I’m a big believer in books on tape, or Automobile University as Zig Ziglar calls it. The last few weeks I’ve abandoned two series in a row, which is a first for me.

The first set of tapes was a TeachCo college course on early childhood psychology. I know almost nothing about psych so I was curious when I saw them at the library. What went wrong on this one was that the lecturer had 0 vocal variety. And he spoke very, very slowly. I mean that… I grew… impatient because I knew… exactly what he was… going to say… next but it… took a long… time to… get out. The pauses didn’t really seem to fit with the clauses. I will give the guy credit because he tried to make very dry material accessible through examples, bringing it down to Earth and not filling it with mumbo jumbo. But unfortunately inherently dry material (to me at least) mixed with dry presentation I couldn’t take.

My next book on tape was about the rebuilding of Japan after World War II, Embracing Defeat. This one wasn’t read by the college professor but by a professional voice actor and his delivery was good. Unfortunately Embracing Defeat itself wasn’t so good for a casual reader like me.

The first fourth or so of the book was about societal changes in Japan after WWII. Like the black market, how academics on the left responded, pop culture changes, the conservative reactionaries, and so on. It’s inherently interesting, but it felt like long strands of facts thrown out without really a narrative thrust. Usually these books - at least aimed at popular audiences and not pure academics - will identify a few key players up front and let us get to know them. Not so in Embracing Defeat. A lot of the information was arranged around topic, not chronology, and I never really got to know any of the Japanese living through this.

I was about to abandon it when it got to the part about Douglas MacArthur and the politics of the occupation. Finally, I thought, the story would start to move. But not so. It still just felt like a bunch of facts, interesting admittedly, but it was never clear where it was going. I couldn’t really pick out a chronological order here. It’s a shame because it was well written and amazingly researched, but I had to give it up.

Presently I’m listening to The Making of the Atomic Bomb. Wow! It’s epic, 24 tapes. I usually don’t go that long, but it’s been a long time since I’ve dove into physics and I saw that the book won the Pulitzer. Perfect balance between background on the scientists - including their quirks - and broader historical scene, along with an accessible info on nuclear physics. I’m a fourth of the way through and Hitler is only now taking power, to give an indication on how much background is provided. The narrator is quite good and obviously there’s the strong narrative pulse of the scientists’ adventures and eventually how they came together for the Bomb.

Moral is easy - vocal variety matters and tell a story, don’t throw facts out.