John H.

The loud violin stood out, otherwise an impeccable audiobook performance

Revisado: 06-05-24

Audio books should be able to be listened to at a constant volume. I dislike having to turn down this audiobook every time the intermittent musical interludes come to the foreground. The high volume of the violin, in particular, is annoying. Other than that, the audiobook is nearly perfect. Excellent acting and pacing. Impeccable, actually. Thankfully, the music is absent once the play commences or recommences. If you are willing to deal with volume issues, related only to the interlude music, and are any kind of a fan of Sherlock Holmes books, my advice is: Don't miss this one!

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

My Favorite Audiobook of All Time

Revisado: 05-21-24

This audiobook is packed with useful information illustrated with fascinating and often humorous stories. It is read by the author who is an extremely good speaker in such a way that it sounds spontaneous. Many times I have followed Herb Cohen's negotiating advice and profited from it. Whenever I can't decide which audiobook to listen to out of the 200 or so in my library, I choose Negotiate This! and usually hear something I want to remember better about negotiating. If you are any kind of business person, you will likely benefit from this book. My second favorite audiobook is Showmanship for Magicians by Darrell Fitzkee. Equally useful to business people who are entertainers.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Excellent, engrossing narration

Revisado: 05-19-24

Liked: 1. Short stories are easier for me to pay attention to than novels, 2. These short stories were mostly interesting and above average. 3. Most of the stories that were below average were saved by the incredibly well-chosen narrator. His voice and his flexibility as demonstrated by his use of different voices made stories interesting that would have been boring and made interesting stories riveting. A perfect pairing of narrator to text.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Absurdly Offensive for a Mostly Unoffensive Book

Revisado: 04-10-24

1. Adopt a smile while communicating, whether people can see you or not. 2. To write an excellent speech, create a list of 50 questions, answer them with research, and then come up with 50 more question, and answer them with research, too. Then construct your speech. Those are the most important points I got from this book.

(By the way, please do not memorize your speech unless you are a professional actor or can talk like one. Instead, create notes for your speech and then rehearse, with the notes at hand or memorized, many times and speak spontaneously each time, while being reminded by the notes of what you want to speak about. Then, when you give your speech in public, with your notes at hand or memorized, the speech will be just one more occurrence of you spontaneously speaking about your topic and you won't sound amateurish because you memorized your speech word for word. For most people, most of the time, if you give a speech from memory, it sounds no more interesting than a reading. Not to say that there is no occasion for a memorized speech or a written speech that is read. When it is critical that the words be exactly correct, there is no substitute for reading a written speech.)

However, while listening to this audio book, I heard the following sentences: "We are and will maintain our family of leather owners with love. Pretty much everyday I lay down in bed with my hot wife and we talk about different bag owners who we’ve been going back and forth with." Here's how the editor could have edited this so it was not offensive: "We are and will maintain our family of leather owners with love. Pretty much everyday, my wife and I talk about different bag owners who we’ve been going back and forth with." Much better. The bragging about the "hot wife" adds nothing to the information at hand. And anything in writing that does not add, detracts. By the way, I visited the website of the leather company in question and was able to verify that the author of the above quoted sentences does talk about his wife that way, using the adjective "hot" to describe her at least twice on the same webpage.

I can see where it might be appropriate for someone to talk about their "hot wife," but only if they were trying to make someone else believe, for whatever reason, that their wife was hot.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Scientific, Excellent for Teachers

Revisado: 02-15-24

I liked the pieces of useful information. For example, the more effort you put into practicing or the more you overcome difficulties during practice, the more efficiently you learn. What would make it better for the next edition would be to have a more casual sounding or relaxed reader or approach.

The scientific thesis-style writing, with studies referenced to support the takeaways, in combination with a narrator who sounded a bit like a science professor made me wish occasionally for a summary of the book. Other than mirroring the scientific tone of the book, and talking a tad too slowly, the narrator did an impeccable job. There were no audio dropouts or slurred words, or missing syl-la-bles. The overall volume was consistent. Of course, it easy enough to adjust the narrator's speaking rate. I put her rate at 1.3 times normal.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

The most perfect pairing of a narrator and book

Revisado: 12-14-23

I have ever heard. You will enter the world conjured by the writer and made more accessible by the narrator. Well-paced book read at a perfect speed.

The plot centers around a young man disturbed by his dreams for an unusual reason. He tries to get help to stop these dreams, and that is when the plot thickens. The story, absorbing in itself, is woven with the author's philosophical thoughts, spoken unselfconsciously by characters. At the beginning of chapters, there are intriguing relevant quotations. This is a philosophical, at times funny, and thought provoking book. The ending does not disappoint. The narrator was a professional actor before he become the famous narrator that he is. You can look him, George Guidall, up on the internet.

