LUCY BURDETTE: I know some of you, Debs in particular, are big fans of audiobooks. John is too, he always has his EarPods in listening to something. Usually when I’m out walking, I prefer to be looking around at the world or trying to come up with plot ideas. One time I do listen is when I’m trying to get to sleep. This is very particular, though. The story has to be something that I’m already familiar with so I’m not worried about keeping up with what will happen. One of my favorites is Jenny Colgan, especially The Endless Beach or others in her Mure series. Since I love those, I bought two other titles when I saw them on sale. But oh horror of horrors, it was a different narrator—one that I did not feel the least bit soothing. I tried listening a little more while I was walking to see if I could get used to her voice, but it was like nails on chalkboard.
So that’s the question of the day. If you listen to audiobooks, how important is the narrator, and when do you most enjoy listening? And one more question, do you like the narrator acting out the voices or would you prefer they just read the darn book? (I guess you can tell what side I’m on!)
HALLIE EPHRON: I’m not (is it anathema to say this?) a huge fan of audio books or of narrators who get into all the voices. Plus I fall asleep and then have no idea where I tuned out when I restart the thing.
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Yeah, um, oops. Well, I cannot listen to them. I HAVE listened to mine, although I have to say it’s really difficult to listen to one’s own audiobooks for a million reasons, but I adore my actors and am happy with the terrific response to them. The actor who reads ALL THIS, Sarah Mollo-Christensen, is incredible, and shows how a good reader can make a book fully realized.
But me, listening to an audiobook? Is me, sleeping. Boom, done, I am out. (I think it has something to do with not knowing where to look.)
If I try to do something else while I’m listening, I cannot do either thing, god forbid I should drive, which would be deadly.
I’ve just downloaded one now, though, because someone told me it was unmissably fabulous, so we shall see.
Adding this later: wow. This is interesting. The book I am “hearing” is great--but I can sort of tell that if I would have been reading it on paper, I would have thought: ”backstory backstory get on with it” but because I am hearing it, it’s like someone telling me a story, and that’s fine. Whoa.
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I’ve adored audiobooks ever since they were cassette tapes in HUGE boxes. The audiobooks of the Harry Potter series and novels like The Wizard of Oz and The Boxcar Children made many a long, long car trip bearable when my kids were small.
I tend to lean more to nonfiction for my audiobooks, interestingly. Right now I’m listening to Becca Syme’s ENERGY MANAGMENT FOR WRITERS. Next up will be 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History by Andrew Ross Sorkin.
I’m going to give a shoutout to the reader who performs my audio books, Suzanne Toren. She is SO good, and I can’t tell you how many readers love her. I’ve listen to her narration for other books as well, and she always knocks it out of the park. The performer/reader/narrator is SO important to the enjoyment of the book!
JENN MCKINLAY: Like Julia, I’ve been a listener since the old “books on tape” days. I used to listen during my commute in CT and now I listen at the gym, while gardening, etc. My latest love is the graphic audio books where they have multiple narrators and sound effects! I listened to all of Sarah J Maas’s ACOTAR and Rebecca Yarros’s Fourth Wing on audio — so good!
DEBORAH CROMBIE: Well, obviously, I am a fan. I did start with the books on cassettes, how many ever years ago, then CDs, but that was mostly in the car on long trips. (I can't listen to audio books while driving in Dallas traffic.) But the digital audio books were revolutionary. I think my gateway books were the Harry Potters, read by the marvelous Jim Dale, because I knew the stories and didn't have to worry if I didn't understand or was missing something. (The new full cast audio of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is really good and is unabridged, but I think I prefer one narrator.) I do like readers who do different accents and character voices!
Lucy and Hank, I listen while I am cooking (as long as not following complicated recipe!), washing dishes, doing mindless chores like watering and cleaning out catboxes, and I do listen in bed at night. I just set the Audible timer on my phone, so if I fall asleep I only have to back up a bit the next day.
RHYS BOWEN: there was a huge upheaval in my world when the narrator for the Royal Spyness series died. Not only because she was so young and it was so unexpected but because she was so talented. She was nominated for an Audie award every year and one year she won, beating out Meryl Streep. So the fans had a hard time accepting a new narrator, who was quite good. But this time she was nowhere to be found so I had to choose yet another new narrator. Luckily the actor who has done the Molly series was available so all is well. But the narrator makes a huge difference. A grating or inappropriate voice and the book is ruined!
Red readers, are you audiobook fans? How important is the narrator?
I occasionally listen to an audiobook, but I'm apt to go to sleep while listening and then I get frustrated. Truthfully, I prefer to read the book myself. I do like the narrator for Julia's books; I think that the narrator simply has to read the book rather than act out all the voices . . . .
ReplyDeleteThe only audio books I have really liked are memoirs read by the person it is about. Oh, and I liked the audio version of Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan Henry and narrated by Fiona Hardingham.
ReplyDeleteI think it is weird because I do enjoy when a live person in front of me reads to me but not audio books. (Love, love, love First Chapter Fun …one chapter and I concentrate on the person in front of me reading it (Hank and Hannah). I miss it terribly!!)
I’ve tried various fiction titles and have concluded I am not an auditory learner. If I listen while doing other tasks, I concentrate on the task and tune the book out. If I listen at bedtime I fall asleep. I spend too much time backtracking to find the last part I actually heard. Granted, I have also fallen asleep with my thumb advancing the pages in an ebook too…also very annoying. I’ve tried listening with the words in front of me, but I can’t find a pace where the audio matches my brain without sounding like a chipmunk. The very worst is when I have tried a book in the midst of a series that I have read on my own, because the voices of the characters do not sound like the voices I already have in my mind….like when the actors in a movie don’t match the images I have of a book’s characters.
