The Experiment Appears to Have Been Successful
My county library’s Goodreads Challenge for May is to listen to an audio book; that coupled with the death of my treadmill and the impossibility of reading on the elliptical pushed me to explore the possibility of listening to a book while exercising. My hubby very sweetly put several apps on my phone to make the process easier for me, and a week or two ago I went looking for an audio book that fit my inaugural requirements. I wanted something a) non-fiction (listening to fiction has been a struggle for me in the past), b) immediately available to borrow (so many of the books I was considering had a holds list!), and c) relatively short, since that seemed wise for a first try. After a great deal of searching and one false start, I ended up with Stephen Rebello’s Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho.
I have to say, it was generally fascinating. I’ve always been a sucker for ‘making of’s, and while my interests lie in the history rather than the intricacies of film making, Rebello’s story and tone were well done enough that I never got bogged down in the details. I’m not usually a fan of horror movies, thrillers, shockers–you name it–but I do enjoy Hitchcock enough that I checked “Psycho” out of the library once upon a time and watched it.* It’s been a while, but I remembered enough not to be lost.
As for the audio part of the audio book, well, I still prefer reading when I can, but listening when I can’t read worked well enough for me to try it again. (I’ll keep you posted.) In the meantime, if the topic or Hitchcock in general interest you, this is definitely a worthwhile read–I learned all kinds of interesting things. (Did you know that a toilet had never been seen onscreen before? Not even someone using the toilet–just the thing itself?) You should try it–and let me know what you think.
*I have a memory of doing it the first night my sister was home from the hospital with her oldest girl, which meant she would have been on a mattress in the same room as the TV for the night; I feel worse about this now that I’ve had babies and been through postpartum myself.