Audio Books

[gordo12]

I find I ignore any offers for audiobooks. For some reason, I have zero interest in listening as opposed to reading.

What are your feelings? Are you producing any? Do you look for them?

 

[Haulover]

I'm a very frequent "reader" of audiobooks. I listen to them on the airplane, while driving, when doing gym or when working out, while doing yardwork - etc.

I do NOT subscribe to the Audible. They have a great selection, but I hate their billing processes and have been screwed over by them. I simply download them from my public library, for free.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Audiobooks generally don't work well for me. I find it hard to focus when I'm passively listening to somebody else speaking; after a few minutes my attention slips and I end up having to backtrack over and over.

But a while back I recommended "Gideon the Ninth" to a friend, and she raved about the audiobook version enough that I gave it a try. I still found myself having to backtrack constantly, but it's less of an issue with a book that I've already read, and the reading was fantastic. The story has a large cast and I had difficulty keeping track of them on reading, but the voices in the audio help distinguish them.

I tried the sequel both in print and audiobook versions, and the contrast was interesting, because the story depends on withholding key information from the reader for long periods. In the audiobook, that is both easier and harder: stuff in typography doesn't come across, but voices do.

 

[Rustyoznail]

I used to listen to audiobooks on my five hour commute from the office to my project. The last one I listened to was "The Martian". That was good.

Since then I don't really bother. I'm not driving those long distances enough to make it worthwhile.

 

[JanusGoneAwry]

I am seriously dyslexic and process written words at such a profoundly slow pace that audiobooks are a godsend for me. I have over 300 in my library covering both fiction and nonfiction titles. There are some seriously good performers out there and even some authors who are compelling readers. Neil Gaiman comes to mind in that category. I listen predominantly to science fiction and fantasy. There are some books that I've had to return over the last 10 years because they just out and out sucked but not many.

If anyone is ever looking for suggestions let me know I'd be happy to pass along some ideas.

 

[Blind_Justice]

I prefer to read over having stuff read to me. That's kinda ironic because due to my handicap, I do most of my writing using a screen reader. It's slower and - for me - more taxing than just reading. Seeing how my loss of vision progresses, I might soon have no other option left.

I'd love to have my stories in audio form someday, if only to distribute them to my blind friends. Even better would be audio drama versions, with split roles, music and sounds. But to get that made, I'd probably have to sell a kidney.

 

[NotWise]

I've never been into audio books. My wife used to listen to them all the time, but now she listens to political podcasts all the time. Our relationship was a little better when she was listening to audio books.

 

[PennameWombat]

Essentially all of my non-erotic 'reading' is via audiobooks now. I do have a subscription with Audible and as part of that have access to their 'Plus' catalog, which is some huuuuge number of titles that are free.

Due to various infirmities my primary exercise is now 60-90 minutes of daily 'fast' (fastish) walking. This is my 'reading' time. Pre-COVID, I also had daily commutes on public transit so would usually listen then.

I used to do many multi-hour drives before I moved to Australia. My first audio book experience was in 2000, driving from New York to the west coast. Michael Crichton's Timeline got me to Nebraska and I found the books did better than music at keeping me attentive so I adopted them for my long trips, then slowly expanded my use of them.

I am not a fan of the newer trend of 'full cast' recordings of audiobooks. I've enjoyed a few which had two narrators, usually a male and a female that handled 'matching' characters, beyond that though it's a book, the 'full cast' thing just doesn't fit the format.

 

[HeyAll]

If you go to audiobooks.com or audible.com you can get a free book for a trial period. I used the trial period and made an extra purchase from audible, and will make a future purachase for audiobooks as a thanks for trial.

But for the audio books themselves, there needs to be two things to make it great:

1) The right narrator. You can listen to samples, some are really bad. However, some are amazing and add an extra layer to the story.

2) The right story. If a story has a lot of dialogue, it can be a problem. Especially if there are 3 characters in a scene.

For a recommendation, try Anne Rice's "The Vampire Lestate" It's narrated by an acclaimed artist named Simon Vance. I read that book about 20 years ago, and listening to it added an extra dimension.

But here's an interesting one: The Exorcist

https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Exor...fcf-90198b687a2f&pf_rd_r=5G5B0MZC89FADXP19V5K

Personally, I think the movie is pretty good. I'm not someone who thinks it's the best horror movie of all time.

But that audio book was narrated by the author himself. His narration is so good and the reviewers have made note of that.

 

[HeyAll]

Also, if you have Kindle Unlimited, they have a cool feature where you can listen to the narration, while at the same time, it shows you the text on screen so you can read along while you listen.

That only works with certain books. And it works on the Kindle phone app.

I don't know how to do that on the laptop, just audio.

 

[PennameWombat]

<snip>
But for the audio books themselves, there needs to be two things to make it great:

1) The right narrator. You can listen to samples, some are really bad. However, some are amazing and add an extra layer to the story.

2) The right story. If a story has a lot of dialogue, it can be a problem. Especially if there are 3 characters in a scene.
<snip>

Never even considered The Exorcist. I'll add it to my wish list. But to your point 2, I gave up on John Scalzi's Redshirts, narrated by Wil Wheaton. I generally enjoy Wheaton's narration (he was fine on the same author's Agent to the Stars and Lock-in and Cline's Ready Player One) but on this one the combination of short, choppy dialogue and Wheaton's rising intonation on every "he said" (which was in every sentence, paging an editor, please!) caused me to take advantage of my membership and exchange the book barely ten percent into it.

I'm quite impressed with Jefferson Mays (The Expanse series) and R.C. Bray (lots of stuff, one series I stuck with because of his narration but the author's repetitiveness and decision to streeeeetch a series way too far did cause me to drop it.)

One of the oddest narrators was a Johnny Heller, who narrated Rabid (non-fiction about the, um, yes, the rabies virus.) He has an odd voice but, well, after a few minutes of getting used to him his voice definitely fit the subject matter!

Also, if you have Kindle Unlimited, they have a cool feature where you can listen to the narration, while at the same time, it shows you the text on screen so you can read along while you listen.

That only works with certain books. And it works on the Kindle phone app.

I don't know how to do that on the laptop, just audio.

That's the Whispersync feature with Immersion reading, it works across various Kindle apps (Android, IOS) and devices and the Audible apps for Android and IOS. You're right, it doesn't seem to support any laptop options. I see "Whispersync for Voice-ready" on some of the audiobooks when I'm scanning, buy the Kindle edition and get the audiobook for $1.99.

But I don't bother. I have the Kindle app on my phone but I'm not a big fan of reading books in that format. I will sometimes use my iPad but mostly I just leave the audiobooks to audio.

 

[Nellymcboatface]

The audiobooks I've tried are biographies.
The first one was by Guy Martin...
A fearless motorcycle racer from the north of England with a very unique voice and 'working class' accent.
Whilst the book was well written the reader had `London' posh accent, which ruined the book for me.
I had specifically brought it for some flights I was to take and I ended up buying the book to read.
I've tried a few other biographies but it is the same, I want to hear the biographer read it...
It's put me off other audiobooks I'm afraid.
Nelly