4 ms·
Good topic. I would say that I am mostly unhappy with audiobooks that discuss more technical subjects and happier with novels. In addition I find foreign langu
by frabbit 8y ago
Good topic.
I would say that I am mostly unhappy with audiobooks that discuss more technical subjects and happier with novels. In addition I find foreign language texts easier to read than to listen to. That probably supports the author's claim that the additional strategies available in reading are useful as complexity increases.
As regards audiobooks as works of art in themselves:
- Some readers are atrocious: there is nothing more jarring than hearing a word mispronounced, a change of rhythm or volume, an over-exaggeration of pitch, or even worse a deadpan, flat stilted delivery.
- Some readers are just not appropriate for the subject matter: USians reading works set in the UK and vice versa.
- If you like the Patrick O'Briain Aubrey/Maturin stories (set around the Napoleonic wars as conducted at sea) I would like to make a strong recommendation that you get hold of the readings by Patrick Tull. He has the most fantastically appropriate delivery, range and pronounciation for this series: https://www.audible.com/search?searchNarrator=Patrick+Tull https://www.audible.com/search?searchNarrator=Patrick+Tull
- Not all audiobooks are controlled by the Audible monopoly. And out of the alternatives Librivox had a (IMO) star reader in the human form of Andy Minter (RIP) who is on cracking form with this rendition of a Ruritanian escapade: https://librivox.org/the-prisoner-of-zenda-by-anthony-hope/ https://librivox.org/the-prisoner-of-zenda-by-anthony-hope/
- frabbit 8y agoQuick question for US readers as a check on my predjudices: I mostly find it deeply disturbing to hear a strong American/Canadian accent in fantasy works. Does the reverse apply for you?
- idDriven 8y agoAs an American I dislike the vast majority of regional accents and would like them to go the way of the Dodo Bird. Even the one I have some fondness for, a Brooklyn accent, would be incredibly jarring in a Fantasy work. Being a resident of Northern California though it's rare to hear 'American' accents, most of the English is either unaccented or foreign-accented.