The wife and the boys and I are often in the car for 30 minutes or more, heading off to various activities or events. We live pretty far outside of town, and when we need to head into the city, it's almost an hour. While we have lots of music, discussions, and what not, the boys aren't quite ready to listen to the unfiltered news.
My wife, out of nowhere: "Is Dagobah in Rivendell?" Me: "We made need to get a divorce."
— Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) November 19, 2012
My buddy Dennis Petersen from LEGO recommended Star Wars audiobooks as a great way to pass the time as a family. I was a little suspicious, as I've listened to a lot of Audible audiobooks and it's been hit or miss. It all comes down to having a good narrator. Also, has the producer of the audio book decided that this would be a voice actor just reading the book or is this a radio production with music, voices, and sound effects.
The Star Wars Random House audiobooks with narrator Marc Thompson are AMAZING. My family and I have listened to nearly 50 hours of them and we still have a dozen and a half to go. These audiobooks strike a great balance between a dry reading (bad) and a the sounds of a movie (over the top). Marc Thompson does ALL the voices himself, and they are spot on. From Jabba to Boba Fett, C3PO to Darth Vader, we are consistently blown away by the quality of the voices. It's not distracting at all and it makes it much easier to follow the story.
You can buy any of the Star Wars audiobooks in Audible format at Amazon or as Audio CDs. You can also get them at iTunes. I recommend starting with the Star Wars: Legacy of the Force Series. The first book is #1 Betrayal. This starts 40 years the battle of Yavin when the first Death Star was destroyed. Leia and Han are married, they have two kids, and there's bunch of cool stuff going on.
Now at this point in the post, the non-Star Wars aficionados amongst you may have already checked out. But let me tell you this. My wife is NOT a Star Wars person. She couldn't care less. She slept through the movies. BUT, she loves these books. We'll get home from somewhere and she'll insist we sit in the driveway and finish a chapter. It's amazing.
The whole family has been having fun with these. It's much better (IMHO) than giving the kids an iPad or a DVD player on a long trip, and it's got us pausing the book and discussion galactic affairs with the 6 year old (who has turned out to be quite the the strategist).
Check out this YouTube video for a sense of the quality of narator Marc Thompson's amazing range. We've gotten to know him very well as a family, we think, while listening to these books.
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