You may or possibly may not have noticed that I dedicated Rogue Clone to a man named Frank Muller; but here is his photograph.
Frank Muller was an actor and professional reader. He was Stephen King's favorite audio book reader. His performance of The Green Mile made an already incredible book even better in audio than it was in print or in movie form.
Before beginning The Clone Republic, I listed to several of Mr. Muller's books on tape. I listened to The Green Mile, The Hunt For the Red October, and several John Grisham novels. Then, as I wrote, I tried to imagine how each sentence would sound if Frank Muller were reading it. As I wrote, I also told myself that one day he might narrate my books.
Sadly, I will never have that honor. By the time my first novel came out, Frank Muller had already been badly injured in a motorcycle accident. He was no longer reading. In June, he passed away.
Why do I keep on bringing up Frank Muller? I never met the man, though I did once meet his brother, Leo. Even though I never met Mr. Muller, he improved my life with his reading. I learned more about the rhythm of words and sentences listening to him than I ever did in school.
So here is my suggestion, guys: See if you can get your hands on some of this great man's best readings. I suggest the following as my favorites:
1. The Great Gatsby
2. The Green Mile
3. All Quiet on the Western Front
4. The Street Lawyer
5. The Hunt For the Red October
6. Moby Dick (Probably his best performance, but a novel I have never liked.)
7. A Tale of two Cities
8. The Razor's Edge
9. The Gunslinger: The Dark Tower
10. The Prince of Tides
22 comments:
I've never been a fan of the audiobooks. Not that there's anything wrong with them, because there isn't.
It's just that I can read A LOT faster than I can LISTEN to someone tell me the story. Plus, I don't have to worry about running out of batteries when I read the book.
Good comment. Tell you what, Aaron, try throwing The Great Gatsby in your car's CD deck or listen to it on your iPod as you work out.
Muller had a gift for voices and accents and other almost undetectable nucances. When he read good books, it was more like a radio drama than a guy reading a book.
He kind of gave you the best of both worlds. You got the voices and characters or a drama but the complete story as you would find in a book.
Don't take my for this. See if you can borrow one of these books from the library.
I read TGG in high school but don't remember what it was about.
I could definitely see the argument towards the audiobooks for folks that are in the car a lot. The radio around Austin, TX pretty much sucks, and since getting a Sirius radio three years ago, I have only listened to 2 cd's while in the truck. Used to listen to the AM radio news on the way in to work a little bit, but have not listened to FM radio since getting the Sirius! Also, I don't drive much these days as I now work from home... that sure was nice over the summer when gas was $4.00/gallon for the cheap stuff!
All good points, but you should still give it a try. It's like going to a movie based on a book you enjoyed.
For me, at least, Muller pulls out parts of the story that I would never have caught on my own.
BTW, I should have added The Body and The Shawshank Redemption to my list... particularly The Body.
I may one day. I used to listen to TONS of books on tape when I was little. My mom still has an entire shoebox full of cassette tapes of books. One that I really remember liking was tales about King Arthur. That one was awesome. Don't know the title but as a kid, that was so cool.
i like audio books, but that was a while ago. they give you the voices and it lets you use your imagination. i used to listen to the harry potter ones.
Jim Dale, the guy who narrates the Harry Potter books, is very good. He is perfect for Potter because in has a wonderful sense of humor. You can hear it in his voice.
But c'mon guys! You gotta give Frank Muller a try. If your library has audio books, borrow one. That's free, and I really think you will like what you hear.
if you all do not mind, i have quite a personal problem in my life that just does not go away, and i wish to here all of your opinions on the matter.
As long as it is not too personal for us to post, how can we help?
i have recently gotten off of a 3 hour text conversation with one of my brothers former friends, who is a person whom i have come to loathe, and i do not use the word lightly. he has insulted me and my family on 6 different occasions, and has only apologized for one half heartedly after i made a deal with him to do so.
we talked about his stuff that was still at my place. i gave him a list of what we believed was his, but he said it was not even close. i told him to give me his list so we could get them. after 1 hour and 30 minutes of bantering, he still didnt give it to me. i told him that i was just going to give him what was on our list, and that he could not hold it against us since he didnt give us his list.
now that you know the latest event in the conflict, i need your opinions on this, as well as how can i make sure that he will stop harassing us.
I make no claims of having Solomoniacal wisdom. I seems to me that there are two seperate issues at work here:
A) Severing a relationship
B) Returning material goods.
I would not let one sore spot impact the other. If he cannot be bothered to make a list, maybe he can name one thing over text.
What do you guys think?
i tried to get him to naming anything else on a list of his own several times, but he just seemed to ignore it. i told him that he would only get what we named because of this. i just need to make sure he will stop "harassing" us. he didnt seem to be to worried about our stuff; in fact, he kept on insulting me and my family. its like he is using it as an excuse.
I'm definitely not one of the 'texting' kind.... I don't even remember the last time I sent/received a text message on my phone. Much easier for me to call someone or email on the real computer.
Severing a relationship is a difficult thing to do. I say that the guy needs to at least make the effort of saying what's his before you deliver anything. It's a two way street there...
Give him what you are positive is his, and if he doesn't know of anything else that's too bad for him. After that, ignore him. Easiest thing to do. Responding to his insults will only make it worse, clearly he is not the type of person who will listen to reason.
well, im just going to return his stuff, and hope for the best for now.
Good luck, SniperAE. Let's hope for real closure... the best problem is the one that goes away.
Sniper, how did things work out?
Guess SniperAE's been on vacation. Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year.
Absolutely, best wishes for 2009 all around!
happy new year! and yes, ive been on vacation for about a week. i didnt have enough time to return the stuff since my car is being repaired. im going to get it back monday, so i think that my brother will be able to return the things.
thanks for all of your support guys, and have a great 2009!
Steven, I totally agree with you about Frank Muller. What an excellent reader. I'm sorry to hear that he passed. He did a fantastic reading of "All The Pretty Horses" by Cormac McCarthy. He did the various accents (Texas drawl and Mexican spanish) with amazing realism. Having grown up in Texas myself, I thought the accents were right on. I'm trying to discover if he read the rest of The Border Trilogy but haven't found evidence of it yet.
Cheers.
Finally another Frank fan. Glad to hear from you, Randy. Here is a site that supposedly lists all of the books Frank Muller read:
http://www.frankmullerhome.com/booklist.html
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