Audiobooks

Before expatriate Bill Bryson came back home to America, he took one final journey around Merry Olde England, where he’d been for 20 years. As his wife wouldn’t let him have the car, he used public transportation, taking copious notes as he passed though such towns as “East Stuttering” and “Radon Heath.”

The journalist, unabashed Anglophile and author of several travel books used his considerable sense of humor and powers of observation. The book that resulted, “Notes From a Small Island,” was published in 1995 and now is being released on audio.

It’s an astute travel memoir cleverly disguised as a sharp-tongued and bawdy humor book. Bryson (even though he looks like an Eagle Scout in the photo on the box) has a mouth that would stop traffic, so do not consider this for family listening. He invents crass names for towns and flings barbed comments with jocular ease, though you cannot help hearing the affection behind the commentary. He may be describing people and places, but as he points out those cute quirks so uniquely British, you realize that Bryson is more cultural guide than travel writer.

With an accent best described as weird, he almost sounds British, but can’t quite disguise those flat intonations of the native Iowan. He is as humorous a reader as he is a writer. Expect to rewind often; you may not be able to hear everything over your own laughter.

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In “Notes,” Bryson wrote that he returned to the States after reading a Gallup Poll in which 3.7 million Americans “believed they had been abducted by aliens at one time or another, so it was clear my people needed me.” He may not have saved his fellow Americans from their infatuation with all things extraterrestrial, but he did take a long walk on the Appalachian Trail. Naturally, he took notes along the way.

Just published, “A Walk in the Woods” is more travel diary than humor book, though it certainly includes its share of hilarity. The author decided to walk from Georgia to Maine on a trail he discovered near his new home in New Hampshire. The trail covers 2,100 miles. Bryson and his ill-equipped walking mate, an out-of-shape companion from his youth, did not come close to finishing the hike. Instead, they proved that the journey, not the destination, is what matters.

Bryson does a little too much eco-preaching, but he also provides a compact history of our national parks. That irreverent sense of humor rears its spiky head whenever he describes fellow hikers or his decidedly unhealthy diet. Best of all are the descriptions of Stephen Katz, his slightly demented partner in pain. (Instead of dehydrated veggies and protein bars, Katz filled his backpack with Little Debbie snack cakes and Spam.)

Both books have been abridged for audio, but you should opt for the spoken versions nevertheless. You lose some of Bryson’s writing, but hearing him read his own material more than compensates. Each book has been released by Bantam Doubleday Dell on four cassettes, lasting six hours and costing $25. Each also is available on five CDs for $29.95.

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If you need to vent but don’t want to be seen talking to yourself during rush hour, let Dennis Miller do it for you with “Ranting Again” (Bantam Doubleday Dell, abridged, two cassettes, three hours, $16.99, read by the author).

Miller’s last book, “The Rants,” indicated that a couple of his rants a day would do ya: His pointed political humor wore thin after 15 minutes. Not so this time. You could listen to “Ranting Again” straight through--then play it again. The difference is that this time he throws more personal humor into the mix; the commentary isn’t just about political and cultural peccadilloes but also about himself. The topics range from the single life to alien life to abortion.

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Rochelle O’Gorman Flynn reviews audio books every other week. Next week: Margo Kaufman on mysteries.