Somehow my thoughts of the Audible Exclusive The X-Files: Cold Cases turned into a story about me. Weird, right?
I remember getting my first Kindle about 10 years ago. It didn't have a back-light and I had to purchase a camping clip-on so I could see the pages. Kindle wouldn't take off into a Netflix marathon, it couldn't drag you into Clash Royale or Candy Crush game, not even solitaire was available. There was no checking email, no ordering food to be delivered within an hour, nor could it play out a list of music and movies so large it wouldn't fit on an external drive. And there were absolutely no audio-books acted out by A-List celebrities of the day. It was a book reader. It did it's job. Random memory: the Amazon Beta Web Browser, which was a complete failure. They've come a long way. The Kindle of the day was clunky, heavy, awkward to hold and impossible prop up. It did have free 3G to get books, keep in mind there was not a functioning browser so you had to pick your books up on the website and 3G would download them for you automatically. It was a mixed bag of nuts and they were just starting to tap into the way people would view the world and books.
At the time I missed the the flip of the page after I licked my thumb, the smell of a classic book that carried me from childhood into adulthood, it's not unlike the feeling I get with old comics. It was a severe change that took a while to get used to. The perks of carrying thousands of books, comics and newspapers in my purse or hand has power for someone like me.
Today the impossible is possible. Everything I have been discussing plus so much more has simply changed the world. Why do I bring this up? Because I am an old hardhead that has a difficult time with drastic changes, but I love technology. I got very acquainted with Kindle, all versions, and I ended up relying on Kindle on so many occasions. As a true book nut to the bone, there are times when nothing could've helped, except Kindle with its 1,000's of books at my fingertips. You could say we have a deep understanding with each other. It tells me what books I might like and I tell it if it's true or not so it has to change and I don't. It is a one-sided relationship.
After getting the newest Kindle versions as they were released and having the world at my fingertips in tablet form, I found another conundrum: audio-books. I struggled with this and I still do. Something has changed and X-Files helped me see the benefit for many people. The last few years there has been a boom in people who self-publish eBooks and now there are book publishing houses that seek eBook writers and needless to say, some have become very big artist. With the boom of weekend warrior writers came a sub-genre of audio-books. At the time and still today, they get one person, possibly an actor, to read the book in different voices, but they weren't necessarily voice-over actors or actors at all. They are not very good. This is where my opinion comes flying off the page: why listen to a horrible voice job instead of reading book and allowing yourself the chance of the fantasy world come forth through your thoughts on what the author wrote. I simply love that. Books are made for reading with your eyes.
A few years ago I saw Amazon splashed with ads for a new audio-book for Stephen King "Nightmares and Dreamscapes" Volume 2 that was read out by Kathy Bates as top billing, but it also had Matthew Broderick, Tim Curry, and Stephen King himself narrating the short stories within. I knew then.
I checked and sure enough Nightmares and Dreamscapes Volume 1 had the same thing; Stephen King, Tim Curry Whoopi Goldberg and the delectable Rob Lowe narrating. I still refused to buy an audio-book. I do own all the volumes of Stephen King's Nightmares and Dreamscapes in actual hardback. Audio-book....ppfft. Who am I to talk? Later I bought all of King's Audibles. You can by clicking the pink up there.
It wasn't long after that I landed in eBook Land and got Kindle Unlimited, which were mostly self-published authors. I love a good book series and one day I noticed that a 14 book series I was clearly deeply involved in had the audio-book for .99. Yes, I will try it now. The narrating was by one person and there was not a stretch to the voice and I couldn't get swept away, but it was fun to read along. It was the best of two worlds for me. After that series was done I randomly picked up the very cheap accompanying eBook-Audio-Book, but I never really got anything from it except that it would automatically turn the pages for me as the audio went. I got lazier reading books. I still hadn't joined Audible.
A few days ago there is was. Sparkling like gold and it was magical like a level 101 wizard, (my red wizard didn't need food). It was reaching out to me, speaking to me, grabbing at me again and again.
The X-Files: Cold Cases. Cold cases! I frantically searched for the book. To no avail, I Google searched every eBook and called hardcover bookstore I could find a phone number for all over the world. It was a maddening, crazy dash like the world was ending if I didn't get my hands on this.
But this was special. It was only available on audio-book form. Yes, I bought it. You can by clicking here.
