When we thinking of reading a book we often imagine curling up in a cozy spot with a paperback. Technology, however, has provided us with a multitude of ways to enjoy a good story. Although for most of us, nothing really replaces the experience of a tangible book, you have to admit, technology can be pretty handy for booklovers. Audiobooks allow us to multitask; a captivating story can make a long drive fly by or chores seems less arduous. E-books give us the “space” to take an entire library with us wherever we go. And movies can be a really fun way to see how someone else imagined the characters we love or they can get us interested in reading the book the movie was based on.
Today in our Together We Read series we wanted to share with you some of our SLOCA community’s favorites in regards to books and technology. So settle in and maybe you’ll find a new way to enjoy a new read.
What is your favorite audiobook for kids?
- Deena Eschenbach: My Side of the Mountain
- Tracy Wick: Mr. Lemoncello’s Library Olympics
- Jill Richert: The Wind in the Willows
- Sarah Ryan: The Whatever After series
- Andria McGhee: Harry Potter Series, The Princess Bride
- Rebekah Venturini: Any Harry Potter book and the Upside-Down Magic series
- Jennifer Martinez: We recently listened to Grump and Rump, both by Liesl Shurtliff. They’re fun retellings of Snow White from the dwarf’s perspective and Rumpelstiltskin from “Rump’s” perspective.
- Wendy Shaw Dahl: Click Clack Moo narrated by Randy Travis! Harry Potter series narrated by Jim Dale.
- Stephanie Ridley: They are not audiobook people; they prefer to read the books. If they are going to listen to storytelling, it has always been Jim Weiss.
- Sharon Cumberland: Winnie the Pooh – The version with Judi Dench, Stephen Fry, and more is so great! It had our whole family laughing.
- Jenny Bischoff: Favorites are so hard to choose, but the Narnia series is great on Audible. My kids also loved the Peter and the Starcatchers series on audio, and Harry Potter of course. Bud, Not Buddy was a wonderful audiobook. My daughter loved The Penderwicks series when she was LMS/UMS age. OH, and the How to Train Your Dragon audio series is fantastic for elementary-aged kids, but all ages would enjoy it I think.
What is your favorite audiobook for adults?
- Laurie Fletes: Live by Sadie Robertson
- Deena Eschenbach: The Bible
- Tracy Wick: Talking to Strangers
- Sarah Ryan: I don’t do too many audiobooks but I did really benefit from Atomic Habits by James Clear
- Andria McGhee: Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Rebekah Venturini: Beastie Boys Book and You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacy
- Vanessa Stringham: Anne of Green Gables, Where the Crawdads Sing, Harry Potter series
- Sharon Cumberland: Pride and Prejudice read by Rosamond Pike (She does such a great job with all the characters!)
- Jenny Bischoff: Two that immediately come to mind: True Grit read by Donna Tartt – it’s awesome! (I plan to listen to this with my teens too.) Moby Dick read by Anthony Heald – SERIOUSLY, if you never liked this book or don’t think you would like it, just listen to Anthony read it. You will be hooked! (Ha, no pun intended…)
What is your favorite book that is now a movie?
- Laurie Fletes: Little Women
- Deena Eschenbach: Hidden Figures
- Tracy Wick: The Help
- Jill Richert: The Lord of the Rings, Jane Austin books
- Sarah Ryan: The Lord of the Rings
- Andria McGhee: The Lord of the Rings series
- Morgan White: All of the Harry Potters and The Hunger Games
- Rebekah Venturini: Too hard to answer … Maybe Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire? I feel like I have a better answer that I can’t think of right now. The pressure!
- Jennifer Martinez: Kids say, Harry Potter. 🙂
- Wendy Shaw Dahl: Anne of Green Gables
- Vanessa Stringham: Harry Potter series
- Sharon Cumberland: Any Jane Austin book in movie form, also Ella Enchanted.
- Jenny Bischoff: Elizabeth Gaskell’s books are wonderful movies – North and South and Wives and Daughters. Her book Cranford is actually better as a miniseries than the book (sorry, once in a while this is true!)
Share any other worthwhile reading/book-related resources.
- Deena Eschenbach: The Library – Libby app – I have found all but one of this past summer readings through the app. San Francisco library offers cards for ebooks/audio as well to anyone, fill out the form online and pick it up there. Finn and I took a walking tour of City Hall. I would LOVE Susie’s must-read list, I have been so blessed by each and every recommendation.
- Jill Richert: Beautiful Feet Books themed bundles
- Sarah Ryan: Sarah Mackenzie (Read-Aloud Revival) sends out a great book list monthly.
- Andria McGhee: I love Goodreads for suggestions of books for me and for my kids. I link up with people and try to find friends with similar tastes in books.
- Morgan White: Goodreads is my favorite reading-tracking app.
- Rebekah Venturini: I love, love, LOVE How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen. So many fantastic nuggets of goodness in these books.
- Jennifer Martinez: American Montessori Society – Resources for Peace & Social Justice
- Wendy Shaw Dahl: Betsy-Tacy series by Maude Hart Lovelace. I love how she describes everything. The Soul of an Octopus. So much respect and love for octopuses now. (Yes, that is confirmed as the correct plural within the first paragraph of the book!)
- Stephanie Ridley: The library is our best friend.
- Sharon Cumberland: Common Sense Media – a great resource when you want to know if you should let your children read a certain book. The Read-Aloud Revival – Sarah Mackenzie puts together amazing podcasts, blogs, reading lists, audiobook recommendations, and more. LibriVox – Free audiobooks. Greeking Out – This podcast is going to be perfect for next year’s history track as tell Greek Myths in fun, kid-friendly ways. Audible – you don’t have to have an Audible account to purchase audiobooks. Hoopla – a library app. for audiobooks, e-books, movies, etc.
- Jenny Bischoff: The podcast I mentioned earlier – How to Eat an Elephant. This is put out by the Center for Lit people, and I just adore them. They have another literature-based podcast I enjoy as well called BiblioFiles. And a resource I recently heard about (but haven’t bought yet) that sounds really fun and interesting is The Novel Cure: An A to Z of Literary Remedies by Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin – “…a dictionary of literary cures for any malaise you can imagine.” Doesn’t that sound fascinating?
Well, we sure do have a lot of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings fans! Thank you again to all who participated in our survey. We hope that our Down Home readers have found some new books and perhaps some new ways to experience those books. Share in the comments below any of your favorite audiobooks, movies based on books, or reading resources.
2 thoughts on “Together We Read – Technology”
I have really enjoyed all these recommendations, thank you! And even better, they will be easy to refer back to when I need to remember—the joy of the interwebs!
Yes, they are an excellent resource to keep coming back to when you are looking for a new read.