THE MIRACLE AT SPEEDY MOTORS

I mentioned earlier this month that I haven’t really been able to stick with Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. I do enjoy the books while I'm reading them—they’re warm, charming, and pleasant, with a unique premise—but ultimately I grew tired of how numerous and forgettable they are. I used to enjoy this episodic interchangeability from time to time; Law & Order has the same quality. But lately I’ve been thinking, What’s the point of watching a show if I can’t even tell whether I’ve seen it or not until I’m 30 minutes into it? Why spend time reading a book I won’t even be able to describe two weeks later? There are so many other things clamoring for my attention, things that might make more of an impression. So I’ve quit watching L&O unless I’m honestly sitting around channel-surfing with nothing better to do, and I’ve skipped the last few N1LDA books, though I still felt conflicted enough about this to keep them sitting on my to-be-read list.

Finally, though, with the lamentable layoff of my carpool partner forcing me into solo commuting, I’ve hit upon the perfect solution: audiobooks. I’ve never really bought into audiobooks, even though I know a lot of people who like them. I’m just such a stubborn old-fashioned book reader that I can’t help but think that (at least for me) listening to a book is Not Quite the Same Thing as REALLY reading a book. But on my long, desperate commutes, when even NPR occasionally fails to entertain, I started thinking that although I would never use audiobooks to replace actual reading (i.e., I wouldn’t listen to a book I really wanted to read), it might be a perfect way to get through all those books I only sort of want to read. Those books tend to be light and diverting, a good way to pass the time, and if I space out and miss a few plot points or artistic turns of phase, oh well.

So I tried it, checking the CDs for The Miracle at Speedy Motors out of the library, and it was pretty good—very well narrated, by a South African actress who handles all the accents and pronunciations masterfully. I did find myself getting frustrated from time to time; the books move along in a placid, leisurely manner, and I tend to be a fast reader, prone to bouts of slight skimming when feeling impatient, but while listening I was forced to give every word equal time and weight, which occasionally made me want to shake Precious Ramotswe for being so slow on the uptake. But at other times I was excited to get back in the car and find out what happens next, and overall I was suitably distracted from the horrors of traffic. I’ve already got the next N1LDA audiobook on hold, and I’m trying to think about which other books I might like to listen to (although my library doesn’t appear to have a large selection).

Side note: I’ve been watching the N1LDA HBO show on DVD and it’s really great. It’s impossible for the show to capture McCall Smith’s sly, gentle narrative voice, which is half the fun of the books (for instance, certain phrases, like “tiny white van” and “traditionally built woman” are repeated throughout the books until they almost become in-jokes in themselves), but the characters are spot-on and the cintematography is gorgeous.