@lunalein@bookstodon LOVE audiobooks. Andy Serkis reading The Hobbit and Stephen Fry reading Sherlock Holmes have been two standouts to me for their diverse characterizations.
How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith is extraordinarily impactful.
@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.
@lunalein@bookstodon I do say I've "read" a book after listening to an audiobook. I say that because I don't think anyone wants to hear me differentiate "well actually, I listened to it on the audiobook format". That seems annoying.
But favorites/unfavorites? Not as a hard rule. I do sometimes think someone fits a book or doesn't. Some books go fine with a more clinical reading. Others do better with character voices, etc.
@lunalein@bookstodon I love a good audiobook! A good narrator can really elevate the listening experience. I loved Jim Dale's reading of the Harry Potter series. I think he's won awards for it? Julia Whelan also does nice work. I think the best overall narration I've enjoyed, though, would have to be Lenny Henry's narration of Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. It is an absolute treat and I can't recommend it enough.
I consider listening to an audiobook "reading." I don't differentiate. #bookstodon
@1dalm@lunalein@bookstodon it's been a while since I've listened to the series, so can't really agree or disagree with you. In his defense, though, he did come up with something like 200 unique voices for it. There's no way he's going to nail them all. 🤣
@lunalein@bookstodon On the opposite end of the spectrum, the guy who narrates Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series is TERRIBLE. My kids got into the series on a road trip, though, so we're stuck with him.
@lunalein@bookstodon Understandable. I listened to the recordings long before anyone knew J. K. Rowling was a TERF POS. I think it was around the time the last two movies came out, so 2010 or 2011? I was still listening to CDs on my old Discman at the time. 😉💿
@dbsalk@lunalein@bookstodon Yes. Listening to an audiobook is reading, and to think otherwise is ableist. I've read tons of books this way throughout my life as a blind person.
@bookstodon@starry1086@dbsalk agree, it is 100% an equally valid way to “consume” a text! i’m more curious about whether/when people make the distinction in casual conversation. i tend to fumble when describing my current audiobook as something i’m reading or listening to.
@lunalein@bookstodon@starry1086 As I said, I don't differentiate. If I absorbed the material and can have an intelligent discussion about it with informed opinions, then it shouldn't matter how the material was actually absorbed. I just say I that I read the book.
@lunalein@bookstodon With fiction, I usually don't love when the author reads their own work, but I loved Louise Erdrich's narration of her novels 'The Sentence' and 'The Night Watchman' - her voice is so soothing and her dry humor is wonderful. I also loved Maggie Gyllenhaal's reading of Anna Karenina, and Virginia Woolf's 'Orlando' read by Clare Higgins.
A great audiobook reader makes so much difference. One I love is Dion Graham, who reads Dave Eggers’ books. And yes, I can’t keep listening to a bad reader.
I just finished Isabel Allende’s latest historical novel, and the reader was generally solid. But his imitation of female voices for dialog was so cringey. And he kept mispronouncing Valparaiso!
Listening to a book is still reading it. Unless it’s a dramatization.
My wife and I joke that we’ll listen to anything read by Scott Brick. He mostly does sci-fi. I also enjoy Simon Vance — he has done a bunch of the Aubrey-Maturin and then did the Temeraire books, which are a similar story but with dragons. It felt great to hear it all in the Queen’s English.
When I started with audiobooks, I thought I would only listen to memoirs read by their authors. And those were good experiences — Maya Angelou, Obama. But… as I’ve tried to listen to more genres, “read by author” has sometimes been a dealbreaker. Some people just don’t have the skills and others have voices that grate over time.
Yeah, I usually just say I read them. I don’t listen to anything that requires intense concentration or footnotes. It’s been an experiment over time. I’m honestly still a little embarrassed by it all but it helps me read so many books that I wouldn’t have had time to read otherwise… so I can’t say I regret it.
@albnelson@lunalein@bookstodon I mostly listen to audiobooks while I do routine tasks such s housework, driving, or taking walks, which is my main form of exercise. I usually listen to less complex books because my attention tends to drift. I read more complex books (mostly on my phone) as a rule.
@lunalein@bookstodon I’m a recent convert to audio books. I tend to listen to non fiction mainly. I don’t have a favourite narrator. I’ve never stopped listening because I didn’t like a person’s voice, but I usually sample the audio before purchasing, so know what to expect. When I talk about audiobooks I say I’ve listened to them, not read. I still read daily and it’s a different experience. I listen to audio books in bed
@lunalein@bookstodon My favorite narrator is Kevin Free (murderbot & ballad of black tom).
For nonfiction, I like listening to authors read their own work (braiding sweetgrass, h is for hawk)
When listening to an audiobook I say, "I read the book"
@lunalein@bookstodon I read it after James Rebanks The Shepherd's Life. I'm eagerly awaiting his wife Helen's new book - The Shepherd's Wife, it's been getting great reviews.
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