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!
DeleteSome pig!
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)
DeleteSelden, your story is so close to mine – dyslexic kid(s). Audiocassettes in cars – no one said a word through 13 hrs of Harry Potter from the passengers age 5-45 on a car trip. Run in for food and to pee, and back in the car!
DeleteYou can also play kids any book in the car and they will listen. Michael Connelly – alright not age appropriate, but they were quiet! Dinosaurs – iffy, Ken Follett building cathedrals – that works.
Now that parents just plop a video on the tablet in front of the kid while driving, I think the magic of listening together – all of us at once, and the double magic of having the characters and the happenings in your head – such a loss for the kids. I think that is why Jack and I still plop the audiobook in the player when we leave the driveway, and enjoy it together for 5 or 6 hours. You could not do that in the living room.
By the way, when we were driving my sister back and forth to Halifax for chemo (6 hours drive up and then again back), even she listened to the tape (Claire and Russ shared the road…). I can only hope it took her mind off the impending. She never took my suggestion to listen while in hospital.
Selden, your story really hit home--my grandson is dyslexic. I'm going to see if there are free audio books for him.
DeleteMy brother was dyslexic, and a long haul truck driver. Too bad he died before he could have taken advantage of audiobooks, because he dearly loved reading, despite the struggle he had to do it.
DeleteOn a car trip to New Orleans we listened to Gone Girl, and ended up driving around an extra hour so we could listen to the end, we were so riveted.
I’ve listened to audiobooks for many years and read the paper books as well. Now, my vision is a bit contrary so audiobooks are popular with me. The narrator makes all the difference. I always preview and have opt out of buying an audiobook a few times because of the sound. I don’t listen to non-fiction because I seem to require underlining as a learning tool. I, too, use audio books I’m familiar with to fall asleep. Always books I’ve read and always with narrators that sound like friends telling me a story. I listen while doing mindless housework. This time of year I’m crocheting Christmas gifts. I sit in my recliner under a warm afghan, have my tea next to me, crochet and listen my way into another world. Paula B.
ReplyDeleteGlad I'm not alone Paula! Do you have particular bedtime favorites?
DeleteAs most of you know, audiobooks are my reading of choice, and the reader is soooo important. Ralph Cosham, the original reader of Louise Penny’s Three Pines was unreplaceable, and we still mourn him. The next two replacements were borderline to iffy. It is as though someone picked the wrong actor for the character – all you can think is wrong, wrong, wrong. Julia’s reader (good) also reads another series – I can separate the two. I like her in both. Peter Granger’s reader is the same person who reads Joy Ellis – sometimes it tweaks the other in my head. Tom Hanks read an Ann Pratchett book – all I could hear was him over-acting. On the other hand, Dan Stevens (Matthew on Downton Abbey) is a fabulous reader. I think the reader has to lose themselves and their persona and become the character. Whether the reader speaks with many different voices, or just reads the words, it should be as invisible to the listener.
ReplyDeleteI don’t know how an author chooses a reader. Some authors seem to pick willy-nilly and some stick to only one person. Some seem to change up more frequently than I would appreciate in a series – somehow it breaks the contract between the author and myself. Some people read their own masterpieces – and some of them are good – some are not. Mitch Albom and Marion Todd fall into the good.
I listen all day long. We both listen in the car (Louise Penny rules the airwaves). When I come home from shopping, the first thing I need to do is put on the earmuffs, breath a deep breath and recede into the book.
I don’t know how you can read going to sleep!
Margo, John and I listened to the audio version of Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, read by Meryl Streep. It was spectacular! (I think maybe Tom Hanks did The Dutch House?)
DeleteI just listened to Tom Lake last week, and agree completely about Meryl Streep. She is brilliant, isn't she?
DeleteWhen my son was little, we did a few books on tape when we were driving to Boise to see my sister. It did help the miles go by! On a more recent road trip with a friend, we had a lovely experience listening to The Book of Joy by the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Tutu. I thought the actors playing their parts were great and the different accents really added to the experience of the book. However, that's about it on my audible experience.
ReplyDeleteMany many years ago, Martha Detamore of the old Arsenic and Oolong Society sent me Elizabeth Peters' The Crocodile on the Sandbank narrated by Barbara Rosenblatt after I mentioned at that year's Maluce Domestic that I'd never listened to a book on (cassette) tape. Barbara did voices for all the characters and did so wonderfully well, and I was hooked. For years afterward I was rarely in the car without a tape in the cassette player. I even had the dealership swap out a CD player for a cassette player so I could keep listening to favorites when I bought a new car. I don't drive as much these days so my listening time is almost nil, but I loved hearing things I'd missed in books I'd already read.
ReplyDeleteI have read all of Julia's books on audio as well as Deborah, Jenn, and Lucy. What a way to get through mindless daily chores! I thoroughly enjoy this option and the characters become so familiar by the narrators. A bad narrator or an annoying voice can ruin a book no question. That said Julia Whelan is unsurpassed. I think the woman could read me the dictionary and I would be engaged. My other favorite is Therese Plummer. I have been known to search these two narrators to read something they've produced.
