The Joys of Painting

I mentioned in a previous post some of the sorrows of painting - how it can be tedious, how you have to bend over and move your arm a lot, how it can be messy, and how the end sometimes seems unreachable. I didn't mention how bugs stick the paint when you are painting at night and leave the door open.

But in all that moaning and expostulating I only mentioned one of the things that makes me like painting - that I can do it well. I meant to go on to mention a couple other things that make painting much more agreeable. In fact, I rather like painting. It's productive. It gives me a nice sense of accomplishment when I have finished a job. And most of all, I can listen to audiobooks.

For years, I have had a long list of books that I knew I wanted to read "someday." I suppose it would be more accurate to say I had several such lists, for I never kept any one of them very long before it got lost, destroyed, or filched. I would rewrite it, and the titles would change, but the more absolute list of books that I had actually read would remain the same. I lapsed into despair ... until, like the glorious, golden sun rising over the snow-capped Caucasus mountains in a perfect Azerbaijani sunrise, the great discovery of audiobooks peered over my horizon and became a part of my life forever.

I made this great discovery last year during summer work at Fairwood. I had known for some time that the NH library website offers free audiobook rentals, and I had purposely bought an MP3 player that could play them and hold a lot of them. (I had been planning to make this discovery for some time.) Most of my time that week was divided between insulating the attic over the main house apartment and painting the dining hall, and both jobs are great audiobook jobs. I tackled them, a very talented British woman whispering the words of Tolstoy into my ears, and by the end of the week I was able to cross Anna Karenina off my list. (Fabulous book, by the way. Highly recommended. And Wanda McCaddon is a highly recommended reader.)

I have continued to take advantage of the opportunity to mingle work with entertainment and education throughout my painting this summer, and I have certainly enjoyed it. I love being able to listen to great stories and be productive - and earn money - at the same time. My list for this summer so far includes The Golden Key and Gone With the North Wind by George MacDonald, The Magician's Nephew, The Horse and His Boy, and Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, and The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle. In just the past two weeks I've listened to The Great Gatsby, Prince Caspian, and My Antonia. And I have copies of Persuasion, Moby Dick, The Age of Innocence, War and Peace, and Wuthering Heights waiting for me when I want them.

The beauty of this - perhaps I should say "another beauty of this," since I have just enchanted you with the beauty of listening and working simultaneously - the beauty of this is that it's all free! Not that free is always a good thing - I must admit that some of the readers from volunteer-based audiobook sites like Librivox have obnoxious voices, and I know from experience that it is hard to pay attention to the story when you're paying attention to the narrator's ridiculous accent or monotonous tone. One Librivox reader I previewed would read with a kind of sawtooth intonation. At the beginning of the sentence she would speak with a high pitch, and she would gradually lower her voice as she uttered each word. At the end of the sentence or clause she would begin again, with the exact same tone as before. It is difficult to demonstrate in writing the soporific effect of this habit of hers. Perhaps if you ask me I will demonstrate it for you some time. In the meantime, I listen mostly to the library audiobooks: every one is professionally recorded, and I have not been disappointed by many of the readers.

Of course, real reading with a book is not without it's distinct charms and pleasures, and I really enjoy sitting down with a good book. The trouble is that I never budget my time with reading in mind, and I never end up giving myself the chance. There are a number of books on my list of which I can't get free copies, and some of the ones that I can get for free are read by people with horrible reading voices. These ones I will read myself...

... someday.