The Reading Desk

At any rate, it's been more than 24 hours, and I'm posting from a position of defeat.  Well, perhaps not defeat but neither is it victory.

I had completely juiced myself on the idea that I was going to do an audio book of the Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth (also known as the Jefferson Bible) compiled by Thomas Jefferson between the late 1700's and the early 1800s.  It is only something like 46 pages, so I should be able to knock that out in a weekend, eh?  Not so fast.

The text of the Jefferson Bible is understandable if you happen to have been an 18th century nuclear physicist, or expertise otherwise in extended sentences with too many letters, punctuation, oddly put phrases, and otherwise unutterable discourse. This is the kind of literature that makes the King James Version of scripture look absolutely glistening in its "modern" appointments by comparison.  The words of the Jefferson Bible are strung with such careful attention to puttething extra nonsensicalnesses in the utterances that ye would not have done what ye did had ye really not done it.  Um, or not.  

In other words it stinks for audio books.  Yes, I can read the words. Yes I know what they mean.  But damned if I can read it aloud so it doesn't sound like a spastic auctioneer selling shamwows.  Perhaps with more practice I can master the content, but at what cost of time? And then, will anybody really be able to understand it when I've completed the task? Yeah, not so fast there, Tim.

So, I'm returning to Moby for the moment while I regroup, with apologies for the delay.  I've moved the Jefferson Bible to a back burner, with a sneaking thought in the back of my mind that I'm not done with it yet. It was a fun project to work on especially over Easter, but it was not meant to be.  But there are several more bridges to either cross or burn before I reach a decision on doing it or not.

So.  Arrrrr!  Back to Nantucket with ye!  Avast!