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Audio books?

They are wonderful on long-drives, and they're saving my hearing from the typical destructive forces of loud music. :) I like to listen to audio books that I would never read because I’m too afraid I would have a hard time with the book. I like voluminous biographies and things of that nature.
 
we played them in the book store i worked at. people would get hooked on listening and spend way longer than they'd hoped. we would sell a lot of copies of that particular book as well. also it was brilliant when you were working, doing something mundane like dusting or counting stock. i would buy them to listen to while i worked in the house or garden but $$$$$$$$, and i don't know if my library stocks them.
 
Oh, yes they do!

Check with your library. They'll have tons of them. I listened to Proust's "Swann's Way" on audio, because I knew that was the only way I'd do it.

I'm an admitted addict.

www.recordedbooks.com has everything you could desire -- and unabridged, too.

Some narrators are simply fantastic. George Guidal, for one. Simon Prebble, for another. It's also fun to listen to the author read his or her own book. I carry a small tape recorder around with me to listen to as I do my mundane chores. Insomina? No problem.

You might want to try the Alexander McCall Smith books: "The Tears of the Giraffe" and that series?

Kinsey Milhone is -- is -- Blair Brown, I think. Sue Grafton wouldn't be the same without her.

Better than chocolates. And now I never have to spend a waking moment when I am not reading something!

:)
 
I was always interested in whether I'd be able to listen to an Audio Book without getting distracted by something or other. Maybe I'll get one out of the library when I next get the chance and have a go :)

Phil
 
yeah i want to talk! i hate audiobooks, okay i must confess that they are pretty practical for long drives in the car or when you stand under the shower ( i think i talk about that with the shower earlier, in another threat), but i still hate them. the reader have mostly the wrong voice, breath at the worst moments and i can't picture the scene when the reader suck!!
sorry to all audiobook lovers!!
 
Some narrators are simply fantastic. George Guidal, for one.
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I couldn't agree with you more. I have his reading of the collected fiction of Jorge Luis Borges and it is fantastic. He doesn't just read the words - he almost acts the book. I say almost because I think readers so inclined would tend, rather easily, to fall into hamming it up.
 
Honeydevil?

You are posting threats? For shame. For your punishment you are hereby sentenced to listen to a book read by someone as superlative at the job as George Guildall is -- but not in the shower!

That would suck for sure.
 
Funes?

Guidall must surely be multilingual, he does various accents so well. He reads the Hillerman books, and to me he is the voice of Joe Leaphorn.
 
StillILearn said:
You are posting threats? For shame. For your punishment you are hereby sentenced to listen to a book read by someone as superlative at the job as George Guildall is -- but not in the shower!

That would suck for sure.
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you know what?? i think i will give it another try, maybe i had just bad luck!!
and the narrator sucked!!
thanks for the name, then i have a good way to find somebody, who know how to read!! :D
 
Guidall must surely be multilingual, he does various accents so well.
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Exactly, he reminds me of a guy on NPR - Karl Hass (sp.?) - who has the same gift. I only know him from the Borges stories, but I can't imagine more demanding material. Spanish, French, German, Latin, Arabic, you name it. Plus, as I said, he handles the material without seeming the least bit smarmy. I never got the feeling that he was rubbing his audience's face in his erudition. I'll have to look for a Hillerman title on tape.
 
I love listening to audiobooks while I'm commuting to and from work. I've been getting my material from Audible.com - they've plenty of stuff for free too - i.e. The recent US Presidential Debate, the 9/11 Commission hearings, etc, etc.

Once a year they have an "Everything for 9.99" sale, so that's when I stock up. The diff I find compared to recordedbooks.com is audible is downloadable content - available immediately. And if you're a member it tends to be even cheaper.

I loved the guy who read Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead - Christopher Hurt. There are plenty of characters in the Fountainhead, and he manages to voice them so differently that you'd recognize them simply from his performance.

ds
 
I'm not a big fan of audiobooks. I only get them if they're read by the author himself, cause for me, that's the only way it could possibly add something to the experience. I bought Neil Gaiman's Coraline that way, and so far, that has been my last excursion into audio land.

(I do have The Hitchhiker's Guide on CD, but that's the radio series, not the book, so it doesn't really count.)
 
Keep your mind open, and ...

... never say never, lies.

Also, I think that may not be quite true about the author being the only person who could possibly do the book justice.

Who are a couple of your favorite writers?

:)
 
I hate the way most actors and authors read works of fiction aloud. It's so unnatural and stilted. The worst is written poetry read aloud (as opposed to improve poetry, which is completely fun). I think American actors and authors just don't read aloud very well.

In the UK, the books read on the radio are brilliant. The British readers have a gift for understatement, inflection, and anticipation. It's like the difference between the Royal Shakespeare Company and Hollywood.

But I love listening to birdcall tapes in the car. Surprising what sinks in while you're mindlessly driving.
 
StillILearn said:
Also, I think that may not be quite true about the author being the only person who could possibly do the book justice.
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I'm not saying no one else can do a book justice, it's just that if I have a choice, I'd rather read the books myself. Or there should be a good reason why I'd buy the audio book (Coraline had original music by the Gothic Archies for example). My brother owns a couple of Harry Potter books, and it's just not the same. OK, it's in Dutch, with a Dutch accent (i.e. from the Netherlands), but I don't think that's all that bothers me about it.
StillILearn said:
Who are a couple of your favorite writers?
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The post says it all, actually. I'm a big Douglas Adams and Neil Gaiman fan. :)
 
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