After having experienced a well-produced audio book like The Help, I am convinced that sometimes we rely too much on the imagery that TV shows and movies place before us.

I had never really been a fan of audio books before this — I just didn’t seem to be able to get into them. In talking to an acquaintance who is a fan of audio books, she was amazed that I would not like audio books. She asked me why and I told her. Then she countered with “you just haven’t found the good ones”. The Help was at the top of her list for me to try. I had already had good reviews from other family members who had read the print book, but I had just not gotten around to it.

I checked with my local library for The Help audio book and was able to get it after a short wait. The audio edition is an unabridged huge set of 15 CD’s … that’s a lot of listening time. Yikes – 15 CD’s – what had I gotten myself into? And then as I set aside some time each day with my knitting and listened to a CD, I started getting so interested that I was not looking forward to reaching the 15th CD!

This audio book was very well done. I particularly liked that different people took on the different characters in the book. I thought this was much better than just hearing the same narrator speaking throughout the story (however, they try to imitate different tonal inflections or fake accents, it always sounds like they are the same person to me and I sort of zone out). I began to be so involved in The Help story, I could just ‘see’ the characters and felt I was living in that time. It was better than any TV or movie production could be, because it was my own personal production of imagery in my mind’s eye.

I sort of felt like my parents must have felt when listening to weekly ‘shows’ on the radio. Do you remember “The Lone Ranger” on radio (ok, I know I am giving away my age). My first recollections of that as a very young child was hearing the clip-clop of horses hooves simulated over the air waves while my parents washed and dried the dishes after suppertime. Of course, it was later turned into a TV show. I guess that is progress.

If you haven’t read The Help yet, I recommend this audio version very much. And even if you have already read the book, I am guessing that you might enjoy this audio version as well.

p.s. Some of you might be wondering about the little heart doily that partially shows in the middle photo. I knitted this doily from “Valentine” Design on pages 61 -62 of Marianne Kinzel’s First Book of Modern Lace Knitting. I made the small doily version on size US 2 needles using some red linen from my stash. The doily is sandwiched between 2 rounds of plexiglas and stands vertically in a holder.

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