The News Tribune from Tacoma, Washington • 34

"Vs The News Tribune Monday August 29 1988 UNABRIDGEDR AD BY THE AUTHOR I met i rcCuy Some of great mysteries need explaining: By David Grimes New York Times news service he Miami maga-C sine ran an interesting and I I amusing article recently on IJ Things The article answered a wide range of questions such as Why American Cars Got So Bad Why Women Are More Civilized Than Men and Why Credit Cards Have So Many Numbers The stay was good as far as it went If the magazine does another Things article I would like them to answa some of the Why does Barbara Bush look approximately 73 years older than her" husband? Why does Michael Dukakis jog in street shoes? Greater variety is helping publishers tap new buyers By Bob Hahn Scripps Howard New Service may be surprised at the variety of material available Inspirational motivational and self-help audios are extremely popular while bestselling fiction and non-fiction fueled by near-simultaneous release in audio and book format are Increasingly successful In fact one Cincinnati bookstore manager reported that some customers buy the book and the audio at the same time And audio sales are described by one retailer as "fantastic" which bodes well for future sales of books on tape Where can you buy audiobooks? Most nationwide chain bookstores carry them including Waidenbooks and Dalton Bookseller as well as most of the independents So a publisher such as New American Library which is now planning a complete line of audiobooks can feel confident that Its audio publication of Stephen Dark Tower VoL 1 The will do well despite its relatively high price (12995) Meanwhile the serious players in audio publishing continue to expand The number of celebrity readers mainly actors and actresses continues to grow So does the number of authors who feel that they can best read their own books Publishers are often reluctant to talk udiobooks have always had an appeal for the visually im- 11 paired but now their audi- ence has expanded to travelers commuters Joggers kids people seeking self-help advice or religious inspiration in short a cross-section of Americans Growing sales and growing visibility in bookstores are a result of a growing awareness on the part of publishers that audiobooks are a valuable asset in reaching readers One publisher points out that while women buy more books than men men buy more audiobooks than women The range of audio products is not yet as vast as that of print but it too is growing rapidly Audios range from single hour-long tapes for abridged self-help and inspirational titles (shorter for many children's tapes) to the two-tape three-hour abridgements of full-length fiction and nonfiction titles Unabridged recordings range from the four-tape six-hour performance of Stephen King's to massive works such as Gordon Prange's at (Books on Tape $88 purchase 11750 rental) 11 90-minute tapes Those not acquainted with audiobooks Please see Audio Cl 1 Stephen King's Is expected to be a breakthrough audiobook King audiobook to test mass appeal By Bob Hahn 8crippe Howard News Service questions that have been bothering me fa a long time such as: Why is it that every magazine you pick up nowadays is stuffed with approximately 439 subscrip-! tton cards and otha worthless junk that fall on the floa interfere with your reading and otherwise Infuriate you so much that you throw the magazine down in disgust and end up watching Love reruns instead which as we all know will eventually cause you to go insane and die? Why does Barbara Bush look approximately 73 years olda than her husband? Why does Michael Dukakis Jog in street shoes? Why do all express lanes In grocery stores say 10 items a less? Why not nine? Or 13? And why dd they all say less instead of fewer? Why do we no longer see apy of those tiresome articles about hew wonderful the metric system is and bow everything in America is going to go metric within five years and' anybody who think a wonderful idea is a narrow-minded troglodyte who deserves to spend eternity converting milliliters to ounces? Why did it take so long for someone to invent ketchup in a squeeze bottle? Why does keeping score in ted-: nis have to be so complicated? Why you ever buy extra) shoelaces until the ones in yobr shoes have broken? a Why do Southerners get Tao rhapsodic about grits? Why doit blue pants go with brown shoes? Izt Why do manufacturers make? car radios so complicated that yqu'r operate them in your livings roan with the instruction mgnjutf spread out in front of you let eloped in a speeding automobile during -rush hour while trying to eat an Egg) McMuffin with one hand and mop up the hot coffee you spilled on lap with the other? Why does Muhammad Ali tinue to appear in public? on Robert Browning's Roland to the Dark Tower King says) set in a post-apocalyptic future The solitary Gunslinger is in pursuit of the solitary in There are plenty of mythic symbols and powerful images as King establishes this first installment of the Dark Tower saga (Part Two Drawing of the is set fa January) Like all King works is distinguished by the quality of his imagination reading is quite good considering that he is not a professional reader Of course he has the advantage of being the author and knowing precisely what interpretation he wishes to give his work The quality of the recoding itself is somewhat marred by the intrusion of outside road noise notential print blockbusters InlMJlDonald Grant published a different kind of King novel fantasy called Tower The It was published in a small edition of 10000 followed by a second printing of 10000 more Both sold out and now may be purchased only on the rare-book market Now New American Library has succeeded in twinging fantasy to the mass market first in audio then in a trade paperback (due in September) Chairman Robert Diforio told Weekly that audio version would have printings that exceed 50000 and that he expected sales to those That would make a mega-best-seller is a classic quest tale (based On hardcover sales last year Stephen King occupied three of the top 10 spots led by with sales of 14 million copies In paperback last year four King boras each had more than two million copies in print So how many copies can King sell in audio? That question is going to be tested with the Dark Tower The (New American Library 12995 six hours and 16 minutes) It is not first appearance on audio several short stales and one novel already have been taped But this is the first reading by King and the first to receive the kind of priority treatment normally reserved tor Stephen King Audiobooks offer diverse subjects for By Bob Hahn 8cripps Howard News Service past six months of a young life in Mexico Audioworks has released Robert Parker's Kings and ($1495 180 minutes) read by David Purdham Spensa mysteries are known fa their snappy dialogue tough funny gritty and witty In this case the Boston private eye