Last year while Keir was away fighting forest fires in the wilds of Montana, I was battling a faulty compact disc player.

You may recall that I won the scuffle with the CD player when I introduced it to my hammer. But I lost the war. I bought an iPod that same day.

My fellow joggers are no longer treated to my scowling mug on the trail. There are no more blips, skips or hiccups in my exer-listening. Instead, I gasp, grin and laugh out loud. I especially laugh at Slam by Nick Hornby.

The more I listen to this brutally honest and funny teenager’s story of fatherhood and the philosophy of sk8ing,  the more I laugh. Other folks on the jogging trail give me funny looks which makes me speed up to get away from them.

I’m taking stock of how audiobooks have made improvements in my life. Once I demolished the CD player, I know my blood pressure went down and I got a good upper body workout in the process. Now that I listen to my books on an iPod, I’m walking farther and faster to get away from walkers who think I’m deranged for jogging while jovial.

Audiobooks—burning calories, protecting my social sanity, and improving my mind. A biblio-trifecta. Woot.

What a wonderful night! The Booklist Magazine Books for Youth Forum at the 2008 American Library Association conference in Anaheim celebrated the very first Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production. Stephanie Zvirin welcomed the standing-room-only audience of 500 or so with the bittersweet announcement that this was her last Forum, as she will be leaving her post as Booklist’s Books for Youth Editor after more than 30 years. Sue-Ellen Beauregard, Booklist’s Media Editor, served as the event moderator, introducing author & audiobook producer Bruce Coville whose Homeric words proved to be the perfect symbolic Champagne-bottle-smash to set the Odyssey off on its voyage. His ritual shedding of the jacket is now an entrenched part of the finest Booklist-sponsored ALA gala events - as was echoed by Lynn Rutan at the 2008 Printz Award ceremony. Next, I had the honor to thank the awesome members of the Best. Committee. Ever. Those wonderful women made my year as chair of the Odyssey Award the best year ever! Learn more in Sylvia Vardell’s Booklist article My Odyssey Voyage that takes you behind the scenes of the committee.

The fantastic ALSC staff coordinated the creation of the Odyssey Honor plaques (equal to the Newbery, Caldecott, and Printz). I had the privilege to present the Honor recognition to Listen & Live Audio for Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary ‘Jacky’ Faber, Ship’s Boy; Weston Woods for Dooby Dooby Moo; Listening Library for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows; HarperChildren’s Audio for Skulduggery Pleasant; and Listening Library for Treasure Island. Read Booklist’s reviews of the Honor titles here.

The highlight of the evening was the standing ovation for 2008 Odyssey Award winner Arnie Cardillo of Live Oak Media as he took the stage to accept the beautiful gold medal for his production of Jazz – read Booklist’s review here. He spoke to the audience about the amazing collaboration between author Walter Dean Myers, illustrator Christopher Myers, and the 15-member Live Oak production team that worked for five months to create the 42-minute readalong audiobook. The perfect end to the program were the witty & warm remarks and mesmerizing readings from audiobook narrator extraordinaire Simon Vance, recently honored with the title “Voice of Choice” by Booklist Magazine. Who knew that this was his very first public speaking appearance after over 400 audiobooks & stage, screen, and TV acting career!?! The final touch was an appearance by Harry Potter narrator Jim Dale via recorded DVD, who elicited fan-girl squeals from Odyssey committee members when he gave them his special thanks. When we looked out from the stage and saw Newbery-winning authors sitting on the floor throughout the night, we knew this was a night to remember!

You can share the highlights of the evening by listening to the Odyssey Award podcast here. Look for a future post with Jim Dale’s video from the Odyssey Award Celebration!

Happy Listening!

Mary Burkey

2008 Chair, Odyssey Award

Update: Here’s the link to the Jim Dale video.

I don’t have a lot of patience for those crepe-hangers who like to bemoan the fate of the book. Faced with the looming onslaught of technical devices with which to read, they wring their hands and clutch their beloved copies of Great Expectations to their heaving bosoms, vowing never to let ear buds invade their ear drums. They are annoyingly certain that only their imagination is the perfect conduit for an author’s words, not some narrator and they don’t want any gadgetry getting in the way of their printed pleasure.

Today I’m here to tell those folks to keep their dust jackets on, the printed book isn’t going anywhere. My experience this morning while out for a run is proof.

Armed with a bottle of water and my CD player, I slipped the latest disc of the audio book I’m reviewing (and enjoying) into the player, set the volume, adjusted the ear pieces and kicked up my heels on a dusty track.

Halfway through the thrilling and perfectly narrated disc, it started to hiccup like an annoying drunk imparting much needed driving directions. I ignored it. I wasn’t missing much of the story. It blipped, skipped, and hicc’d for the next half hour. So much so that my heart rate is unmeasurable at the end of the run, it’s skipping and blipping along to the CD.

I cooled down (hardly) by walking and trying to hold the player to keep it from skittering. I was at a good part and I really wanted to hear what happened next. I held the player down by my side, over my head, stuffed it in my pocket. Nothing helped. I gave up and fumed the last quarter mile. “If I had a real book this wouldn’t happen. I could hold the book up in front of my face and turn pages. Of course, I’d have to stop at crosswalks. And it might be difficult to follow the words if I’m bouncing while I’m running. But at least I’d be able to read all the damn words!”

This isn’t the first time this player has sputtered its way through a workout. But I’d had it with technology by the time I got home. I left the CD player on the porch after I removed the disc and batteries. I got a cup of coffee and a hammer and went onto the porch for the upper body portion of the exercise hour.

You can’t imagine how great it is to beat the hell out of a worn out CD player. There are little pieces of plastic and metal artfully scattered on my porch. I’ll clean it up later.

Right now, I just had to share my firm belief that the printed book isn’t on its way out, so ya’ll eye-readers can just settle. And I need to order an mp3 player and sign up for Overdrive.