My two favorites are 1) David McCullough. Besides narrating Ken Burnes’s Civil War, he narrated many of his own audiobooks. He just felt the the voice of Americana. And 2) Roy Doltrich. It’s so sad that he won’t be the narrator for the entire ice and fire series, because his voice is just synonymous with the books.
I listened to Moby Dick via the Big Read, so it was a variety of readers and some were not great. I probably didn’t stop listening because each was only one chapter.
I generally say I’ve read it unless there’s some unique feature about the audiobook that I’m trying to discuss with someone.
@lunalein@bookstodon I listen to audiobooks sometimes. Sometimes it’s easier to just listen while I’m driving or doing chores around the house. Idk that I’ve listened to enough to say that I have a favorite narrator, but I will definitely stop listening to something if I don’t like the voice. And yes, I count listening to audiobooks as reading bc it feels weird to say “Oh, I listened to that book.”
@lunalein@bookstodon I don't process audio only well enough to read (yes it's the same as any other way of experiencing a book) audio books, but there are a few I've enjoyed. Emma Newman for her own book Planetfall, Mary Robinette Kowal on her Calculating stars, Chiwetel Ejiofor reading Susanna Clarke's Piranesi, Simon Prebble for Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.
I love audiobooks, although I can't read everything that way - if there's a lot of back and forth over time periods I love track.
I haven't heard enough to have favourite narrators, although I did love Lesley Manville's reading of Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club series.
I have come across narrators that turn me off though. The main one I've noticed so far is that I just don't want to hear Jane Austen read by Americans.
And yep, I definitely do refer to it as having "read" the book.
@lunalein@bookstodon The narrator of one of my favorite novels ruined the audiobook version by misquoting one of my favorite lines, which is a pivotal line in the story. (The novel is Jay McInerney’s “Bright Lights, Big City,” one of the few books to successfully tell an entire narrative in the second person without readers rebelling against their being constantly and personally thrown into increasingly ludicrous situations.)
@lunalein@bookstodon I love second-person narratives too — when they’re done right. The trick is to get readers comfortable inside someone else’s skin, so that readers really empathize with their assigned character, rather than automatically say, “I would never do that!” Many writers can’t sustain that sense of empathy without making the assigned character bland or generic, but McInerney’s “Bright Lights” successfully puts you in the shoes of a distinct individual.
@lunalein@bookstodon Ironically, “Bright Lights, Big City” did such a great job of convincing readers that they themselves were the main character that many of those readers rebelled against seeing someone else play “them” in the movie version. Hollywood cast Everyman actor Michael J. Fox, who appeared on movie posters as a reflection in a car window, from viewers’ POV, as if saying, “I’m playing YOU.” He did a great job, I thought, but not all readers agreed.
@lunalein@bookstodon Michael J. Fox actually made the character fairly relatable, IMHO, although — yes — more conservative fans of “Family Ties” may have objected to seeing him as a cocaine addict.
@lunalein@bookstodon I have quit listening to audio books if the author was someone I was accustomed to listening to (Thich Nhat Hanh, for example, or Richard Feynman) and the narrator is just...not them. I would rather hear the familiar voice inside my head saying the words as I read them myself. My favorite is when the author narrates their own work, but obviously that's not always possible. OTOH Ron Butler narrating The Half Has Never Been Told by Edward E Baptist helped it to stand out in my head to this day
@lunalein@bookstodon I've definitely stopped listening tbooks because the narrator was bad, or putting me to sleep. In fiction, I also try to avoid the Graphic Audio style "a movie in your mind" productions, and prefer either a single narrator doing all the characters, or at most two. How to lose the time war was a good example of that done well.
@lunalein@bookstodon one of the best I listened to was Gildart Jackson narrate Dracula. So so good. I'm currently listening to Andy Serkis narrating LOTR. When I finish it's on to The Silmarillion. I think the only book I stopped listening to was The Count of Monte Cristo but that was because Mercedes is like 17 or something and I couldn't get past her age. But I love listening to audiobooks and it was the best when I drove my kids to school. We'd listen to books together and then discuss them. So many good discussions around books.
@lunalein@bookstodon Every day! I use the Libby free library app. I listen to nonfiction in the morning and fiction in the afternoon. At night I use favorite old fiction to fall asleep.
Chris Kipiniak, who narrated most of the #Raksura series, is one of my favorite narrators. I did stop listening to the 5th & final book, The Harbors of the Sun, bc Kipiniak wasn't narrating and the new guy changed the pronunciations. And voices. One or the other could have been OK... but both?
I subscribe to Audible.com and listen to audiobooks often (I also listen to several podcasts every week).
I do not follow any specific readers.
I have never stopped listening to a book because of the reader.
I usually say I "listened to" a book. When I refer to a group of books, for instance that i I read fantasy novels, I use the term to include both those I listen to and those I read.
