European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 24, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                August 1985 the stars and stripes Page 17 gone the silence that surrounds Reading listening to books on cassette players by James Brooke new York times As John de a pulled weeds from his Garden in Connecticut one recent he switched on his portable cassette player and listened to a chapter of Walden by Henry David when Alan Goldfarb set out to drive his sales he put a tape in his car stereo and embarked on the Saga of the War of the worlds by discovering a new use for the Universal tape cassette More and More readers in the United states Are filling empty hours by listening to seeing Opportunity in technological publishers Are Rushing to Market books on the trend does not seem to be taking hold in a spokesman for the French publisher Hachette said sales of cassette books were mostly confined to classical texts intended for educational another editions Des has issued a series of classics read by Well known but these too Are mostly for educational purposes a spokesman in Smith Sells a called listening for recordings of books by classic and Erma Bombeck y husband and i were watching television the other night when a commercial flashed across the a Young girl had just arrived Home with shining eyes and id like you to meet the Man i am going to there were tears in her eyes and kisses All in the her Mother you look its irregular int it her daughter i can always her Mother smiled and slipped a laxative bottle out of her How did she know that asked my mothers know those i you cant Tell me that you can spot irregularity just by looking at kids Are so i can Tell you that every time i took our kids to the Bank or grocery they would have to go to the Why those two places there Are no restrooms they Start up the moment you enter the front and dressing contemporary which a spokesman said was Selling steadily but not taking audio tapes play to the american Way of people want to do things at once driving and jogging and doing the laundry and said Valeri president of Simon Schustern audio video publishing which plans to introduce its sound ideas cassette line in joining the Rush of Mas Market random House plans to Start its Audi books line in september and Bantam books plans to follow with Bantam audio publishing in Early Warner audio publishing has 250 cassette titles in largely because of its Purchase in january of network for a publisher of recorded said Jeffery publisher of Warner some experts counsel caution in any Large scale shift to we will lose something very stirring in the american tradition when we walk upstairs to find our kids listening to Mark Twain on said Jonathan whose Book illiterate american was published last most of what is called audio publishing lies in the marketing of highly abridged versions of for one company offers an artfully abridged version of Dickens a tale of two cities on two condensation leaves me very much said writer John who had several books recorded on full length the minute you Start Bias sets the tape Boom comes at a time when marketing surveys indicate that 85 per cent of american households have at least one cassette 60 percent have car players and 50 percent have portable people tried to do what we Are doing 10 years ago and said Warner audios the difference is that there Are now 140 million cassette players out Hal president Newman a rapidly expanding recorded Book company based in added there Are now More cassette players in american households than television the Walden books Chain has started installing audio centers in All of its nearly displacing space devoted to conventional the centers display 248 taped largely abridged american express recently mailed two million customers a brochure offering the cassette Library of the Hundred greatest these two hour condensed versions include sir John Gielgud Reading Paul Scofield Reading Dame Wendy Hiller doing Jane Derek Jacoby with 1984 and Stewart Granger on Call of the condensed versions generally run two hours and Cost about in the United full length versions can run 20 hours or More and Cost about a growing network of Public and private lending libraries supplies unabridged rentals from commercial libraries can Cost up to we have 200 said Charles Fine arts librarian for the Greenwich Library in but at any one 90 percent Are going to be checked most of the books on tape Are although there is a growing demand for self help and How to the political columnist George will says he accomplishes half his annual Reading by listening to full length books rented from books on a mail order lending Library with based in Newport i jogged through All of world War ii with will said of sir Winston Church ills six volume the second world i go through a Book a week using time otherwise wasted in shaving or will there is a difference of opinion in the recorded Book Industry Over whether to get famous actors to some publishers try to get Well known actors for dramatic readings by unknown Gail a Canadian actress who recently recorded Issac Asimov the gods themselves for said she believed she was chosen in part because of her no regional i love it because you get to play an essence of All the she some recorded books include background sound effects or snatches of music to denote scene but most people interviewed in the business predicted that full blown radio such As the 1930s dramas or the sort still made in Britain by the would not return on the wings of tape today audiences Are too sophisticated for the Olds Lye radio said Miles a contract producer for Hollander said a radio drama could easily Cost to while a Book usually costs Warner about them to go out in the Why theres no surer pre diction in this after you put on the the Waterproof the hat and Bingo he just watch the kids at Disneyland the ones at the end of the line never have to the ones who Are just within three or four of getting on the ride cant make no he and you might just As Well know that when you go to a movie and the love scenes come on the every Little kid in the movie will fill the aisles like a mass exodus heading for the in telling you i wish the mind were As predictable As a Childs come to think of he whenever i put them to they seem to know the exact moment i sink into my i think their kidneys Are on a timer of some i like they always knew the minute the school bus was coming and you had a decision to make let them miss it and drive to or Challenge i never knew a Mother who had the courage to do and the kids who run up and Down the Church aisle All the time same i do you want to be the Mother who you can wait another 20 minutes men Are the same As i can Tell you the exact time when you Are going to get a of come he whenever the orchestra starts to play and people get up to you go that not and when were All in the hot car ready to go on a vacation and you say youre checking to see if the water is turned i resent that he ill prove come to dinner he jumped out of his chair to leave the youre be Back in a los Angeles times Syndicate