This review might make The Lathe of Heaven sound like a self-indulgent, heavy book produced to give the author a chance to promote her views. If it is, you are not likely to be aware of it. This book is full of action and puts the reader right in the middle of it. Loved it. Listened to it all the way through at least twice.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Totally Useful Strategies for Memorizing Music

Revisado: 11-14-23

Loved it. Am using it now for memorizing vocal melodies and for memorizing fingerstyle guitar solos and instrumental breaks. Brilliant, bite-sized book. Concise. Loved the narration. I will be seeking other audiobooks read by this narrator, and as member of Toastmasters International and a former teacher of English as a Second Language, I am very picky. These are techniques that you can pair together or pick and choose from. The author also goes into combining or using separately, your choice, the three primary modes of memorization: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Fabulous Novel, Read Aloud at Inconsistent Volumes

Revisado: 02-15-23

The Magic Mountain is a fascinating classic novel. There is no doubt about the quality and value of the book itself. But this particular audiobook version is difficult to enjoy because of the large differences in volume produced by the reader, who speaks loudly sometimes, and nearly whisper-quiet at other times. Of course he spends a lot of time speaking at a mid-level of volume. I would much rather hear a book read in a matter of fact way than hear it dramatized with volume changes, since the volume changes cause me to either (1) miss what is being said, or (2) interrupt what I'm doing to turn up the volume and backtrack 30 seconds worth, or (3) jump to turn the volume down before the audiobook disturbs my housemate upstairs.

It's one thing to speak quietly and loudly and everything in between to someone sitting next to you. But to simulate such conversational realism in an audiobook is not reasonable. Because there are so many ways to listen to an audiobook that require fairly even volumes for comprehension and peace between or among housemates - not to mention avoidance of hearing damage. For example: (1) Listening in a noisy car. (2) Listening while doing aerobics 10 feet away from the audio source. (3) Listening with headphones. I wish that audiobook producers would conform to some self-imposed standard of volume variation so that I could sample an audiobook and buy it with confidence. As it is, I sometimes listen to all of the sample provided and then become disappointed by the poor production quality that becomes evident later in the recording.

A related comment: Good public speakers simulate whispering with a "stage whisper," not by actually whispering, so that everyone, including those in the back row, can hear them clearly.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Useful Book for Gigging Musicians, Too

Revisado: 04-29-22

"Rock the Dance Floor!" is an impressive audiobook of rare quality. I am a not a DJ, but as a musician, I found this book to be invaluable. (I think it might be extremely useful for all DJs, especially those just starting out.)

Phil Morse is an experienced DJ, founder of the Digital DJ Tips website and school, an excellent writer, and one of the absolute best audiobook readers I have ever heard. I have bought hundreds of audiobooks and have been disappointed in many of them due to the poor quality of the reading. Phil speaks clearly at a comfortable pace, in a friendly, conversational tone, and, most important, the volume of his voice stays reasonably even and doesn't drop significantly at the end of sentences. If you listen to the audio sample and are satisfied with it, reader-wise, the rest of the book will satisfy you likewise.

Phil sounds similar to author/reader Bill Bryson, but Bill's voice, though very pleasant to listen to, sometimes trails off, volume-wise, at the end of sentences.

If you are a DJ or a gigging musician, I think it's likely that listening to "Rock the Dance Floor" will not be a waste of time.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

One star for production, Five stars for all else

Revisado: 07-26-20

While the narrator is fabulous (I will seek other books by this narrator) and the book itself is an important and fascinating classic, I will be returning this audiobook and buying either a different audio version of it or else a printed version, if no suitable alternate audio version exists. The problem with this otherwise exceptional audiobook is the use of an invasive "musical" device to separate the various sections, of which there are many.

At each section-change, as I'm drifting off to sleep while listening to this wonderfully-read and brilliantly-written book, I am startled by the harsh sound of a percussion-mallet (probably made of plastic or metal) being moved rapidly, in one stroke, across the metal keys of a xylophone or glockenspiel. (Think the "magical" sound you hear in an animated cartoon movie when a fairy appears or a piece of magic is depicted.)

I have a suggestion for the producers of this audiobook to consider: In the future, if it is deemed important to differentiate one section in a book from another, verbally announce the section, rather than produce a "musical" sound. This sound, in my experience (each to his own, I realize), upon repetition, rapidly becomes obnoxious and completely looses any musical value. which it might have initially had, and sounds out of place.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona