[starman]

I decided to try out audiobooks. I figured I'd try something I was very familiar with: Piers Anthony's "On A Pale Horse".

$5 when I first bought it sometime in the 80's.

$32 on audible.com

WTF? THIRTY-TWO DOLLARS?

How is it that someone re-reads a book to the class and gets paid several times more than the person who actually wrote the book?

[Randman]

They're more popular these days. I miss the days when my Dad would take me to the base library and I could check out a ton of them for free then mail back when I was done.

[JohnM15141]

I've listened to audio books while driving and most of the time found my thoughts wandering...never really hooked. In that light I felt a little ripped off. I'd rather read it.

However, I listened to World War Z on audio and I was hooked! Well done, I found myself hoping for more traffic lights just to be able to hear more of the tale. It was in the $30 range...

My point being it really depends on the book and how well its rendered into audio format.

[Eriamjh]

The paperback is $7.99 on Amazon.

[Railroader]

I believe that the high price is an attempt to draw you into a subscription model.

One book for $30+ or a monthly subscription fee of $7.49 which allows you one book a month? Their thinking: why would anyone pay $31 for one when they can have the same thing for $7.49? A subscription model works better for them as they have steady revenue that can be reported and expected.

[Atomic Rooster]

Best way to listen to them is with headphones with eyes closed while lying on the couch or bed with no one bothering you.

PS. I rip them from the library. I tend to nod off and was often late. It's like someone reading you a story at bedtime when you were little and falling asleep.

[Randman]

Originally Posted by Atomic Rooster 

Best way to listen to them is with headphones with eyes closed while lying on the couch or bed with no one bothering you..

Actually, the best way is on a long drive with few distractions and where you can get really get into the story over a length of time.

[ort888]

The real best way is to put them on in the background while you watch TV.

[Cipher13]

Fantastic book, btw.

[mdc]

Again, great book. I loved the entire series.
I tried audiobooks but, like JohnM15141, said I find that my mind wanders and I notice a minute or so later that I haven't got a clue as to what just happened.

[angelmb]

I couldn't get used to audiobooks ever. I want to feel the paper, enjoy the typography, hug the book… But over all minutiae, I like guessing how the author would like (me) to read it, I don't want to read someone else's reading of a given book I actually want to read.

[Thorzdad]

My wife listens to audiobooks during her commute. She gets everything from the public library.

[Tiresias]

It all depends on who's reading what.

I used to be wary of audiobooks (ham-fisted digestions for the blind and illiterate) but I bought this one, and it was worth every single farthing.



Because much of Ulysses deals with the private thoughts of its characters, it seems to work well as an audio production. Listening to it on the iPod with earphones is like applying a stethoscope to Mr Blooms brain, to the borborygmic rumble of verbal consciousness.

The voice actors are Dubliners, guided by a Joyce scholar. The result is wonderful.

1.1 days of audio, 22 disks, and a booklet for about 100 bucks.

[Tiresias]

Originally Posted by angelmb 

I couldn't get used to audiobooks ever. I want to feel the paper, enjoy the typography, hug the book… But over all minutiae, I like guessing how the author would like (me) to read it, I don't want to read someone else's reading of a given book I actually want to read.

I agree. But for me a high-quality audiobook (ideally, read by the author) is a nice supplement to my favourite texts; enjoyable for the same reasons people read poetry and listen to it being read.

I also have W. S. Burroughs reading Naked Lunch and T. S. Eliot reading The Waste Land ("I Tiresias, though blind, throbbing between two lives...") and love them both.

[Paco500]

I sometimes listen on long car trips. Ususally crap with simplistic plots. I only get them from the library though.

[starman]

Well how are you supposed to know which ones are "high quality"?

[paul w]

Well, read by the author is always a plus. And definitely get them from the library if you can.

I use em for commutes.

[Tiresias]

Originally Posted by starman 

Well how are you supposed to know which ones are "high quality"?

If you love the text, it's just a question of who is reading it and what their interpretation is like. It's so easy to ham up literature. I usually sample them online first.

[driven]

Originally Posted by angelmb 

I couldn't get used to audiobooks ever. I want to feel the paper, enjoy the typography, hug the book… But over all minutiae, I like guessing how the author would like (me) to read it, I don't want to read someone else's reading of a given book I actually want to read.

Bingo!

I've had many stories ruined by the way it was read on AudioBook. I had one novel that I enjoyed. I later bought the audiobook simply out of curiosity. It was the author himself who read it.

The author decided to fake an asian accent for the asian characters in the book. Try to imagine the worst fake asian accent you ever heard. (It would have probably been considered insulting.) I had a hard time getting past that. It turned the whole, halfway decent book into a character of itself. The story became a bad comedy.

[smacintush]

I think they're great. I listen to them at work on my iPod. I have bought a few, but I have also…not bought…several as well.

[smacintush]

Originally Posted by paul w 

Well, read by the author is always a plus.

I beg to differ. Try listening to 9 hours of Christopher Hitchens' droning, British, monotone.

[smacintush]

Originally Posted by driven 

Bingo!

I've had many stories ruined by the way it was read on AudioBook. I had one novel that I enjoyed. I later bought the audiobook simply out of curiosity. It was the author himself who read it.

The author decided to fake an asian accent for the asian characters in the book. Try to imagine the worst fake asian accent you ever heard. (It would have probably been considered insulting.) I had a hard time getting past that. It turned the whole, halfway decent book into a character of itself. The story became a bad comedy.

