MEREDITH GRENIER
Special to the Jewish News

Colorado, Florida, Ohio, Texas and
Ontario.
Lifestyles of readers can vary
omance in the car, per-
from state to state, Simtob said. "In
sonal finance at the gym,
California it is typical to commute
stress reduction while
one hour or more each way to work
vacuuming. A growing
increasing demand." He hopes to
number of Americans are having it
have 100 locations by 2001.
all.
At the stores is a list of best-sell-
These are the listeners and loyal
ing fiction and nonfiction books by
devotees of audio books.
Publisher's Weekly, and 75 percent to
Books on tape run the gamut
90 percent of those titles are avail-
from the classics to the best-seller
able to buy or rent on cassette or
list. But there's more than fiction:
CD at the same time as the book is
Thousands of titles are available in
released.
audio format, including nonfiction,
But many books issued by the
self-help, personal development,
audio
departments of publishing
"It's opened up a whole new
classics, history, inspiration, plays,
companies are taped in abridged
world," she said. "I like to listen to
children's books and more than 100
versions. Jan Nathan's research finds
new authors. I still read, but I also
language instructional courses.
no snobbery on the part of buyers
listen to a book while exercising and
Motivational author Zig Ziglar
and renters with regard to "reading"
to another while driving. It's cut
says you can achieve the equivalent
a book by listening to it as opposed
down on my cell phone use. I've got
of a college education by listening to
to absorbing it visually. But she
all my friends hooked."
books on tape while doing some-
does
see a resistance on the part of
Richard Simtob, 29, of West
thing else.
some toward abridged versions.
Bloomfield, president and co-founder
Once reserved for the seeing-
Often, the abridged version just
of Talking Book World, with loca-
impaired, audio
gives a glimpse or flavor of the orig-
books have grown
inal book but still can
into a $2 billion a
be entertaining.
year industry in
The taped reader
America, and sales
can make or break the
are growing briskly,
book as well. Listeners
says Jan Nathan,
t7; (and research) agree
executive director of
with Nathan, who
the Audio Publishers
says she would listen
Association based in
to a bad book read by
Manhattan Beach,
a good reader but
Calif
would never listen to
"Where once only
a good book read by a
best-selling fiction
bad reader.
was available, now
Audio books also
you see second- and
have become a popu-
third-tier titles," she
lar way to learn
says. Part of this is
another language.
fueled by a plethora
Tapes teaching
of "best books of the Talking Book World president and co-founder Richard Simtob:
Hebrew are popular,
have books on Jewish holidays, history and the Kabbalah."
century." lists.
says Simtob. Talking
Whether you talk
Book World also
to audio book fans at
stocks books of Jewish
bookstores, library audio visual
interest in its spiritual section. "We
tions in West Bloomfield, Lathrup
departments or stores devoted solely
have books on Jewish holidays, his-
Village, Birmingham, Southfield and
to selling and renting audio books,
tory and the Kabbalah," he said.
Troy, said he stocks 7,000 titles per
you get the same enthusiastic
Biographies of Jewish people are
store, with something for every age
response: "I'm hooked."
available as well. E
and taste of reader. He relies heavily
Eileen Eisenberg of West
on readers' requests when deciding
Bloomfield, a second-grade teacher
which titles to stock.
at Hillel Day School in Farmington
To determine if a book is avail-
Simtob and partner Tyrone
Hills, has been won over by audio
able in an audio version, check
Pereira began Talking Book World
books.
out the following Web sites:
in 1993 and were joined later by
www.audiopub.org;
partner Jonny Kest. They now have
Meredith Grenier writes for Copley
vvww.audiobooks.com ; and
34 stores, about half of them fran-
News Service. David Sachs con-
www.talkingbookworld.com .
chises. As well as in Michigan, there
tributed to this article.
are outlets in Arizona, California,

R

S

Audio books reel in
readers on the go.

/-•

when they lit Shabbat candles.
In this novel, the sealed room is a
central metaphor. Tami's heart is sealed
off from her unaware yet jovial husband
Nachum. Tami's American cousin
Maya, who is spending a college semes-
ter in Israel, cordons herself off from
friends and family. Shifra is a lonely
Holocaust survivor who has gone mad
from living on pure memory.
The detailed triptych of these
Jewish women illustrates the various
life journeys that brought them to
Israel. Although Maya's first person
narrative dominates the book, Shifra's
voice resonates with purpose and
imagination. Shifra thinks in compos-
ites and in her stream of consciousness
soliloquies she equates Maya with the
American soldiers who liberated her
from the camps.
Maya, however, is abused by her
depressed boyfriend Gil and realizes
that she can do little for Shifra. She
expends all of her energy hiding her
bruises from Tami's family and think-
ing of ways to keep Gil calm.
Maya's story is a powerful domestic
drama that doubles as fresh commen-
tary on the current state of world
Jewry. The promise that American
Jewry once held out to its European
and Israeli brethren turned out to be
mostly illusory. Shifra's melding of
memories extends to a more general
blurring of history in which the stray
sparks of the Holocaust ignite the riots
of Los Angeles in the early 1990s and
the Scud missiles of the Gulf war.
For that alone it is worthwhile to
become acquainted with this novel in
its totality

— Reviewed by Judith Bolton-Fasman

o

6/25

1999

Detroit Jewish News

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