Mark

I looked forward to Meditations both as philosophy and for the insights it might yield into Roman history. But the experience was almost completely ruined by Alan Munro's reading.

His voice was mellifluous, clear, confident, and well-paced. But it was as if he were reading for transcription, pausing every three or four words for the stenographer to catch up. So instead of reading sentences and paragraphs in a way that brought out their meaning, he read small clusters of words, breaking apart their larger meanings in a way that made it impossible for me to follow the author's argument. If he were to read the preceding sentence, this would not be an exaggeration:

So instead of reading.
Sentences and paragraphs
In a way
That brought out their meaning
He read small clusters of words
Breaking apart their larger meanings
In a way
That made it impossible for me
To follow the author's argument.

I suppose somebody with a different attention span might find a much better experience, but I'll certainly never make the mistake of buying anything else Munro narrates.

Killavey's diction and pronunciation are acceptable, but he simply doesn't understand what he's reading, and as a result his intonation contributes nothing to understanding the meaning intended by the author, or even the structure of the sentences. He is, in effect, nothing but a human form of text-to-speech. I found myself, after listening to a sentence, re-articulating the same words, with properly distributed emphasis and pauses. I'm no professional actor, but it was easy to improve EVERY sentence.

Other readers featured by Audible range from competent to magnificent.

In addition, the omission from this collection of the great bulk of the Federalist opus is troubling. Shouldn't the description state that it's only "a sampling"?