is hired to investigate the murder of a report-a in a small New England town While the above American newcomers are walking mean streets Sherlock Holmes is still patrolling Victorian London Audioworks is releasing some of the original radio broadcasts which starred Basil Rathbone Please see Titles Cl 1 suasive evidence that it is probable and suggests how to soften its effects Newsman David Brinkley reads his own book Goes to War" (Randan House Audiobooks $995 90 minutes) which crams an amazing amount of information into a brief time Basically it is the story of the transformation of Washington DC from a provincial national capital in the 1930s to the huge governmental enclave it became by the end of Wald War IL Brinkley skillfully and succinctly weaves together social and political history Another author reading his own wok successfully is Farley Mowat His now-classic Cry (Bantam Audio $1495 180 minutes) was written more than 25 years ago but has enjoyed a revival since it was made into a feature movie Mowat spent almost a year living among the wolves in Barren Lands and his observations of the wolves in their natural habitat have transformed our ideas of the animal Random House Audiobooks continues to release readings of the late John Travis McGee mysteries The latest are Dreadful Lemon Sky" and Ha in Both three-boa abridgements ($1495) are read by actor Darren McGavin In a girl is killed shortly after giving McGee $100000 to keep safe fa her finds McGee aided by his friend Meyer backtracking the A sampling of available on audio-books: Simon Schusters Audioworks offers Baseball Hall of Shame" read and written by Bruce Nash and Allan Zullo (6995 50 minutes) which classic bonehead plays at bat in the field even in the bleachers On the weightier side Sound Ideas presents Dr Ravi frightening interpretation of our economic past and future in Great Depression of ($1495 180 minutes) While Batra does not insist that a great depression is inevitable he offers per A great idea for Graceland: Spend eternity with Elvis Right now there are still millions of devoted Elvis fans What if the Presley estate were to allow them to be buried on the grounds of Graceland? there are three otha people buried with him side by side each with their own memorial markers Left to right they are: grandmotha Minnie Mae Presley (referred to affectionately by Elvis by ha nickname Elvis himself Elvis' father Vernon and motha Gladys Tourists at Graceland traditionally leave flowers on all four graves So my idea to tell my friends I warned you that this does not represent the epitome of taste was to say that I had made an arrangement with Graceland When the time came fa me to leave this mortal coil I would be buried at Grace-land Tourists would move past the graves leaving their floral offerings: Minnie Mae Elvis Vernon Gladys and then they would think: Bob All right it a very good Joke (although Elvis probably would have laughed a at least sneered energetically he had a bizarre sense of huma) and it was rather disrespectful But then I thought: Taken to its logical extreme it could be an enormous success and potentially the salvation of Graceland There are two schools of thought about Elvis Presley One is that his legend will grow and grow and that he will get even more famous as the decades go by The otha is that as the people who rememba Elvis die of and already starting to new generations will not feu the same emotions toward him Will tarn into a Rudolph Valentino a a Clark Gable someone with lasting fame but certainly not with the impact he has had during the 11 years Sane figuring: The Graceland property covers 138 acres According to Audrey Barrett at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles the industry standod fa mnTimum numbu of graves per acre is 1600 Thus the Graceland property has roan fa 32080 graves actually a little less because of the house and otha buildings But use 22080 as a waking num-ba If Elvis fans were given the chance to be buried at Graceland at a twice of say $25000 pa person payable in monthly installments during the life the remainda to come out of life insurance payments the estate of Elvis Presley would realize approximately $552 million The fans would get their chance to be buried with Presley the Presley estate would become rich beyond imagination If you think this whole idea is outlandish then you do not understand the devotion of tana There is even a possible slogan that Graceland could -use to promote the Idea: Eternity With Yes right now I will say it again it seems tasteless and implausible But you watch If the Presley estate starts to feel that the interest in Elvis really is beginning to wane and if the fans who loved him the most are given this opportunity it will happen and it will work As with everything else connected with the life and death of Elvis Presley Don't bet against It Bob Greene la a Pulitaer Priae-winning colunuM with the Chicago Tribune nn EMPHIS I am philosophically op-I 1 posed to making millions of dollars fa I it 1 1 other People although the manufactur-UuU ers of Canfield's Diet Chocolate Fudge Soda seemed to slip by me but this idea is too inspired to let pass must warn you that some of you will find it tasteless Even I find it a little tasteless The thing Is though it would work This started as I was sitting here thinking about heading home after Elvis Week I always take a lot of insults from my friends and colleagues when I write columns about the late MrPresley those friends and colleagues fa some reason seem to feel that I am obsessed with Elvis My Invariable response to them to quote a favorite and eloquent phrase of Elvis himself is: ah I know Leave me Anyway to prepare myself to deal with the sarcasm and abuse I tried to think up an outlandish story to bring back Then when my friends discovered that the story was not true they would leave me lone You are probably aware the Elvis is buried in back of the house at Graceland in an area known as the Meditation Garden What you may not know is that since Ms death There is some evidence that this already may be occurring Elvis is more prominent in the media now than ever before But lost in the news from Memphis was the fact that attendance during Elvis Week was drastically down from last year Graceland officials say that this was due to the huge crowds that visited Memphis last year on the 10th anniversary of death the 11th anniversary is not as symbolic as the 10th Still though there's a chance that someday the mystique will fade Thus the idea: Right now there are still millions of devoted Elvis fans What if the Presley estate were to allow them to be buried on the grounds of Graceland? When the current genaation of Elvis fans passes away they would be buried on the grounds and Graceland would be turned into a cemetery As a matter of fad many American cemeteries pahaps by coiiyidemw (although there are no coincidences in life) are indeed called a 4On.