Booking Through Thursday: Audio-books

[fajrdrako]

Got this from Booking Through Thursday: The question, "Audio books: yes or no?"

The answer: Of course yes. Audio-books are fun. They are ways to revisit books I have read and loved. They are ways to entertain myself while cooking or washing dishes. They are ways to check out authors I haven't tried. They are ways to listen to the voices of some of my favourite readers - Sam West, Robert Lindsay, Paul McGann, Ioan Gruffudd, Roy Dotrice (who reads the George R.R. Martin books) - I can't recall who read The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold, but he was excellent. Or the person who did the reading for Jonathan Strange and Mister Norell.

The reader makes so much difference. I once listened to an audio version of Dolly and the Bird of Paradise by Dorothy Dunnett. The narrator-protagonist is a make-up artist from the Glasgow area, with a marked Glasgow accent. To my horror, the reader's accent was straight New Jersey. I couldn't listen to more than a chapter or two.

There are downsides to audio-books: They're expensive. I can't afford them. The library doesn't get as many in as I'd like, and the ones they do get are often damaged by overuse. I don't have time to listen to them - I prefer silence when walking or on the bus, or when doing most things. And often the books I like and the readers I like aren't matched up.

Still: a good audiobook is a joy and a delight.

Comments

[cyberducks.livejournal.com]

You know the three TW novels coming out? JB is doing the audio versions of two of them....

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Do you know which ones? I have to get them. Obviously. No question!

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

What does Ioan Gruffudd read? Hornblower?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes. Since I love C.S. Forester's writing and I love Ioan Gruffudd's voice you'd think it would be perfect, but sadly they've abridged the books - savaged them - and I don't like them as much as the full text. Still. Gorgeous voice.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Argh. I think abridged audiobooks ought to be banned. That said, I'm *not* a big Forester fan (except on video -- The African Queen is one of my alltime favorite movies, and I really liked the tv adaptations of Hornblower), so maybe that wouldn't be such a big deal for me.

As for the audio versions of Bujold, I am fortunate enough that my library system has all the Readers Chair versions (which is up through Brothers in Arms), and I absolutely adore them. I like the Brilliance (or is it Blacstone? I never can remember) versions of CoC and PoS, too, but my heart is with Michael Hanson, the Reader's Chair male narrator, whose Miles is terrific, and whose Aral is enough to make me swoon. Even if he does tend to make the villains sound like Snidely Whiplash.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I think abridged audiobooks ought to be banned.

I agree! Painful to listen to, sometimes. Style is important to me in reading, and how can you abridge a style?

The African Queen is one of my alltime favorite movies

Mine too. And I was a big fan of the Hornblower series. I wish it was continuing.

whose Aral is enough to make me swoon.

Aral makes me swoon anyway. Good reading just enhances the effect.

You really whet my appetite for those audiobooks!

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

I must try a Bujold audiobook some time, but we don't seem to get them in the libraries at the arse-end of the world. If someone wrote some kind of explicit UK dialect, yes, having it rendered in American would be disturbing (don't think I could identify "New Jersey" as an accent).

This is by way of saying I've friended you, which I've been meaning to do since the last round of L/J introductions on the Bujold list, but also so that I can get your Torchwood pr0n popping up in my flist. And any other pearls of wisdom you are likely to scatter about. :-)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I must try a Bujold audiobook some time, but we don't seem to get them in the libraries at the arse-end of the world.

Sadly, The Vor Game is the only one our library has and I've listened to it several times now. I know there are more of the books out on audio, but they are way too expensive for me. (Grump.)

I must try a Bujold audiobook some time, but we don't seem to get them in the libraries at the arse-end of the world.

I'm not sure I'd call it dialect, but it was important to the plot that the narrator was from the Glasgow area.

don't think I could identify "New Jersey" as an accent

What word would you use, then, for someone who sounds as if they come from that area?


This is by way of saying I've friended you

Great! I'll friend you back.

but also so that I can get your Torchwood pr0n popping up in my flist.

Hee! Wonderful! I will take this as incentive to write more.

And any other pearls of wisdom you are likely to scatter about. :-)

Those pearls of wisdom - they can be so annoyingly elusive sometimes, rolling around in dark corners under the bed, getting lost under the refrigerator....

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

Heh, you seem to do well at searching under the fridge, then, from what I've observed onlist.

Re New Jersey accents, I phrased that badly. I don't think I could identify an NJ accent - at least not beyond North-Eastern US that-isn't-Boston.

And yay for more Torchwood pr0n, if it comes about! :-)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Heh, you seem to do well at searching under the fridge, then, from what I've observed onlist.

What a nice thing to say.

yay for more Torchwood pr0n, if it comes about!

I'm sure it will! The show is so... inspirational.