Ask-A-Wench about. . . audio books

Anne here, with this month's ask-a-wench question, a thought-provoking question from Janice (and for which she'll receive a free book).  Thanks, Janice.

With the popularity of audiobooks and the increasing ease of obtaining them, I am seeing more comments and reviews from readers talking about books they listened to rather than read in print. Has this affected your writing process at all?   I know when I have to compose something I hear the words in my head and then I put them on the paper. I know some people put the words on the paper and then read them aloud or in their heads. The sound and the rhythm are very important - but I don't have to think about how they will sound if someone else says them. Is this a consideration for you?

Christina said:  I don’t listen to audiobooks myself – I’m a very visual person and don’t like having things read out to me as I need to see the words. I don’t usually read my work out loud to myself either, except occasionally a bit of dialogue. Therefore, I never used to take them into consideration at all when writing my own stories. They were just something my publisher had done, and I never even listened to the author copies they sent me when audiobooks used to be on CDs. I received two and kept one for my shelf, while sending the other to a second cousin of mine who was blind. A couple of times, I had to provide a pronunciation list for the narrator as some of my books contained Japanese words, but I had no direct contact with anyone and never checked whether they got it right.

Then I changed publisher, and to my surprise they asked for my opinion on the person who was to record my first book for them. I listened to a few different narrators and agreed one of them was the best. As far as I was concerned, my input was over, but that turned out not to be the case. Again, I was asked about pronunciations, since I had included a whole bunch of words and phrases in Old Norse. When adding those, it never occurred to me that some poor soul would have to read them out loud. In my head, I’d pronounced them the way I thought might be right, using Swedish as my guide. However, for the purposes of the audiobook, guessing wasn’t good enough. So I had to consult with the kind lady who had helped me find the right words in the first place – she has a PhD in Old Norse and speaks Icelandic too. Then I had to learn to pronounce the words myself, before teaching the narrator how to do it. We had a session via Skype, which was great fun, both of us tripping over the unfamiliar sounds and laughing. There’s a lot of guttural stuff in Old Norse, and sometimes you sound like you’re just clearing your throat <g>. For every book since, I’ve had those sessions with the narrator and we are both getting used to Norse words and phrases. I’m even tempted to use them in real life sometimes! Doesn’t þegi þú! (pronounced THEY-ghi THOO – the TH as in the word ‘three’ and then a throaty ‘g’ as in the Scottish word “loch”) ) sound much better than ‘shut up!’ for example? So yes, these days I do think a little bit about what I’m adding to my stories, but if the words need to be in there, my reader and I will simply have to learn how to pronounce them.

 Susan said: That's an interesting question -  have audiobooks changed my approach to writing? In some ways, I think so. Listening to audiobooks has made me more aware of the sound and cadence of the language of the story, so that's helped tune my ear to my own writing. Sometimes I'll read a book and later listen to it, and it's surprising how much I'll pick up listening that I may have missed reading it, and vice versa.  

For my own books in audio, I had an experience similar to Christina's when the narrator of Lady Macbeth, Wanda McCaddon, emailed me with some questions about the pronunciation of the Gaelic. We had a long phone chat so she could hear the words (and like Christina, I had to check with an expert to make sure it was correct!), and I so enjoyed learning about her process; for instance, she doesn't read the books before narrating, just skims for an idea, to make sure her narration is fresh and immediate. A few weeks later, Wanda called me one afternoon to say she had just finished narrating my novel, and wanted to tell me that she had cried while reading the last chapter and had to take a break for a while (she went shopping!) to clear her head (and sinuses) before she could finish the book. I'm so grateful to her for her beautiful reading and the care she took with it, and I was thrilled later to listen to it myself. You can listen to a sample of her reading of Lady Macbeth here - and read my interview with Wanda about her work here. 

 

One of my sons is an audiobook narrator and tech guy for an audiobook production company, and I've learned a lot from him about narration and production. He loves what he does - who wouldn't want to be paid to read books! It's also nice to be paid to write them - and a thrill to listen to someone read them! 