ReplyDeleteI've heard Julia Whelan, but will have to look up Therese Plummer
DeleteOh listening to samples! Great idea. And I have to say, on the audiobook I just finished, which I absolutely loved, it was so good I wound up just carrying my phone with me around the house, and listening in little bits at random times. I also listened to it while I was riding the treadmill. And that was perfect.
ReplyDeleteare you going to tell us which book???
DeleteI listen to audiobooks all day, when I am doing gardening and housework and knitting. The narrator is supremely important, so I preview a book before I commit. Julia's narrator is just right but there are so many others: Jim Dale, Susan Erickson, Christopher Timothy reads the James Herriot books, Titus Welliver is reading the Harry Bosch series, so many more. I do listen in bed and set the timer.
ReplyDeleteI, too, have been an audiobook listener since the cassette tape days. My husband, who has dyslexia, has become a HUGE audiobook fan. It's opened up a new world to him. We share books, and discuss narrators. We're both on the side of voice actors who give each character their own sound. Julia, your narrator is AWESOME.
ReplyDeleteI mostly listen to audiobooks while driving, because living where I do, it takes a half hour to get anywhere worth going. I also listen while washing dishes.
I won't name names, but I recently listened to one (not written by a Red) with a narrator whose voice grated on me big time. I finished the book, but that says more for the quality of the writing than the tone of the actor's voice.
At least half of my reading is via audiobooks -- probably slightly more than half. As others have mentioned, my gateway to them was children's books back when our son was little. We enjoyed several of the Harry Potter books narrated by Jim Dale on family vacations while driving across the country. Then I remember realizing that if I listened to a book instead of the radio in the car, I found commuting a bit less stressful. Now (and for many years) I rarely drive anywhere without a book playing on audio. I also often listen when I'm cooking. Hubby and I usually walk together but if the day calls for walking separately, I listen to a book then, too.
ReplyDeleteThe narrator DOES make a big difference to me. As such a frequent listener I have a pretty wide range of what I find acceptable, but every now and then I have encountered a voice that just really bothers me. For most books I prefer just reading the book, but in fantasy it is often enjoyable (and helpful) to have different voices for different characters. Surprisingly, I am less fond of full cast recordings. Somehow they no longer feel like a book to me at that point. Weird, huh?
I've always listened to audio books, especially when I'm doing chores I don't like. They are especially important to me now because my detached retina left me vision impaired in one eye and so I can't devour a book in a day like I used to--instead I listen. The narrator is important to me. I got a big kick out of a recent happening: I was speaking to a large book club when one reader piped up that she was disappointed in my voice because I didn't sound at all like the audio book. The real Winter Snow (my character) sounds like the very talented Alex Rabe (my narrator) and not me! That's why I stick to the writing, not the reading!
ReplyDeleteSo funny Gerri!
DeleteNot really a fan of audio books unless I'm taking a long drive - vacation and such. Then, it is a nice companion. Otherwise, if I'm listening to something it is music. That soothes my soul and lifts me up. I guess my brain associates books with print, not audio. That being said, years ago Stephen King's "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" got me from Florida to Maryland in a most entertaining manner! -- Victoria
ReplyDeleteDoes the narrator matter? Wildly so! Our book club chose a Toni Morrison book a couple years ago, and because of a weird schedule I had to either listen to it or not read it. The only audio versions available were narrated by the then quite old author (at the time it was recorded), who was deadly to listen to. I tried speeding it up, because she paused... after... every... word, but it didn't help. I couldn't get past the first few pages. Now there's a book you could use to fall asleep to.
ReplyDeleteBecause our book club once had two members who were blind, we have always tried to choose books that were available in many formats, including audio. One current member is severely dyslexic, and audio is her reading method of choice.
Other than that aborted listen, the most intriguing narrator was for Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk, by Kathleen Rooney. It was the first book I'd heard narrated by Xe Sands (her first name is pronounced "Ex-ee"), and I was smitten. She can sound very young and hip, or in her golden years, as she was as Lillian.
I do listen to a LOT of audiobooks, at least one a week, and during garden season sometimes as many as three. I love that I can hot swap them in seconds when one ends, and I enjoy most narrators' character voices.
I may have mentioned this recently, but in 1987 when I was pregnant with my last child and my middle daughter was 2 1/2, I had to have my jaw wired shut for a month after oral surgery (long, boring story about how an inept oral surgeon broke my jaw during a wisdom tooth removal, then denied anything was wrong. Yeah.). My husband, naturally, was on lecture tour nearly the whole time, leaving me to care for an active toddler. She loved to be read to, so I found storybooks like Berenstain Bears, etc. that came with audiotapes that faithfully read out every single word. I also got her a little kids tape player, and she would sit on my lap as we both listened to the tape, while I followed the narration with my finger. She learned to read that way, and we have both been fans of recorded books ever since.
There was a fascinating article, part of the obituary of the inventor of recorded books, sometime in the last couple years. I'll try to find it.