldn't have done as good a job completing without being able to listen to the story multiple times in addition to reading it.  I did this with the Illiad.  It is still one of my favorites when it comes to audio books.

The reality for me is that I find time to read three times more books than I would have time or ability to do since I became a fan of audio reading.  I have been doing that since the 1980's when some early self help books came out on cassette.  Now with digital files and books on CD it is possible to have a huge collection in addition to what I can borrow from the library.  The digital file format even allows me to store some books on my computer for listening.  Other options include Amazon and the Apple version.

Finding a great narrator makes the experience exceptional so I recommend that you look for great narrators.

Here are some of my favorites.

George Guidall
David Muller
David Rintoul