 

Pat took a different view. I cannot listen to books being read. Period. The End. It would be lovely if I could, but I’ve been this way since childhood. I’d finish the entire Dick and Jane book while the person reading was struggling with the first page. The repeated stumbling and slowness made me crazy, even at age five.  My parents never read to me, so perhaps that’s a factor. Another part of the problem is that I can read three times faster than any narrator can speak, so it’s back to the screaming angst of Dick and Jane. Voices irritate my brain to the point that I can’t listen to talk radio (or teachers lecturing!). On the other hand, I can play certain kinds of atonal music, and it stimulates my Muse into pouring forth all sorts of entertaining scenes.

 I’ve had publishers ask me to choose audio narrators, and I just looked up their names to read their reviews rather than listen to them read. I’ve never listened to any of my audio books. And I can’t have audio books made because they require listening to edit, and I’d probably blow out my brains trying to focus that much.

 I know some prose has a rhythm to it, but I write characters, and it’s their voices I hear. So my Frenchman might have a nice lilting rhythm, but my near-Neanderthal is more likely to grunt words. I doubt that anyone reading can duplicate what I hear in my head!

 I do have publisher-produced audio books. You’ll have to let me know if they’re any good.https://www.amazon.com/s?k=patricia+rice+audio&crid=1767XUHCGW5AR&sprefix=patricia+rice+audio%2Caps%2C149&ref=nb_sb_noss

Nicola here. I don’t listen to audiobooks although I do sometimes wonder whether I’m missing out as so many people enjoy them very much. It’s not that I dislike them, more that I’ve never tried “experiencing” books in that way. I did love storytelling programmes on TV when I was a child so maybe I should rediscover this pleasure!

 When I’m writing I don’t consciously think about how a book will sound if read aloud but I do tend to read it over in my head whilst I’m working on it, especially to get the patterns of the dialogue. Sometimes this can surprise me as it doesn’t always sound as I imagine it and it can lead to quite a bit of editing.

The first book of mine that was turned into an audiobook was Lord Greville’s Captive, which I wrote for Mills & Boon many moons ago. Well-known costume drama actors were chosen to record the audiobook versions of the historical romances in those days; alas the one they chose for mine as a total disaster. He read it in a high-pitched breathy voice that sounded awful.  Fortunately, the audio book recordings of my timeslips have been wonderful. I’ve really enjoyed the process of choosing the right narrator for the books and some of them have been in touch to chat about the stories, which has been lovely. When The Woman in the Lake won an Audiofile Award I was so proud of the book and the amazing narrators who had brought it to life.

Mary Jo here.  Once upon a time, there were few audio books and those were usually only for mainstream bestsellers. So I was thrilled back in 1997 when my book One Perfect Rose was given an audio edition.  All of my published books since then have been given audio editions except for my Young Adult Dark Mirror trilogy.  I remember getting an email from an earnest producer for the audio of The China Bride, asking if it was okay to use the pinyin notation system. Urk!  I had no idea since I'd researched Chinese history and culture but the language was a complicated mystery to me. So I just told him "Sure!" since he seemed to know what he was talking about. <G>

But the audio business has expanded dramatically in recent years alongside the explosion of ebooks and indie publishing. Since so many people enjoy audio for any number of reasons, I've been gradually producing audiobooks for my pre-One Perfect Rose backlist titles because there are people who want them and I like for readers to have choices in their formats.  Here's where to find my audios: https://maryjoputney.com/audio-books.php

Finding the right narrators can be very challenging, but after I'd produced my first three audiobooks, I was fortunate to find British narrator Siobhan Waring, and I've been using her ever since.  I love listening to her voice and she's great with the range of characters in my books. Listening to her, I sink into the story, which is how I think it should be.

Though I'm not a huge audiobook person, I now listen to audio in my car and have found that it's a somewhat different experience from reading print.  I only listen to books that I know well because I don't drive a lot and don't want to end parked in my garage listening to find out what happens next. <G>  Though since I'm a story addict, that sometimes happens ever though I know what's happening! 

Listening to audio, I often appreciate the writing more because I don't skim over it as with print. For example, I'm now listening to audio of Kerry Greenwood's first Corinna Chapman book, Earthly Delights.  Corinna is a smart, cat loving Melbourne baker with a warm heart and a lot of eccentric friends.  I've always love the humor in the Corinna books, but I appreciate it even more when listening, not reading. 

That said, when I'm writing I really don't think about how the words will sound in audio because I'm usually just so desperate to finish the book!

