It’s the first Monday of the month. And we all know what that means . . .

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• What book(s) did you finish reading (or listening to) since last month’s update?

• What are you currently reading and/or listening to?

• What’s the next book on your To Be Read stack/list?

’Shipping. It’s no longer just for packages and cargo. In fact, I’m sure it’s been around as long as fiction has been written. To ’ship is to dream about / talk about / write about relationships between fictional characters who either appear in the same show/movie/book but do not (or may not yet) have a romantic relationship or who are from different stories but we’d like to see them together. And, from what I surmise from the research I did when writing Turnabout’s Fair Play, most of the online fanfic world is comprised of ’ship stories.

For example: Penelope and Morgan in Criminal Minds, Emma and August (or Emma and Graham) in Once Upon a Time, Castle and Beckett from Castle, Sue and Jack from Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye, Jo and Laurie in Little Women, Dorothy and the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, the Doctor and (name one of his sidekicks) from Dr. Who, and so on.

I personally ’ship all the time with characters in my favorite TV shows and movies. The first time Rosalee appeared on GRIMM, I wanted her and Monroe to get together. (They’re so popular now, they have their own ’ship portmanteau: Monrosalee. I also ’shipped Juliet and Sawyer in LOST long before they actually got together, and one of my biggest wishes for the series finale was to see them get back together. In fact, LOST generated many of these, including Charlie and Claire, Hurley and Libby, and Daniel and Charlotte.

I’ve done something similar to ’shipping with a few of my books, as well . . . from my desire to see certain secondary characters in shows/movies I watch step into the limelight and have their own romances. For example, part of the inspiration for George Laurence in Stand-In Groom came from my desire to see the character of Methos in the Highlander TV show have a happily ever after ending to his story arc. The entire Ransome trilogy came about because I fell in love with Lieutenant William Bush (as portrayed by the inimitable Paul McGann) in the last four Hornblower movies. I wasn’t actually ’shipping either of those characters—I wasn’t writing pure fanfic using existing characters; I was taking what I loved about each of those characters (and the actors portraying them) and making them into something of my own creation. But it started out as my figuring out what kind of heroine would be “good enough” for the characters of someone else’s creation I’d fallen “in love” with.

Recently, I posted this on my Facebook Page:

Will I ever write it? In my own round-about way, I might—as those two characters could serve as the templates on which I build characters (and a storyline) of my very own.

Do you ’ship? What are some of your favorite characters to ’ship? Would you ever (or do you) write ’ship fanfic? Would/do you read ’ship fanfic?

I’ve seen lots of articles recently (here, here, here, and several others) about how readers may complain about “spoilers,” yet secretly, they want to know how the book ends before investing the time in reading.

I’ve always said I’m the kind of person who doesn’t want spoilers when it comes to books or movies—I don’t want the “ending” ruined for me. But the more I’ve thought about it, the more I realize it’s not really the ending—it’s the surprises and twists and laugh-lines (or poignant moments) I don’t want ruined. I pretty much want to be guaranteed that the book is going to turn out the way I want it to. Which is the reason I typically only read romance novels. Because I’m guaranteed a happily-ever-after ending. And if I don’t get the ending I want, I have every right to complain about it because the happy ending is an expectation of the genre (just like the mystery being solved is an expectation for the mystery genre).

When Little Dorrit aired on Masterpiece Classic a few years ago, I got drawn into it. And after a few hours of emotional investment in the characters, I pulled up the book summary on Wikipedia and read it to make sure that it would end the way I wanted to—because if it didn’t, I wasn’t going to invest any more of my time/emotion in watching it. With Charles Dickens, you can never be sure!

Then, there’s the Game of Thrones series. I read the first book—devoured it, more like. Loved it. Immediately started reading the second book. And, after slogging for three or four months to get halfway through it, I gave up on reading it. I figured I’d just stick with the TV show. But, as I don’t have cable (not even basic, much less premium), I had to wait for the DVDs. And while waiting, I decided I wanted to see what I’d be missing by not reading the books. So I did my old stand-by—I pulled the summaries up on Wikipedia and read the “spoilers.” And I discovered that (a) it wasn’t anywhere near being finished and (b) I didn’t like the direction (or non-direction, actually) Martin was taking the story nor the number of main characters he kills off in the process. So I decided not to waste any more time with it.

However, I’m not the kind of person who’ll pick up a new-to-me book and immediately read the last page. As I said, I read romance novels for that very reason—so I don’t have to. Now, I have had a few authors pull a fast one on me and have the heroine (or hero) end up with someone else other than the one I wanted them to be with—but those are usually books that are historicals with a romance thread, not true romances. So I’m very careful about trying not to pick those up anymore.

And yet . . .

