I originally purchased the book format at the little bookstore I work at, but I had not gotten around to reading it for awhile (my "To Read" pile has grown dramatically since getting my job at my bookstore). I was sick of listening to the radio in my little old Buick that cannot play CDs, and this was one of the only few books on tape we had left in stock. The fact it was read by Steve Martin himself peaked my interest, so I promptly stuck in my cassette player and proceeded to listen to it over the next week.
If an audio book can you make wait in your car after you get home just so you can keep listening to the story, take that as a good sign for getting this audio book. Not only was I fascinated by the story and the narration of the main character, Daniel Pecan Cambridge, Steve Martin's reading made it all the better. He took the story seriously and didn't do any silly voices or accents for the different characters. I haven't listened to very many audio books before, so I would say it was a very straight forward reading with good pauses, inflections, and so on. It IS his own story, after all, but I appreciated how simply he narrated it.
After listening to the story for one car ride, I cracked open the book and followed along in the story. I decided to always listen to the audio tape first, then read up to where I left off on the tape. If you're a old fashioned book reader like me, that sounds like a TOTALLY weird thing to do. However, I would recommend you to try it! I loved listening to stories on tape as a kid, so the thrill and surprises I get when I listen to a story are just as enjoyable as reading the same story myself.
Audio book wise or not, I highly recommend giving this a go. Martin's narration has everything going for it: funny at points, sad at others, and all kind of emotions in between. It's only 5-6 hours in length, but it lasted me a whole week because of my short commutes to work. If you want a light, warm-hearted read or story to listen to, this has become one of my favorites.
If an audio book can you make wait in your car after you get home just so you can keep listening to the story, take that as a good sign for getting this audio book. Not only was I fascinated by the story and the narration of the main character, Daniel Pecan Cambridge, Steve Martin's reading made it all the better. He took the story seriously and didn't do any silly voices or accents for the different characters. I haven't listened to very many audio books before, so I would say it was a very straight forward reading with good pauses, inflections, and so on. It IS his own story, after all, but I appreciated how simply he narrated it.
After listening to the story for one car ride, I cracked open the book and followed along in the story. I decided to always listen to the audio tape first, then read up to where I left off on the tape. If you're a old fashioned book reader like me, that sounds like a TOTALLY weird thing to do. However, I would recommend you to try it! I loved listening to stories on tape as a kid, so the thrill and surprises I get when I listen to a story are just as enjoyable as reading the same story myself.
Audio book wise or not, I highly recommend giving this a go. Martin's narration has everything going for it: funny at points, sad at others, and all kind of emotions in between. It's only 5-6 hours in length, but it lasted me a whole week because of my short commutes to work. If you want a light, warm-hearted read or story to listen to, this has become one of my favorites.