Yeah I don't think I would want to listen to a novel. I've only ever tried non-fiction.

[Tiresias]

Originally Posted by driven 

The author decided to fake an asian accent for the asian characters in the book. Try to imagine the worst fake asian accent you ever heard. (It would have probably been considered insulting.)

Useless without an audio sample.

[Tiresias]

Originally Posted by smacintush 

I beg to differ. Try listening to 9 hours of Christopher Hitchens' droning, British, monotone.

I love droning British accents (sample). What I hate is the pinging and peppy American accent with those teeth-clenching Rrrrrrrrs and all that sham energy.

[paul w]

Originally Posted by smacintush 

I beg to differ. Try listening to 9 hours of Christopher Hitchens' droning, British, monotone.

Hasn't been my experience. Recently I really enjoyed Alastair Campell's Blair Years and Bill Bryson's stuff. In my experience their reading gives added insight into their intended meaning.

[Andrew Stephens]

Audio books are great but it really winds me up how Leo Laporte keeps batting on about how they are the same as reading. They are so NOT the same as actually sitting down and reading a book.

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by Andrew Stephens 

Audio books are great but it really winds me up how Leo Laporte keeps batting on about how they are the same as reading. They are so NOT the same as actually sitting down and reading a book.

You do realize that Leo is ADVERTISING for Audible right?

[smacintush]

Originally Posted by Tiresias 

I love droning British accents (sample). What I hate is the pinging and peppy American accent with those teeth-clenching Rrrrrrrrs and all that sham energy.

Remember I'm referring to non-fiction. God is not Great is pretty dry to be read by him IMO.

[osiris]

Originally Posted by driven 

Bingo!

I've had many stories ruined by the way it was read on AudioBook. I had one novel that I enjoyed. I later bought the audiobook simply out of curiosity. It was the author himself who read it.

The author decided to fake an asian accent for the asian characters in the book. Try to imagine the worst fake asian accent you ever heard. (It would have probably been considered insulting.) I had a hard time getting past that. It turned the whole, halfway decent book into a character of itself. The story became a bad comedy.

At a yardsale I picked up DaVinci code on tape. It was worse than the book - the deep voiced male reader faked a female French accent so poorly that it was laughable. good times.

[Andrew Stephens]

Originally Posted by Railroader 

You do realize that Leo is ADVERTISING for Audible right?

well obviously but it still winds me up.

[Tiresias]

Originally Posted by osiris 

At a yardsale I picked up DaVinci code on tape. It was worse than the book - the deep voiced male reader faked a female French accent so poorly that it was laughable. good times.

Ew. The Da Vinci [sic] Code. So bad, he even flubbed the title.

Worst. Book. Ever.

(I liked A. O. Scott's devastating criticism of Ron Howard's film: "It feels even longer than the book." )

[SirCastor]

I usually stick with Franchises that I already know, and narrators who have associations with the franchise. IE Star Trek with Jonathon Frakes, or Doctor Who with David Tennant.

I tend to avoid books that I don't know. I'd rather just read them on my own.

[lavar78]

I listened to the last Harry Potter book while traveling and it was fantastic. It was the UK version read by Stephen Fry.

[abe]

Originally Posted by Tiresias 

It all depends on who's reading what.

I used to be wary of audiobooks (ham-fisted digestions for the blind and illiterate) but I bought this one, and it was worth every single farthing.



Because much of Ulysses deals with the private thoughts of its characters, it seems to work well as an audio production. Listening to it on the iPod with earphones is like applying a stethoscope to Mr Blooms brain, to the borborygmic rumble of verbal consciousness.

The voice actors are Dubliners, guided by a Joyce scholar. The result is wonderful.

1.1 days of audio, 22 disks, and a booklet for about 100 bucks.

Cue Allan Sherman...

::Lyrics >> Allan Sherman - Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh Lyrics

Hello Muddah, hello Fadduh,
Here I am at Camp Grenada
Camp is very entertaining
and they say we'll have some fun if it stops raining.

I went hiking with Joe Spivy
He developed poison ivy
You remember Leonard Skinner
He got ptomaine poisoning last night after dinner.

All the counselors hate the waiters
And the lake has alligators
And the head coach wants no sissies
So he reads to us from something called Ulysses.

Now I don't want this should scare ya
But my bunkmate has malaria
You remember Jeffrey Hardy
They're about to organize a searching party.

Take me home, oh muddah fadduh, take me home, I hate Grenada
Don't leave me out in the forest where I might get eaten by a bear.
Take me home, I promise I will not make noise or mess the house with
other boys, oh please don't make me stay, I've been here one whole day.

Dearest fadduh, darling muddah,
How's my precious little bruddah?
Let me come home if ya miss me
I will even let Aunt Bertha hug and kiss me.

Wait a minute, it stopped hailing,
Guys are swimming, guys are sailing,
Playing baseball, gee that's better,
Muddah Fadduh please disregard this letter.

[red rocket]

I once listened to William Gibson reading ‘Neuromancer’. He should have got Stephen Fry to do it. If your own voice is that lame, you really shouldn’t bother recording it, I find.

The only audiobook I’d be tempted to buy at some time is that award-winning BBC version of ‘The Lord of the Rings’.

[Randman]

All of the Michael Palin travel audiobooks are very listenable, even multiple times.