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Audio books.

S

Stephen

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Does anyone listen to books, maybe in the car, on the way to work.

When I was younger, I would listen to Enid Blytons books on the famous five ( I read them aswell ;) ), and enjoyed them immensely.

I stopped reading for many years and so never listen to books either. When I started to read books again it never occurred to me to listen to books.

I was surfing the bbc's web-site and came accross Radio 4's page with a section that has audio books, and it wetted my appetite for more.

My local Waterstone doesn't have a great deal of audio books, they are mainly on cassette and I prefer CD's.

I was just wondering if anyone else like's to listen to books, and does the person reading the book influence you. e.g Nick Nornby's 'About a Boy' is read by Alan Cummings. The book itself doesn't appeal much to me and I haven't seen the movie version yet, but I like Alan Cumming's voice, so I might listen to it.

It's the same with poetry, I like to read it, but prefer to 'hear' it read.
 
Well, I only recently discovered audiobooks, so I haven't figured out what to think of it just yet.

So far I've listened to Coraline (written and read by Gaiman) and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (though it's not the book, but the original radio series I'm listening to). My brother has the two first Potter books in Dutch, but I didn't like it so much. Maybe that was because it was read by a guy from the Netherlands, maybe it was cause I read it in English and all the translated names seemed out of place, I don't know. It just didn't seem right.

I enjoy listening to how the author reads it, because that should basically be how it was intended.
 
I've been listening to audio books in my for a few years now. Since it takes me about an hour to get to work, it helps. I love it. I buy the audiobooks at amazon or at audiobookstand.com, but they're really expensive. I have a CD/mp3 player in my car so sometimes I just rip the tapes I buy to mp3 format for ease of use.

If you're book store doesn't carry many audio books, try you're local library as well
 
Originally posted by kasstorr
If you're book store doesn't carry many audio books, try you're local library as well
Click to expand...

I'll give the library a try, I don't go to the library as often as I should.:)
 
I spend a lot of time on the road, too (about 40,000 miles a year), and really enjoy the few audio books I have. #1 on the list has to be the collected short stories of Jorge Luis Borges. The guy who reads them is great (i.e. his voice matches the material), though for the life of me I can't think of his name. I also like Rex Stout mysteries (though I am not as crazy about the reader) and the Potter books (ditto).
 
The only time I've ever listened to books on tape was last summer when the boys and I drove to Disneyworld. It was a 12 hour drive. We went to the library and picked out a couple of books, one which ran 7 hours! It was a great experience. We got to listen together and discuss it during the trip.
 
I like it when stories are actually dramatized and acted by a cast with foley effects. Stephen King's The Mist and Agatha Christie's The Orient Express are two I know of that are dramatizations.
 
I've seen audio books about but never actualy heard one. do they actually get a guy just to read the book onto a tape. that seems unlikely to me as i can't even read the shortest of books in 4 hours so they must omit details from the books. i guess this would be ok if it was like a word here and there but i'd be disappointed if they said 'well that bit about the barfight isn't really important lets skip that'. ok i got carried away but still. how do they do it?
 
Yes, that's how they do it. Certain portions of the book are excised in a process known as abridgement. Sometimes the author is involved in the process of deciding what gets cut. Sometimes he isn't. If an audiobook says it's abridged, parts are missing. Personally I don't listen to those books at all. Unabridged audiobooks contain the whole work, word for word. They're usually quite long.
 
There's a discount audio store right by my house which I keep meaning to visit...

The only ones I've listened to recently are work related - a series on sales and the book Good to Great. They're good, but I don't think I'd listen to fiction. I remember listening to some fantasy books on tape when I was younger, I think the voices bothered me, as did the slow pace of the story.
 
Stephen said:
Does anyone listen to books, maybe in the car, on the way to work.

When I was younger, I would listen to Enid Blytons books on the famous five ( I read them aswell ;) ), and enjoyed them immensely.

I stopped reading for many years and so never listen to books either. When I started to read books again it never occurred to me to listen to books.

I was surfing the bbc's web-site and came accross Radio 4's page with a section that has audio books, and it wetted my appetite for more.

My local Waterstone doesn't have a great deal of audio books, they are mainly on cassette and I prefer CD's.

I was just wondering if anyone else like's to listen to books, and does the person reading the book influence you. e.g Nick Nornby's 'About a Boy' is read by Alan Cummings. The book itself doesn't appeal much to me and I haven't seen the movie version yet, but I like Alan Cumming's voice, so I might listen to it.

It's the same with poetry, I like to read it, but prefer to 'hear' it read.
Click to expand...

I love to read, but when i`m to tired from workin long hours, i can listen to an audiobook and realy like it. And yes sometime can the person that reads the book influence me in some way. Some times they make me sleep to! :)
 
alfinge said:
I love to read, but when i`m to tired from workin long hours, i can listen to an audiobook and realy like it. And yes sometime can the person that reads the book influence me in some way. Some times they make me sleep to! :)
Click to expand...

I like listening to them at bedtime, it's nice to be read to sleep sometimes :)
 
I got The Accidental, by Ali Smith for my birthday. The narrators include: Heather O'Neill, Stina Neilsen, Jeff Woodman, Simon Prebble, and Ruth Moore.

I will listen to anything that narrator Simon Prebble considers worthy of him, and the rest are certainly up to his standards in this case. (Jeff Woodman is also a name familiar to me.) The book was a Man Booker Prize Finalist. I'm enjoying it a lot!

Here's a link:

The Accidental
 
Stephen said:
I'll give the library a try, I don't go to the library as often as I should.:)
Click to expand...
Like Kas, i get most of my audio books from the library. I also drive two hours a day and can usually go through a book every 4 days.
avid:)
 
Harry Potter Audio Books Are Amazing

Hi,
The Harry Potter Books, read by Jim Dale are incredible. He plays every character perfectly. If you haven't listened to them on cd, do so whenever you get the chance. You'll be hooked immediately.

http://www.jonathanzemsky.com
 
I love good audiobooks, too. Especially Lolita read by Jeremy Irons is a bloody tour de force.
But what makes me upset about audiobooks is the quality of the products themselves.
Some discs contain errors and the sound jumps here and there. I'm not talking about one particular title, but two of the four which I bought so far had　defects, and I hear not a few error reporting on audiobooks.
I am really disturbed.
:confused:
 
I've been commuting an hour a day for 5 years, and have listened to many audiobooks as I drive. I really enjoy it.

I don't think they make many abridged audiobooks anymore. It used to be all that there was, but as audiobooks have become so popular, most of them now are unabridged. I don't get why anyone would bother reading (or listening) to abridged books anyway. You may as well read Cliffs Notes instead of reading actual books.
 
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