Announcing Our New Deal of the Day!

We’re happy to announce a brand new promotion on our website starting today—our Deal of the Day promotion! Amazon has their deal of the day, and here at Recorded Books we love Woot’s daily deal, so we figured it was high time we created our own. And after much discussion with our programmers, and hours of playtesting in their sandbox, our new creation, much like Frankenstein, is finally ready to be unveiled.

You can find the Deal of the Day on the banner along the left side of the Recorded Books Direct homepage. In fact, it’s just to the left of where these rockin’ blog posts show up… how convenient is that? Each daily deal banner will have a promotion code you can use to get 10% off that day’s featured title. During the week you can redeem this code over the phone with our friendly Customer Service folks, and of course you can always order online seven days a week.

So let us know what you think, and feel free to comment and tell us which titles you’d like to see in upcoming deals. Who knows… you just might get lucky.

J.D. Salinger Dies at Age 91

For many young kids growing up, reading J.D. Salinger’s A Catcher in the Rye was one of the seminal moments in their lives. You can probably recall the exact time and place you read it, and it’s one of those few books you’ve probably read a second or even third time just to remind yourself that yeah, Holden was one cool kid. Unfortunately, Salinger fans now have another day to remember. Yesterday, January 28, 2010, will forever be etched in the history of literature as the day J.D. Salinger passed away at the age of 91.

After A Catcher in the Rye vaulted Salinger to iconic status, he became famous for his reclusive nature, shying away from the media spotlight so much that he was not photographed in public for years on end. The New York Times wrote a terrific piece on Salinger’s reclusive nature which you can read more about here.

Because of Salinger’s desire to keep A Catcher in the Rye a work all his own, he never allowed it to be made into a movie or recorded on audio, though he had no shortage of offers over the years. In fact, even as recently as last year he was engaged in a lawsuit to stop the publication of an unauthorized sequel that would’ve detailed Holden Caulfield’s life fifty years later. (He won that lawsuit, by the way.)

So the best way for you to remember Salinger may be to go seek out your dog-eared, worn copy of Catcher on your bookshelf, dust it off, and curl up this weekend with a American classic written by a truly unique American author.

Seen Invictus? Check Out the Audio Version!

If you haven’t had a chance to go and see Invictus, I recommend you give the three-time Golden Globe nominee a chance. It tells the story of how Nelson Mandela (played by Morgan Freeman) brought together the country of South Africa by uniting people around the success of the country’s rugby team in the 1995 World Cup. The film splits its time between Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon, who lends his acting skills as the captain of South Africa’s rugby team.

But if you haven’t had a chance to check out the film, you might also consider Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation. Written by journalist John Carlin, it’s the book that Invictus was based on, and recounts the entire story, from Mandela’s time in prison, to his idea to unify the country through the Springboks, to the World Cup’s dramatic conclusion.

Happy Holidays!

Hoping you have a wonderful holiday season filled with great reading, amazing listening, and lots of family fun!

AudioFile Magazine Announces Best of 2009!

AudioFile Magazine has announced their list of the best audiobooks of 2009, and I’m happy to report that several Recorded Books made the list. You can view the full list and all the categories here, or just check out the featured RB titles below:

Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips

Category: Fiction & the Classics

Read by James Yaegashi, Cynthia Darlow, Kate Forbes

Excerpt from AudioFile’s review:

Kate Forbes is a standout as Lark, a West Virginia teenager who was left as a baby to be raised by her aunt and whose first love is Termite, her severely disabled half-brother, who was sent nine years later to the same aunt. All the narration is first-rate. James Yaegashi portrays Termite’s father, whose parallel story unfolds in war-torn South Korea, and Cynthia Darlow portrays the long-suffering Aunt Noni. All these characters are beautifully drawn, but it’s really Lark who steals your heart, voiced here as gentle and good but with a backbone of pure steel

The Language of Bees by Laurie R. King

Category: Mystery and Suspense

Read by Jenny Sterlin

Excerpt from AudioFile’s Review

Jenny Sterlin’s gift for voices, accents, and storytelling makes this ninth complex excursion into the world of Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell a pure audio delight. … Sterlin’s pace is perfect for Russell’s dry wit, while her subtle performance reveals Russell in moments of surprising ingenuousness.

On the Shoulders of Giants by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Category: Biography and History
Read by Avery Brooks, Marcus Garvey, Maya Angelou, Samuel L. Jackson, et al.

Excerpt from AudioFile’s Review:

The main narrator is Avery Brooks, whose delivery sounds like jazz. He varies the pacing and gravity of his tone depending on the material. Abdul-Jabbar reads his own reflections. This work sounds more like an audio documentary than a reading of a book. Instead of having Brooks read extended quotations, the producers use clips from archival interviews.

Taking a Trip Down The Road …

One of the perks of working at Recorded Books is that employees can check out and listen to audiobooks anytime they want. When I started working here, I wasted no time in getting my hands on a copy of The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. I listened to it on my commute to work, and I was shocked by how much it affected me. I found myself getting sucked in by McCarthy’s spare prose and the bleak, gray landscape of his world. Tom Stechschulte’s narration is so engrossing that I found myself hanging on every short sentence, finding time to breath or think only in the pauses between them. I’ve listened to a lot of other audiobooks since then, but none of them have stuck with me quite like The Road.

