DNF: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (audio)

With all of my heart, I tried. We adapted to the somewhat difficult narrator and actually enjoyed The Hobbit, but that story was simple, sweet and dear. With the complexities of LOTR, and an increased amount of chanting, singing, Shakespearean trilling and droning on, we crashed and burned. (This has only happened five times in my history of listening to audios.) I fear Viggo will never fall for me now.

It is entirely possible that this is my fault. It is summer, and we are distracted. We just finished Harry Potter, which is an audio masterpiece. But I found myself wanting to read my book in the car on roadtrips instead of listening to the audio. A bad sign, because I am very tolerant. So we took a break. The kids watched movies instead. Then we listened to another disc and it felt physically painful. It was confusing, and I tended to drift. We watched The Fellowship of the Ring the movie, and got a nice long look at Viggo, all sweaty and handsome and brave. But at the end of the day, after the kids and I arrived home from Indiana, none of us were inspired to pick up where we left off. I could have forced the issue, but that tact rarely meets with successful results with my children. We made it through 9 of 16 discs, so we did give it the old college try.

Beth Fish Reads loves these audios, in fact she has listened to them more than once. So my advice, if you are interested, would be to at least give them a chance. These are classic stories that are in need of admiration. I'm not crying uncle yet - maybe the printed version?

DNF: Blind Willow/Sleeping Woman - Haruki Murakami (audio)

I might set aside three of four books a year, so I am distraught, number 1, that I found my first DNF three days into the year, and number 2, that it is a Murakami book. It is my first fictional read by Murakami. However, I just finished his memoir "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" recently and loved it (review coming Jan. 21). What went wrong? Here is my theory.

I was listening to this collection of short stories on audio. I've never listened to this genre on audio, and questioned myself initially when I ordered the discs from the library. But I'm always open to try new things - what did I have to lose but a little time? Perhaps the short story (at least ones like Murakami's) need to be digested slowly, with the ability to flip back and re-read if necessary. I listened to five short stories on a long walk today, and I either understood them but didn't get the point or message, or was completely and utterly confused about what the hell was going on. It was frustrating. I don't want to be frustrated with Murakami - it is just wrong. So I stopped.

I will have to order the hard book from the library. In the meantime, I do have "Kafka on the Shore" on my Kindle, and "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles" on my TBR shelves. I've learned my lesson, and will move forward accordingly!

Did Not Finish: The Yearling - Marjorie Kinnan (audio)

A couple of weeks ago, the kids and I started to listen to the audio "The Yearling" by Marjorie Kinnan. We picked it up at the library on a whim, when the audios we really wanted were checked out. I really didn't think we had anything to lose. The book won a Pulitzer in 1939, and is considered a true classic. On top of that, the story takes place in northern Florida, and involves a boy who adopts a young fawn as a pet. As the boy matures, he is forced to make adult decisions and choices between his pet and his family. I could see this story coming a mile away...just like those Disney movies that my sister and I saw on Sunday evenings as kids that tore your heart out. Great lessons with teachable moments. Another classic to enrich my little angels' lives.

But that was not to be. We got through about 3 of the 12 discs when we all cried uncle. The kids were bored stiff, but were too well-mannered (knowing my emotional ties to books in general) to say anything. When I started to grow bored myself, I asked them how they were liking the story, and they sheepishly admitted they weren't all that "into it". They said they'd rather crank up some Classic Rewind on XM. Knowing the pedigree of the novel, I'm going to chalk it up to the narration. The slang in the story is very...how shall I say? Backwoods southern, I guess is the best description. It was hard even for me to understand everything that was being said, and nearly impossible for the kids to translate. The plot was bit slow as well. Perhaps the pace picks up later, but with kids, if you don't snag them quick, you lose them.

It is possible I have spoiled my little ones on the adrenaline rush of time travel, dystopian fiction, Gladiator-fight-to-the-death drama, and kids that have wings. I will continue in my pursuit to expose them to classics, hopefully with better narration next time. Have any of you read this book? Have I made a grave error? Should I have steeled my resolved and forced my way through it?

Next up: I have decided that we must listen to Harry Potter on audio. My daughter and I have read the books (personally I have read them thrice), and have seen the movies over and over and over, but have been told the audios are a whole different experience than the hard books or the film. Now I need to go figure out who is hosting that reading challenge...