Friday, October 19, 2012

La Fine è il Mio Inizio, by Tiziano Terzani

La Fine è il Mio InizioThe title of this book translates to “The End is my Beginning” and it’s an interesting biographical account of a journalist’s very rich life.  It is recounted in the form of the journalist, Mr. Terzani, relaying thoughts and memories to his son, who records them on tape.

The stories gripped me right away because of the similarities that there were between Mr. Terzani’s childhood and mine in many ways.  After that, the amazing stories of what this man has witnessed and has been a part of keep your interest firmly in place.

I believe one of the main goals of the book is to help the listener take stock of his life and eventually make certain adjustments and corrections geared towards improving it.  I believe it’s a worthwhile goal and it’s can help those willing to listen.

The most important thing I took away from this book was a sense of freedom and relief for one specific comment the author makes.  Mr. Terzani spent the majority of his life in some country other than Italy, his homeland, just like I seem to be destined to do.  At some point, he tells his son that he didn’t want to go back to live in Italy because he didn’t feel like he belonged there, that it wasn’t were he wanted to be and live.  That it felt like it was too tight for his skin and he felt out of place.

That’s when I realized that I felt exactly the same way.  That realization made me feel a little better about leaving my parents behind and moving to America.  It made me realize that I hadn’t made a mistake or done anything wrong.  That the reason I never felt comfortable in Italy, and still don’t, is that I just never belonged there.  And that there’s nothing wrong with that feeling or with me.  It’s just the way it is.  It was such a huge relief.

Overall, this is a very good book, but I do have a technical gripe.  Whoever cut the tracks should be fired immediately and lose his retirement account.  I’m pretty sure that a large section of the audio book audience is composed by drivers.  Listening to audio books makes long commutes (or trips) more bearable, but driving still has to take precedence, so I’m sure I’m not the only one who finds himself rewinding often or going back to the beginning of the last track.

Well, in this audio book tracks number only 3 or 4 per disc on average and some are under 5 minutes long.  That means that the other tracks are 40-50 minutes long!!  Has the genius who thought that this was a good idea ever listened to an audio book in his life?  Does he realize how easy it is, especially in a car, which can go over a bump or something, to let go of the rewind function and instead skip to the beginning of the track?  What if you were 33 minutes into a 48 minute track?  Now you have to hold down the fast forward or the rewind button for several minutes.  Pick your poison.

I ended up ripping the discs to my computer, breaking the tracks up in smaller sections, and burning them to new discs, but that’s not something everyone can do, and for those people all that’s left is the frustration of having to be super careful when touching the rewind button.  That alone can greatly diminish the desire to listen to any audio book.

Grade: 7

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