@lunalein@bookstodon I am so fussy about narrators, they can really make or break an audiobook for me. I love Maya Lindh's reading of Will Dean's books, she is just perfectly Tuva for me, and I probably wouldn't have been so invested in the series without her. I always try and sample new narrators before committing. I'll switch to eye-based-reading if I don't get on with them but am interested enough in the book to continue.
@lunalein@bookstodon Will definitely quit listening to even a favourite book if the narrator doesn't work for me. There's a few mystery/detective series that I love, but cannot listen to because of the narrator.
Will listen to almost anything with a good narrator, those voices! - Anton Lesser, Martin Shaw, Joanna Lumley...
Also prefer memoirs/autobiographies read by the authors themselves - Michelle Obama, Judi Dench,... "Read by the author"
@lunalein@bookstodon
I'm not a huge fan of audiobooks (I've got the voices going internally when I read), but I'll definitely pick up something read by an actor whose work/voice I love, especially in poetry. (Listening to the Richard Burton readings of Dylan Thomas when I was a teenager probably shaped this).
So I've recently got hold of the abridgement of Paradise Lost just for Anton Lesser's reading, and an abridgement of Malory's Morte d'Arthur for the wonderful Philip Madoc. And Jim Norton reading James Joyce. I've read all of these, and the Malory's the least significant to me as a text.
And sometimes I've tried listening to a wonderful voice, great actor and given up because the material wasn't doing anything for them either. The extraordinary Michael Jayston, whom I could watch in anything, seemed to record some rather boring books.
@paulcowdell@lunalein@bookstodon James Earl Jones did an audiobook of the New Testament years ago, and listening to it was quite relaxing. Years later, Denzel Washington, Samuel L. Jackson and several other actors collaborated on a dramatic reading of the entire Bible.
@paulcowdell@lunalein@bookstodon When I read any James Bond novel, my mind‘s default voice for Bond is Sean Connery, even if Roger Moore, George Lazenby, or someone else starred in the movie version.
@JMaverickJacks1@lunalein@bookstodon I've just seen a boxset of CD readings of the Bond novels by Rufus Sewell, with Samantha Bond doing The Spy Who Loved Me. That was really tempting, even though I'm not particularly interested in revisiting the books.
@cturnbow@paulcowdell@lunalein@bookstodon I loved Rufus Sewell in “Dark City,” a 1998 sci-fi thriller that “The Matrix” ripped off. “Matrix” had better visual FX, but a soul-numbing fixation on Gnostic philosophy that justified mass killings of innocents and that likely paved the way for QAnon to ignore objective reality and to push treason on Jan. 6, 2021. By contrast, Sewell’s “Dark City” is a cool yarn without boring speeches or deadly politics.
@JMaverickJacks1@lunalein@bookstodon I don't regard them as audiobooks, because they were radio dramatisations, but to my ear the greatest audio Holmes/Watson are the BBC adaptations with Clive Merrison (Holmes) and Michael Williams (Watson). Well worth a listen.
Not so good as captures of Conan Doyle, but highly recommended for lovers of Great Voices, are a few Holmes/Watson radio adaptations done in the '50s with John Gielgud (slightly miscast) as Holmes and Ralph Richardson. Richardson, particularly, was extraordinary.
@lunalein@bookstodon Yeah. I do have have set of favourite narrators. Some where I tried books in genres I normally wouldn’t read because I like the narrator that much. There are also narrators I avoid, there’s a bunch of reasons for that. Some I just dislike their accent. Others it’s a bland monotone reading.
Not always because of narration skill.And yeah, I do say I read books that I’ve only listened to.
@lunalein@bookstodon I love audiobooks! In the pandemic before times when I commuted 30-45 minutes to work I listened to a lot. I say I've listened to a book instead of read. Not so much now since I work at home. I don't follow narrators, I just listen to books I think I'd enjoy. I also never buy from Audible because Amazon screws over narrators and authors. I get books from Chirp, they have great deals and a huge selection. My recent favorite is House in the Cerulean Sea, a fantasy story.
@lunalein@bookstodon I’ve very rarely given up on a book because of the narrator. I think matching an author well to a narrator long term can be so good - Peter Caulfield narrates all Jonathan Coe’s books and is just so right! I’ve been blind over 10 years and honestly thought the discussion around whether audiobooks could be described as reading would have disappeared by now but, no, here it is again. Of course it’s reading the book, it’s just another format!
@sarahmatthews@bookstodon oh, i totally agree that it’s reading the book in terms of experience, but i am curious if that’s how people describe it, or if they use different words.
@BonnettsBooks@bookstodon i am also not the biggest Ethan Hawke fan, but his Paul Newman documentary was really good so maybe his best stuff is off camera (okay he was excellent in First Reformed, too).
@lunalein@bookstodon
I love audiobooks, and yes I say I read that book.
Great narrators.... Richard Ferrone, Robert Petkoff, Jim Frangione, Susan Ericksen, Angela Dawe, Holter Graham, the list goes on.
A new dimension in audio I've found is Graphic Audio. I'm just getting into it so I may be wrong, but I think it tends to be Sci-fi and fantasy but the few I've bought a great.
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