Of course, the movie version of The Road goes nationwide in theaters tomorrow, and I can only hope that the filmmakers stayed true to McCarthy’s vision. Early reviews seem favorable, and I could easily see Viggo Mortensen coming out of this with an Oscar nomination. So if you’re out this holiday weekend and get a chance to see The Road, check back in and let us know what you think.

I can’t recommend enough grabbing a copy of The Road to listen to on audio. It’s not something to be undertaken lightly, but it’s truly one of those books where the audio component makes for a completely unique listening experience.

New Titles Now Available for iPhone and iPod Touch!

Last week we announced the launch of an app that'll let all you iPhone and iPod Touch users download audiobooks right to your device—anywhere, anytime. The first title we offered was Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris, and I’m happy to say that this week we’re expanding on that list.

For you Sookie Stackhouse fans, there’s another adventure to whet your appetites. We’ve also made available the newest book in the Dexter series, and there’s even an appearance by Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, which will soon be released as a movie. Here’s the full list of titles now available for download (just click on any of these links to be taken to the download page):

Dead and Gone

A Touch of Dead

Dexter by Design

The Road

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian

The Richest Man in Babylon

I’m sure more titles will be following shortly, so be sure to check back here for updates. And one last thing (I know it’s cheesy, but I can’t resist) … listening to Recorded Books on your iPhone? “Yeah, there’s an app for that!”

New App Released for iPhone and iPod Touch Users

Recorded Books is happy to announce that we've just released another way for you to listen. If you have an iPhone or an iPod Touch, you can now go the App Store and download an app that’ll let you listen to an entire audiobook right on your device. Now you can have instant access to your favorite audiobooks when you’re on the go, and the first chapter even downloads bundled with the app.

Our first title available is Charlaine Harris’ Dead and Gone, but there are more titles coming soon. You can check out details of the app at the following link, and as always, we welcome your feedback!

Getting Trapped Under the Dome …

Next Tuesday, November 10th, Stephen King's latest novel, Under the Dome, will go on sale. We're happy to report that Recorded Books is releasing the audio version on the same day, so you King fans won't have to wait long to get this book into your waiting ears. At nearly 1100 pages, it’s King’s most expansive work since releasing Duma Key almost two years ago. Clearly, this is a novel with some serious scope behind it. But what’s it about?

In Under the Dome, a quiet town in Maine is thrown into chaos when an invisible force field suddenly appears, cutting off the townspeople from the rest of society. Short-order cook Dale Barbara watches as a plane strikes the dome and goes down in flames. But he’ll soon learn that the greatest threat comes from inside—where greed and the thirst for power run rampant.

To me, the greatest thing about Stephen King has always been that he can take a premise that sounds somewhat ridiculous when taken out of context and turn it into a psychological thriller.  Under the Dome is a perfect example of this, and his novella The Mist also comes to mind. It sounds a little absurd to say that an invisible dome suddenly comes down and covers an entire town, but once you suspend your disbelief and give in to the premise of the story, the real fun begins. That’s the beauty of Stephen King—if you buy into the idea that anything is possible, he’ll show you more than just the supernatural—he’ll give you a peek into human nature.

There’s a great video interview with Stephen King in the related media section of Amazon’s page for Under the Dome, and in it King talks about how he’s had the idea for this book since 1976. Well, it took thirty-three years from his initial conception for the book to come to fruition, but King finally delivered. The interview gives some great insight into how the master of horror thinks about his novels, and it’s definitely worth a listen. Have you ever had an idea that just wouldn’t leave you alone until you attended to it?

Ever Said "Someday I'll Write a Novel?"

Have you ever thought to yourself "I'd like to write a novel someday?" I know I have. Is Write a Novel somewhere on your Bucket List, maybe sandwiched between Sail Around the World and Run with the Bulls? I could do without the bulls, but I’ll cop to the novel writing and the sailing. Many people aspire to one day write a novel, but so often the rest of life gets in the way. But what if I told you that you could finish a novel in one month, and thousands of other people around the world would be working right alongside you?

That’s where NaNoWriMo comes in. NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month, and it’s a yearly challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in the thirty days and nights between November 1st and November 30th. I know what you’re thinking … 50,000 words(!) … I can’t write a novel … where will I find the time? That’s the beauty of NaNoWriMo—it’s a flurry of creativity, but it only lasts for a month, and no one is expecting it to be perfect (or even good, for that matter).

To quote from the What is NaNoWriMo page:

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It’s all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that’s a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

The NaNoWriMo homepage offers plenty of support for those crazy enough to take up the challenge. You’ll have your own author profile, update your word count daily, and even share excerpts if you want to. You can also commiserate with other writers in the forums, and even read some hilarious and inspiring pep talks from famous writers like Piers Anthony, Neil Gaiman, Sue Grafton, Katherine Paterson, and Tom Robbins.

So, are you up for the challenge? I’ll be making a go of it, and I know some of my colleagues at Recorded Books will also be writing their hearts out all month long. If you decide to take the plunge, be sure to leave a comment or two and let me know you’ve also joined the quest for 50,000 words.

And let’s not forget, writing a novel is the first step towards having a Recorded Book with your name on it. Because that one’s on my Bucket List too …