Happy Tuesday Bibliofriends!

This Top Ten Tuesday was so incredibly difficult for me due to the fact that I rarely listen to audiobooks. I also don’t listen to music when I read as I prefer the quiet (even though SOME PEOPLE in my household clearly don’t understand the fact that when undivided attention is on my book I am therefore unable to read and talk at the same time… *cue the eye-rolling and huffing*)!

For some reason I just feel like it’s cheating and I’m not actually “reading” at all. Also, I find that I tend to forget what happens in the story a lot easier with audiobooks than I do with reading physical books. Yep, I’m one of ‘those people’. Sorry not sorry!

However, more recently I have admittedly been scrolling through the audiobook catalogues in a fit of desperation just to try and give my reading challenge a bit of a boost! I’m already on my second one this year and trust me, that’s a record! So for TTT this week I decided to gather together my own random list of audio things to do with books…

Some musically bookish accompaniments…

10) Harry Potter Soundtrack

Ok, so my thinking here is that I’ve become so in love with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter that when I read the books I cannot help but hear the movie soundtrack in my head. The two things have become synonymous with each other in my brain and John Williams is a soundtrack genius!

9) The Lord of the Rings Soundtrack

Likewise with Harry Potter above, there’s just something about the soundtrack of LOTR that sends me immediately back to Middle Earth. For me, Howard Shore really got to the heart of the mash-up between Tolkien’s world and Peter Jackson’s vision.

8) Holst’s Planets Suite

I’m not the biggest classical music aficionado. I rarely get those really hard music questions on University Challenge correct, however Holst’s Planets Suite is one of my favourite pieces of classical music of all-time. It’s probably something to do with the Land of Hope and Glory vibe and I Vow to Thee My Country which are quite patriotic songs here in England. Mind you, if I listened to this whilst I was reading then I would probably be more focused on humming along to the tune than actually reading the words of my book!

7) 50 Greatest Pieces of Classical Music

This album is perfect to satisfy all of my classical music needs in one go. It’s surprising how many of the tunes are actually familiar when you hear them. I could definitely have this on as a bit of background noise when I’m absorbed in a good book.

6) The Fantasia Soundtrack

Fantasia was one of my favourite Disney movies as a kid and I still love it today. The way the cartoons were designed to match the different pieces of music is fantastic and again the lack of words to sing-a-long to would help me tune into my book a little bit more.

Audiobooks I’ve read/listened to:

5) The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (read by Paul Michael)

I think I bought this as a CD set because it was on sale. I can honestly tell you that I loved the premise of Dan Brown’s novel (as always) but I have no recollection of what actually happened! I couldn’t even begin to guess which character would have been the bad guy! At least I have a physical copy now for a re-read… at some point… when my TBR is not as full…

4) Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl (read by Chris O’Dowd)

Chris O’Dowd is such a fantastic narrator and his voice was perfect for this childhood classic. I sometimes play these audiobooks in my classroom during art afternoons and the kids love it.

3) The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (read by Kelsey Grammer)

This is my ‘currently listening to’. My first motivation for downloading this was that it was free on iTunes. The second was that this is one of those classic Sci-Fi reads that is probably on the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list. And thirdly, I need to do whatever I can to help me get my read count up! I’m kind of enjoying it so far although it is quite hard to keep up with the story, especially when I’m listening to it in the car on the way to work!

2) Mythos by and read by Stephen Fry 

I am so glad that I downloaded this and listened to it on the long journeys down to Cornwall and back. Fry is an excellent orator and his storytelling really bought the Greek myths to life. I’d highly recommend it to anyone who loves either audiobooks or the Greek myths.

And finally…The ultimate reading soundtrack…

1) SILENCE – Reading is the chance to escape whatever is going on in this reality and jump into a new world. For me, the perfect way to absorb right into that is with no sounds around at all. There are so many distractions around already from the TV or mobile phones etc. that sometimes it’s nice to switch off completely with a good read and the sound of silence.

Woohoo, I made it through to the end…if you’ve cared enough to read this far then thank you! I’m not managing to get around to writing as much as I’d like to recently as my head is filled with so many things taking up much more of my time than I’d like; which then in turn leaves me frustrated and angry as I really don’t want to neglect my blog again. Thankfully, the Easter holidays are nearly here and I should be able to try and get ahead of myself rather than try to keep chasing my tail all the time! Anyone else have patches like that?

To all of the readers who continuously read my posts and like/comment on them – I love you guys!

Happy reading everyone! 3 more sleeps until the weekend!

T xx