When it comes to movies based on books, I don’t always read the book before seeing the movie. I don’t usually even look up the summary to see how it will go. So, in some ways, I do occasionally like to be surprised. Just not all the time. It’s weird, I know.

Do you want to know the ending before investing the time to read a book? Do spoilers bother you?

“Audio Book” by Jeff Golden on Flickr

Many, many people have mentioned from time to time here that you like to listen to audiobooks. If it weren’t for those, I wouldn’t have gotten through half the books I’ve read this year. When I’m at home, it’s hard for me to make myself find the time to sit down and read—and most of the time, if I read before bed, I’m falling asleep after about fifteen minutes (and, as a confirmed night person, this is actually a good thing, because it means I’m getting almost enough sleep every night).

Even though most of the audiobooks I listen to are decidedly on the adult level (the history of the English language, the biography of Victoria and Albert, general-market romance, etc.), it really takes me back to when I was a kid and I’d go to sleep listening to tapes made from the records we had of the Disney movies—and other children’s movies/stories/books. (Remember, that was back in the day before VCRs, so all we had were the LPs that had an abridged version of the dialogue along with some of the music from those movies. The album covers usually included a picture book of images from the movie that could be read along while the record played.) In fact, I still listen to music at night—mostly instrumental movie/TV soundtrack music.

I thought it would be fun to talk about audiobooks today. Here are a few areas we can discuss:

Where do you get your audiobooks?

I am an Audible.com “gold” member—meaning that for a certain monthly rate, I get one “credit” each month. The majority of audiobooks go for one credit, which means I basically get one audiobook a month for $14.95. I don’t always get one each month, but that’s okay, because up to six credits can “roll over.”

On what kind of device do you listen to your audiobooks?

I used to listen to them exclusively on my MP3 player. But that was before I had my iPad and discovered the Audible app. (I know, I know. I’m a traitor to the PC cause.) Because I’m not listening to the audiobooks driving to work every day (I only have a fifteen minute drive now, and it’s in pretty heavy traffic, so I’m better off with music), I’m listening to them primarily at home. And because my iPad will charge while plugged in, which my MP3 won’t, I’m less likely to have the device die on me. Plus it’s nice to be able to download instantly, instead of having to dig up the USB cord and sit at the computer to download an audiobook to the MP3.

Is there a particular type of story (genre) you prefer listening to as an audio book?

I will, and have, listened to just about everything. Though, as happened last month, there are occasions on which I’ll switch to the printed version of a book (usually an ebook) because there’s something about the story that just isn’t moving fast enough for me and I’m wanting to be able to skim/skip the boring/non-interesting stuff.

Who are your favorite audiobook narrators?

The best male narrator I’ve ever heard is Jim Dale, who did the American versions of the Harry Potter books (apparently, Stephen Fry did the versions made in Britain). Jim Dale is in the Guinness Book of World Records for the number of unique character voices he created. I have all seven of the books in unabridged audio format, and he makes them come alive. Of course, I’ve listened to samples of him reading other books—and I just can’t break his voice away from the Harry Potter series in my mind enough to be able to connect with the new story he’s doing.


My favorite female narrator is Charlotte Parry. I first came across her when I listened to Sandra Byrd’s To Die For, and she was brilliant with that one—again, bringing the story to life, almost as if it were a dramatized version. But it was when I listened to Philippa Gregory’s The Boleyn Inheritance that I absolutely fell in love with Parry’s vocal ability. With three readers reading the three POV characters, it truly was like a dramatization—and Parry outshone the other two by miles, bringing so much personality to Catherine Howard just through her vocalizations. (Of course, both stories were excellently written, as well.)

What’s your favorite audiobook you’ve listened to in 2012?

Because I’m a word-nerd, and because both the author and the narrator made the topic not just interesting but humorous as well, I’m going to have to go with The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language by Melvyn Bragg, read by Robert Powell. Now, I haven’t been able to find out if this is the same Robert Powell who played Jesus in Jesus of Nazareth back in the 1970s, but whoever he is, he is amazing.

What’s your favorite audiobook (or series) of all time?

If you haven’t guessed, for me it’s the Harry Potter series. I’ve listened to those more often than any other audiobook I have—almost once a year, but not always starting with the first one. Sometimes, I skip the first three and get on to the meat of the story, starting with GoF. And I came to this series when I was already in my early thirties. So it’s not like I grew up with them. They’re just fabulous stories. J.K. Rowling is great at character, plot, and world building; and Jim Dale is a fantastic narrator.

Feel free to answer any or all of these questions in the comments!

It completely slipped my mind that today is the first Monday of the month. And we all know what the first Monday of the month means . . .

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• What is the most recent book you’ve finished reading? (Please tell us a little about it, and whether or not you enjoyed/would recommend it.)

• What are you currently reading?

• What’s the next book on your To Be Read stack?