Friday, February 23, 2007


The Great Bridge:
The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge
by David McCullough, Edward Herrmann (Read by)

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Let's see... I own 4 different mp3 players, from 128 meg, up to 4 gig in capacity. That means I can (and do) carry a library of audio books (and music) on my belt with no effort at all.... and, thanks to two years of an audible.com subscription, free online downloads and access to excellent library systems - I have quite a few books to choose from. And yet...

I have a fondness for the audio tape - probably because it is the first way I started listening to audio books. (It's also nice that my tape player is an am/fm/weather/tv radio - something none of my mp3 players can do). I've made copies of several of my favorite books-on-tape before the library lost or destroyed them, and I've received the New Testament and the BBC version of the Lord of the Rings - great gifts I still use.

So I was delighted to discover this audio tape version of The Great Bridge remaindered at my local B&N. Excellently told by David McCullough, and read by Edward Hermann, I can't say enough about how enjoyable this book was. It is fascinating - quite a tapestry of history. It's like a prototype for a grand space epic by Heinlein or someone (actually it reminds me of aspects of Mercury, by Ben Bova). It has or touches on the Civil War, Boss Tweed, Spiritualism, emigrants in America, and much, much more. And it's all true. I'm happy to see there is an abridged John Adams (which I've read) also read by Hermann - and it's at the library!