I remember getting my first Kindle about 10 years ago. It didn't have a back-light and I had to purchase a camping clip-on so I could see the pages. Kindle wouldn't take off into a Netflix marathon, it couldn't drag you into Clash Royale or Candy Crush game, not even solitaire was available. There was no checking email, no ordering food to be delivered within an hour, nor could it play out a list of music and movies so large it wouldn't fit on an external drive. And there were absolutely no audio-books acted out by A-List celebrities of the day. It was a book reader. It did it's job. Random memory: the Amazon Beta Web Browser, which was a complete failure. They've come a long way. The Kindle of the day was clunky, heavy, awkward to hold and impossible prop up. It did have free 3G to get books, keep in mind there was not a functioning browser so you had to pick your books up on the website and 3G would download them for you automatically. It was a mixed bag of nuts and they were just starting to tap into the way people would view the world and books.
At the time I missed the the flip of the page after I licked my thumb, the smell of a classic book that carried me from childhood into adulthood, it's not unlike the feeling I get with old comics. It was a severe change that took a while to get used to. The perks of carrying thousands of books, comics and newspapers in my purse or hand has power for someone like me.
Today the impossible is possible. Everything I have been discussing plus so much more has simply changed the world. Why do I bring this up? Because I am an old hardhead that has a difficult time with drastic changes, but I love technology. I got very acquainted with Kindle, all versions, and I ended up relying on Kindle on so many occasions. As a true book nut to the bone, there are times when nothing could've helped, except Kindle with its 1,000's of books at my fingertips. You could say we have a deep understanding with each other. It tells me what books I might like and I tell it if it's true or not so it has to change and I don't. It is a one-sided relationship.
After getting the newest Kindle versions as they were released and having the world at my fingertips in tablet form, I found another conundrum: audio-books. I struggled with this and I still do. Something has changed and X-Files helped me see the benefit for many people. The last few years there has been a boom in people who self-publish eBooks and now there are book publishing houses that seek eBook writers and needless to say, some have become very big artist. With the boom of weekend warrior writers came a sub-genre of audio-books. At the time and still today, they get one person, possibly an actor, to read the book in different voices, but they weren't necessarily voice-over actors or actors at all. They are not very good. This is where my opinion comes flying off the page: why listen to a horrible voice job instead of reading book and allowing yourself the chance of the fantasy world come forth through your thoughts on what the author wrote. I simply love that. Books are made for reading with your eyes.
A few years ago I saw Amazon splashed with ads for a new audio-book for Stephen King "Nightmares and Dreamscapes" Volume 2 that was read out by Kathy Bates as top billing, but it also had Matthew Broderick, Tim Curry, and Stephen King himself narrating the short stories within. I knew then.
I checked and sure enough Nightmares and Dreamscapes Volume 1 had the same thing; Stephen King, Tim Curry Whoopi Goldberg and the delectable Rob Lowe narrating. I still refused to buy an audio-book. I do own all the volumes of Stephen King's Nightmares and Dreamscapes in actual hardback. Audio-book....ppfft. Who am I to talk? Later I bought all of King's Audibles. You can by clicking the pink up there.
It wasn't long after that I landed in eBook Land and got Kindle Unlimited, which were mostly self-published authors. I love a good book series and one day I noticed that a 14 book series I was clearly deeply involved in had the audio-book for .99. Yes, I will try it now. The narrating was by one person and there was not a stretch to the voice and I couldn't get swept away, but it was fun to read along. It was the best of two worlds for me. After that series was done I randomly picked up the very cheap accompanying eBook-Audio-Book, but I never really got anything from it except that it would automatically turn the pages for me as the audio went. I got lazier reading books. I still hadn't joined Audible.
A few days ago there is was. Sparkling like gold and it was magical like a level 101 wizard, (my red wizard didn't need food). It was reaching out to me, speaking to me, grabbing at me again and again.
The X-Files: Cold Cases. Cold cases! I frantically searched for the book. To no avail, I Google searched every eBook and called hardcover bookstore I could find a phone number for all over the world. It was a maddening, crazy dash like the world was ending if I didn't get my hands on this.
But this was special. It was only available on audio-book form. Yes, I bought it. You can by clicking here.
Listening to this with Beats Pro covering my ears, I grabbed a mug and settled into a comfy couch and dove in. I was thrilled to hear the voices from all the cast come up. This was so much more than your regular Audible. The sound effects, the surround sound, the original actors acting it out in my ears! The background story is easily recognizable for anyone who is a fan. I won't spoil it because it is great. I will say right now that I strongly suggest you purchase this and take a vacation. I will let you find the spoilers on another site. I will end by saying I am now a proud owner of an Audible subscription but words will always come first..
THANK YOU: Joe Harris (Author), Chris Carter (Author), Dirk Maggs - adaptation (Author), David Duchovny (Narrator), Gillian Anderson (Narrator), Mitch Pileggi (Narrator), Willliam B. Davis (Narrator), Tom Braidwood (Narrator), Dean Haglund(Narrator), Bruce Harwood (Narrator), Audible Studios (Publisher)