Don't you hate...

[JoannaHoyt]

I decided to read Victor Hugo's '93 as a solo, as it's a story I've read several times and loved. And I still do love it, but reading it aloud has made me focus on the parts I just used to skim quickly over. I have just recorded an hourlong chapter which has absolutely nothing to do with the novel's plot and which largely consists of a list of prominent/interesting members of the French revolutionary government, often in the form "A, the unreliable friend of B, called C by his enemies, Nemesis of the [date,] who pronounced the epigram "xxxx" upon D upon the occasion of D's quarrel with E..." in which each letter is replaced by a name which I find somewhat challenging to pronounce and I have no idea what happened on that date...

I think in the final summary I'll add a note listing the chapters which could be skipped by someone primarily interested in the story as a story, though they might be of especial interest to a listener who knew the history of the French Revolution well and was interested in Hugo's take on its personalities. (I suppose such a person may catch every time I have guessed a name's pronunciation wrong. Oh well.)

[LCaulkins]

Hugo sure did love his parenthetical passages! He laced Hunchback of Notredam with them too. I love that you're doing '93!

[TriciaG]

I decided to read Victor Hugo's '93 as a solo, as it's a story I've read several times and loved. And I still do love it, but reading it aloud has made me focus on the parts I just used to skim quickly over. I have just recorded an hourlong chapter which has absolutely nothing to do with the novel's plot and which largely consists of a list of prominent/interesting members of the French revolutionary government, often in the form "A, the unreliable friend of B, called C by his enemies, Nemesis of the [date,] who pronounced the epigram "xxxx" upon D upon the occasion of D's quarrel with E..." in which each letter is replaced by a name which I find somewhat challenging to pronounce and I have no idea what happened on that date...

I think in the final summary I'll add a note listing the chapters which could be skipped by someone primarily interested in the story as a story, though they might be of especial interest to a listener who knew the history of the French Revolution well and was interested in Hugo's take on its personalities. (I suppose such a person may catch every time I have guessed a name's pronunciation wrong. Oh well.)

Ha ha! There was a chapter in Hunchback (explaining the history and growth of Paris) that I considered a great chapter for someone to record for the Insomnia Collection. Our LV recording of it is 1 hour, 6 minutes long. It sounds like this chapter would be another such candidate!

[JoannaHoyt]

Ha ha! There was a chapter in Hunchback (explaining the history and growth of Paris) that I considered a great chapter for someone to record for the Insomnia Collection. Our LV recording of it is 1 hour, 6 minutes long. It sounds like this chapter would be another such candidate!

Hmm... I could see that fitting well, unless the relaxing mind would get an awkward jar at the frequent mentions of the violent deaths of various listed characters... Perhaps if that were read in a reassuring monotone it wouldn't make a bad impression.
I think the history of the Parisian sewers in Les Miserables would be great for the IC, though...

[mightyfelix]

I think I must have been the only person who was actually completely riveted during the sewer chapters.

[maxgal]

I think I must have been the only person who was actually completely riveted during the sewer chapters.

So long as you're not "actually" riveted in the sewer main!

[mightyfelix]

[DyeffersonAz]

I almost lost a half-hour file because of problems in my cloud sync, as I use the cloud to store my active projects...

[maxgal]

I almost lost a half-hour file because of problems in my cloud sync, as I use the cloud to store my active projects...

Ah yes, the "cloud" ... another perfectly good word, hijacked by geeks.

[TriciaG]

I almost lost a half-hour file because of problems in my cloud sync, as I use the cloud to store my active projects...

Ah yes, the "cloud" ... another perfectly good word, hijacked by geeks.

Nah - geeks hate that word being used for the internet, too. It was hijacked by marketers.

[maxgal]

I almost lost a half-hour file because of problems in my cloud sync, as I use the cloud to store my active projects...

Ah yes, the "cloud" ... another perfectly good word, hijacked by geeks.

Nah - geeks hate that word being used for the internet, too. It was hijacked by marketers.

I wonder if they like spam. ... spam spam spam spam, spam spam spam spam...

[maxgal]

...when you finally have time carved out to do some recording... and the guy next door decides to play with his power tools, All. Day. Long.

[JoannaHoyt]

...when you are an alto without Mil Nicholson's vocal talents and you assign a slow growly pseudo-bass voice to an apparently taciturn minor villain, and then several chapters later you realize that he has to yell a longish speech from the top of a tower to an audience on the plain below.... a fact which you somehow forgot after reading the book last year....

[paullawleyjones]

Ah yes, the "cloud" ... another perfectly good word, hijacked by geeks.

Nah - geeks hate that word being used for the internet, too. It was hijacked by marketers.

I wonder if they like spam. ... spam spam spam spam, spam spam spam spam...

Yes, more than the Spanish Inquisition!

[czandra]

...when you are an alto without Mil Nicholson's vocal talents and you assign a slow growly pseudo-bass voice to an apparently taciturn minor villain, and then several chapters later you realize that he has to yell a longish speech from the top of a tower to an audience on the plain below....

or you get through chapter after chapter of a heavy ontology book, bravely wielding Old English, French, German, Latin, even Greek, then get to the end and find an entire passage of Dante's inferno waiting for you in the original Italian, which you do not speak. Sigh.

Cz