Razzle Dazzle

"I am not planning on packing paperback books or wearing make up," I announced to my husband, "we are just travelling in the car."

"But your kindle and lipstick will be in your purse," he observed as I continued to pack for our weekend getaway.

"We always listen to audio books when we do road trips."

My husband had downloaded Razzle Dazzle which we listened to enroute to our destination. A history of the business of musical theater is something we both love.

Road trips are the time that I am most likely to listen to audiobooks. I take the train to work which allows me to read paperbacks and e-books. And while I do take walks during the work day since I have a headset on for my phone based job I am mindful about not having hradphones on during my break. My favorite form of exercise is swimming. I don't have a lot of need for audio books in my day to day life.

The subject of the book comes from one of my other avid interests: musical theater. I trained as a singer/actress in high school and college. When I moved to the Twin Cities I was no longer interested in performing but found myself passionate about going to numerous musical theater  shows. Sitting as an audience member  who likes historical research I started to become familiar with composers and trends in musicals and getting exposed to the history of New York. I loved PBS's Broadway the American Musical,  listened to a Great Courses series of lectures on the musical by Bill Messengar and read John Kenrick's Musical Theater: A History. So I have some familiarity with the subject matter but still there is much I do not know.

The first chapters where they discussed the story of the Schubert brothers was sometimes hard to follow as I was not as familiar with the characters in their lives. I wondered if it would be easier if I could actually see the names on a page. But the stories were told in an entertaining way. I had an easier time when they started talking about people whose careers in musical theater that I am aware of in later chapters.

When the transition occurred to another "section" of the books there was no comment made indicating the break. It felt like it came out of nowhere when the subject was changed. Having a seen a copy of the book I know that there are different sections of the book that were not as clear in the oral rendition of this book.

The other thing I miss in an audio book is the bibliography. I love bibliographies! I only got references to the books that were explicitly mentioned in the content like The Season by William Goldman and The Making of Times Square.

I loved listening to a book with my husband. We could pause it to talk about what we were listening to.

But as my husband is driving and I am sitting in the passenger seat I find my eyes getting heavy. As I give into sleep I miss an entire part of the book. If I were reading a physical book it would be easier to return to the point that I missed.

And since there is so much detail in the book I proclaimed "It still would be good to read the book." Then I applying a light pink lip gloss to my naked lips.