Stephen
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Be Useful
- Seven Tools for Life
- By: Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Narrated by: Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Length: 6 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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The world’s greatest bodybuilder. The world’s highest-paid movie star. The leader of the world’s sixth-largest economy. That these are the same person sounds like the setup to a joke, but this is no joke. This is Arnold Schwarzenegger. And this did not happen by accident. Arnold’s stratospheric success happened as part of a process. As the result of clear vision, big thinking, hard work, direct communication, resilient problem-solving, open-minded curiosity, and a commitment to giving back. All of it guided by the one lesson Arnold’s father hammered into him above all: be useful.
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A Clear Concise picture of vision and purpose
- By Empress Karen on 10-10-23
- Be Useful
- Seven Tools for Life
- By: Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Narrated by: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Good Advice from a surprising man
Reviewed: 01-12-24
I don’t know what I was expecting, but the book was inspiring and entertaining. Arnold’s life is full of interesting details, and his honesty about that life was neat to hear.
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The Creative Act
- A Way of Being
- By: Rick Rubin
- Narrated by: Rick Rubin
- Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed expectations in order to reconnect with a state of innocence from which the surprising becomes inevitable. Over the years, he has learned that being an artist isn’t about your specific output, it’s about your relationship to the world.
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Rick is Art
- By Ira Henke on 01-17-23
- The Creative Act
- A Way of Being
- By: Rick Rubin
- Narrated by: Rick Rubin
An Artist’s Perspective
Reviewed: 06-30-23
Rick Rubin has spent year honing his craft, and this book is full of little gems. His perspective encompasses more than music, and in fact, his production methods are hardly mentioned. There is no name dropping. Rubin is talking about creativity here.
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The Philosophy of Modern Song
- By: Bob Dylan
- Narrated by: Bob Dylan, Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Dylan, who began working on the book in 2010, offers his insight into the nature of popular music. He writes over sixty essays focusing on songs by other artists, spanning from Stephen Foster to Elvis Costello, and in between ranging from Hank Williams to Nina Simone. He analyzes what he calls the trap of easy rhymes, breaks down how the addition of a single syllable can diminish a song, and even explains how bluegrass relates to heavy metal. These essays are written in Dylan’s unique prose. And while ostensibly about music, they are really meditations on the human condition.
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Needs chapter headings
- By kaon on 12-22-22
So, I gotta know: was the cover photoshopped?
Reviewed: 12-05-22
Dylan takes us through a magical tour of American music. Presented with Dylan’s wit, it’s a wonderful romp.
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Francesco Clemente
- Between Citation and Satire
- By: James Cahill
- Narrated by: Anneliese Rennie
- Length: 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Cv/VAR 155 presents a review by James Cahill of an exhibition by the renowned artist Francesco Clemente (b. 1952), exploring his first show in London for seven years. The monograph includes a conversation recorded with the artist in which he discusses the new paintings, and the ideas which grounded their development.
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Narrator ruins this informative work
- By Stephen on 10-10-17
- Francesco Clemente
- Between Citation and Satire
- By: James Cahill
- Narrated by: Anneliese Rennie
Narrator ruins this informative work
Reviewed: 10-10-17
I like Clemente’s paintings, so I was happy to buy this audiobook. However, the narrator is too breezy, too lilting, almost as it’s a chore for her. There is no weight to the sentences. Cahill’s art-historical text is given short shrift, and that is unfortunate.
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2 people found this helpful
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Pale Blue Dot
- A Vision of the Human Future in Space
- By: Carl Sagan
- Narrated by: Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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In Cosmos, the late astronomer Carl Sagan cast his gaze over the magnificent mystery of the Universe and made it accessible to millions of people around the world. Now in this stunning sequel, Carl Sagan completes his revolutionary journey through space and time.
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Audio Quality Choices
- By JR on 05-30-17
- Pale Blue Dot
- A Vision of the Human Future in Space
- By: Carl Sagan
- Narrated by: Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan
A Classic, but...
Reviewed: 06-13-17
Carl Sagan was a great in popularizing science, making astronomy and physics engaging, entertaining and charming. The book as a whole is great and Sagan's narration is so good, because he narrates like he's in conversation. Unfortunately, the original masters were damaged so Sagan doesn't do the whole book. His partner Ann Druyan narrates the remaining chapters. It not really unlistenable but Druyan's voice is thin and at times uneven, going from normal time to a whisper.
It a good, inspiring listen partly hobbled by uneven narration.
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39 people found this helpful
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Alice Behind Wonderland
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 2 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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On a summer's day in 1858, in a garden behind Christ Church College in Oxford, Charles Dodgson, a lecturer in mathematics, photographed six-year-old Alice Liddell, the daughter of the college dean, with a Thomas Ottewill Registered Double Folding camera, recently purchased in London. Simon Winchester deftly uses the resulting image - as unsettling as it is famous, and the subject of bottomless speculation - as the vehicle for a brief excursion behind the lens, a focal point on the origins of a classic work of English literature.
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Not Long Enough
- By thefrogman on 06-18-12
- Alice Behind Wonderland
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
A good little story
Reviewed: 05-17-15
This is wonderful and insightful book on Charles Dodgson and his obsession with photography, his relationship with the Liddell family and the origin of Alice in a Wonderland. The author reads the book, and I've always liked the treat of hearing the writer narrate. It is a short, concise story, but rich in illumination.
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5 people found this helpful
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The Future
- Six Drivers of Global Change
- By: Al Gore
- Narrated by: Al Gore
- Length: 18 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Ours is a time of revolutionary change that has no precedent in history. With the same passion he brought to the challenge of climate change, and with his decades of experience on the front lines of global policy, Al Gore surveys our planet’s beclouded horizon and offers a sober, learned, and ultimately hopeful forecast in the visionary tradition of Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock and John Naisbitt’s Megatrends. In The Future, Gore identifies the emerging forces that are reshaping our world....
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Sorry Al it realy dose not work...
- By Mark on 01-31-13
A very good read
Reviewed: 04-25-13
Where does The Future rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Pretty high. It's a concise expanded essay on the challenges facing the global community and the United States in particular. Gore spends a good deal of time laying the groundwork for each challenge that will impact the future of humanity--from global climate change (his linchpin issue) to the use of biotech and its ethical considerations, to the interconnected, fragile global financial system.
What other book might you compare The Future to and why?
Al Gore's The Assault On Reason is a nice introduction to the topics in this book.
Which scene was your favorite?
The description of the use of fiber optic lines in providing the financial industry ever increasing transaction speeds.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Yes, but it is long.
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