Everett

Moving, sad, poignant, memorable

Revisado: 06-18-22

Like the Great Santini, a lot of this book is about Conroy’s tyrant of a father. It’s also a lot about what we learn from sports, especially the heartbreaking lessons of losing.

The only thing I have to criticize is the narration. It’s not as awful as many Audiobooks, but there could have been more research put into pronouncing things correctly. For example, a lot of the book takes place in Beaufort, SC which the narrator erroneously pronounced “Boe-fort” instead of the correct “Byoo-furt.”

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Narration is the worst

Revisado: 09-02-17

As with other things Mark Manson has written, the content is quite good. This is the first time I have listened to him rather than read him in paper. It will be the last. He is an *awful* narrator. His voice is not pleasant, his reading is not smooth, and the audio quality is muffled. It sounds like he recorded it in one take on his phone while sitting in his car. Absolutely awful and completely distracting. Skip the audio version and read the book.

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Basic and obvious; narration is awful

Revisado: 09-02-17

If you're absolutely, completely clueless how women think and operate, this book will give you some basics. But, I'm referring to people who are the emotional equivalent of being functionally illiterate. If you are a moderately self-aware and polite person, this book states the obvious.

The narration is simply awful. I guess they didn't want to spend the money for a professional narrator, but they couldn't even be bothered to edit out mistakes, stumbles, coughs, etc. Abd the author's voice does not lend itself to reading aloud.

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Fantastic!

Revisado: 09-17-10

Both veteran umpires and casual baseball fans alike will find much of interest in this book. It's well written, thoroughly researched, and the narration is perfect (it's always better when they get people involved in the subject to read – Charley Steiner is a veteran baseball broadcaster – rather than one of all those bland, dry "professional narrators"!). If you like baseball, even if you don't consider yourself a fan of the umpires, you will enjoy this book.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

A bit dry, both in content and narration...

Revisado: 09-17-10

Whenever I review an audiobook, I comment on both the book itself and the narration, as poor narration can make or break a book, even if it's a good one in print.

Books like this lend themselves especially well to audio format, as they're essentially a collection of stories. If done well, it's like listening to an eloquent old-timer tell fascinating stories from his past. If done poorly, it's a bit like the auditory equivalent of watching grass grow. While I wouldn't say the narration here is quite as bad as the latter analogy, it's closer to it than to the former. Michael Kramer is dry and passionless in his narration. He inject no color into the stories. He's simply... reading. Quite boring. These professional narrators just leave me cold. They have clear voices and good diction, but no character. They would have been much better off getting someone from the baseball world to read the book. Veteran broadcaster Charley Steiner, who narrated the excellent umpiring chronicle, "As They See 'em" would have been perfect.

As to the book itself, it's a little boring as well. Perhaps it's just because I've been involved in baseball all my life, but most of the codes were pretty obvious and well-known. The book is heavy on anecdotes, many of which are not nearly as interesting as one would think. Anecdotes are a good thing, but he provides too many of them for each of the "codes." He seems intent on having about five – lengthy! – examples for each one, where one or two, perhaps three, would have been fine. This makes the book drag on a bit, and leaves the reader often thinking, "okay... I get it!" It could have been more effective by grouping them into themes rather than specific "codes," and then having different examples within the theme.

If you're new to baseball, yet very interested in it, you will probably enjoy this book – if the narration doesn't put you to sleep, you will probably enjoy it. If you're a baseball veteran, you won't find too much new inside.

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esto le resultó útil a 8 personas