I only do slightly better with podcasts than I do with audio books. With those I still find myself tuning out to much of what they are saying, but occasionally I am engaged enough to “join in the conversation” by talking back to them as if they could hear me.
So nope, audio is not for me.
Interesting comments Brenda. We too enjoy listening to memoirs read by the writer. Bill Clinton's memoir was like having him in the backseat on a long car trip!
DeleteI'm not an audiobook fan simply because my mind wanders to things that may or may not need to be done.
ReplyDeleteI get that Dru!
DeleteYou all probably know by now that I am a huge fan of audiobooks. I listen to at least 2 every week, mostly while working around the house or driving. The narrator makes a huge difference and I do want them to use different voices. Barrie Kreinik, the fine actress who narrated Rhys's Mrs Endicott also narrated The Venice Sketchbook and I think they are incredible.
ReplyDeleteI mentioned once before that I always listen to a preview first. That doesn't mean that I don't occasionally get a dud, but I had to skip an entire series by a favorite author because the narrator was such a pill. She gave one of my favorite characters an unforgivably squeaky voice.
As for just reading the book, fine for non fiction but if there are characters, then they should all sound different.
I have been listening to some historical romances, particularly British rom coms, with fantastic narration. So much fun.
I forgot about trying samples Judy, that would have saved me some disappointment!
DeleteI only listen to audiobooks on long solo drives, and I haven't done one of those in a long time. EB White reading Charlotte's Web was a marvel on cassette tapes and got my sons to Quebec and back several times. I think it's freaky to listen to my own books being read by someone else, so I don't. People seem to like my narrators, though.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of not getting distracted while listening, I do listen to a couple of radio shows on the weekends (Wait Wait Don't Tell Me and The Moth), and often sit and play solitaire (with actual cards) while I listen. If I cook, I get distracted, and if I just sit, I get antsy or fall asleep. I love playing solitaire, so it's a great solution.
Edith, we listened to EB White books over and over while driving to Vermont with our kids. We still quote lines from those!
DeleteI was introduced to audiobooks by my children. Given various signs, our son was tested at almost 7 and found to be severely dyslexic. We were told he might never be a reader. My husband and I, both educators, had bonded over our love of books, and to have our child left out of this richness was, to me, unthinkable. So we found an Orton-Gillingham tutor and began buying audiobooks, knowing that for most children at that age, their understanding of stories far outstripped their reading ability. (I tried reading aloud at bedtime but once we were in chapter books, I was the one who fell asleep). As we were on private school salaries (i.e.: dirt), the combination soon became prohibitively expensive. I was visiting libraries all over the county to borrow cassettes in their thick plastic clamshells. Checking one out one day I sighed something to the librarian, who, bless her, said, "Do you know about Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic? Audiobooks are free, from the government!" I investigated and it was true. The government even paid postage both ways and you could order three at a time! The program is now called Learning Ally and costs $135/year. It is still an amazing bargain, since thousands of novels are available and the only perquisite is a diagnosis of dyslexia (or blindness, of course, or any other disability that interferes with reading). I imagine the books are now digital downloads but in those days our son was thrilled to see the distinctive green plastic boxes of cassettes crammed in our mailbox. The anonymous boxes had another plus... they gave no clue to the story or intended audience, so he listened to many books that might have been considered "for girls." In his first six months with the program he listened to 86 children's novels. Though eventually he caught up in reading skills and, indeed, went on to major in journalism, more than thirty years later he still loves audiobooks.
ReplyDeleteOur second child, ten years younger, was not dyslexic and didn't need the same intervention. However, with a girlfriend I began driving our kids to Florida every spring — a 23-hr. drive. Paging Jim Dale! He was so talented, we'd pull into a rest stop and the children would wait in the car until a scene finished.
I myself have always preferred reading until it became possible to load audiobooks on a phone and carry them with me while I am working. This means I listen to 10x the number of audiobooks in summer that I do in winter. In the summer I have a million mindless outdoor tasks: gardening, endless mowing behind cows and now only sheep on 17 open acres, fencing, shoveling, etc. If it's not raining I am outside at least eight hours and can knock off a shorter book in a day. In the winter my mindless tasks are more limited: making beds, doing laundry, cleaning, and vacuuming. It will tell you the state of my house when I say I might barely get through a long book in a month. I too can't listen while doing anything that requires a brain cell. Cooking? Beyond chopping vegetables, forget it. I listened when I was painting my barn this fall, but when it turned out I had to replace the siding on one of the high gables, measuring and cutting angles, all voices in my ear had to cease.
To me a narrator is very important. I was intensely sad when Ralph Cosham died; he'd been such a warm voice in my ear, reading Louise Penny and Dick Francis. I treasure Suzanne Toren, who gets the faint Southern accent of Clare just right while also somehow becoming a believable Russ. There are a number of others. Because I don't have an ear for English voices, I am much less picky about English narrators, whereas, for example, having had parents from Alabama, a bad Southern accent will make me turn off a book immediately. (Selden)
what an amazing story about your son Selden! Now you're making me want to try one of Julia's books on audio...
DeleteRoberta/Lucy, I'm so sorry that comment became so long. I was typing away with my coffee and didn't realize. (Selden)
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