 Andrea says, Audio books! A fraught subject for me. How can I not adore a book in any way, shape of form? And so, I have tried to like audiobooks. But they just don’t work for me. Maybe it’s because I’ve always been a visual person. I find I need printed (or digital) words for my brain to process. And while I have no trouble listening to a lecture, my mind totally wanders when it comes to a storytelling narrative. I get distracted and lose the thread. I also find the actual voices for the different characters annoy me. Maybe because I’m an introvert and find silence peaceful and calming! My idea of a treat is to curl up somewhere quiet with a good book and lose myself in the story. The noise and stimulus of an audiobook is at odds with what I love about reading. Granted, I wish I could do it for car travel or house cleaning. But alas, they just don’t work for me. I guess that’s also the reason I don’t read my own WIPS aloud to check on rhythm and pacing. Those things matter greatly to me, but I simply hear it in my head. (I am delighted that many people do enjoy having books read to them, and I have had a number of readers tell me they greatly enjoy the narrator of my Wrexford & Sloane books—so thank you, James Cameron Stewart!)

 Anne here again:  I rarely listen to audio books unless I'm driving a fair distance or doing a dreary household chore, and in those situations I love listening to other people's books. (I haven't yet worked out how to play audio books from my new car, so that's a challenge ahead.) But in reference to Janice's question, I don't consciously write with an awareness that what I'm writing will become an audiobook.

In general, I 'hear' my characters speaking in my mind as I'm writing. I do often listen to a chapter or a scene I've just written, using my computer's audio facility, but that's as much for spotting missing words or typos (I'm a fast three finger typist), or awkward phrasing. One thing I might occasionally do is to put in a dialogue attribution. It's become unfashionable to use dialogue attributions like 'said' or 'responded' or whatever, but sometimes, I'll realize that I've written a whole page of a dialogue exchange without many attributions. In a book, you can see that a new person is speaking from the paragraphing, and I suppose with an audiobook, the narrator will change the voices to people can hear the different characters. But the computer voice doesn't show that, so it makes me consider whether to use an attribution, and if so, what kind. 

As for narrators, for the first few books the narrators were chosen for me and I didn't get a say. But then for one of my books, I got a flurry of emails from reader listeners complaining, and even though I hadn't yet received my author copies, I passed those emails onto my editor, and the narrator was changed. But otherwise, I have little input, unless the narrator has a question. All but one of my series have been turned into audo books, and I'm hoping that one day The Devil Riders' series will also become available.

Finally, you might be interested in reading this article, where a writer who also works on audio-erotica, reflects on what she learned about writing from that experience. (She refers to "foley" which I gather is creating sound effects)

So that's it from the Wenches, and it's over to you, readers— do you listen to audio books, and if you are a regular audio listener, what makes your listening experience better?

Comments

[Karin]

I've never gotten into audio books, although I do sometimes listen to podcasts while walking or driving. A book is a different experience for me. I tried it once or twice and realized I got too engrossed in the story. My driving was on autopilot, and it was really a bit dangerous. I also do a lot of reading in bed, which I like to do silently.
My father was a lifelong book reader, and after he got macular degeneration, he adapted really well to audio books, and came to prefer them. So I guess if it comes to that, I'll learn to do the same!

[Lil Marek]

I get too impatient to listen because I can read so much faster than the narrator can speak. I can't even listen to podcasts for the same reason. I did once try an audiobook on a long car trip—New York to Virginia. The problem was that I kept trying to interrupt the narrator to tell the characters how foolish they were being.

[Quantum]

I think that kindle allows combining an audio book with the e-book so that you can switch between reading and listening at will ... handy for travel! I think earbuds can also be connected for private listening.

Audio books are a life saver for me now that my reading vision is poor. When you listen a lot you rapidly find favourite narrators and authors. There are also masses of deals available, including free listens to help find new authors.

I think that there is probably a technique for developing good books for audio. The focus needs to be maintained on a small group of characters to minimise strain on the memory and the voice actor needs to master distinct voices for the main characters, portraying emotions as required. Otherwise requirements are much the same as for an e-book. Many players allow for variable speed so that you can speed up through any boring bits and linger over sections that need to be savoured. Sound effects can also be included as described in Anne's reference to foley and I think this is an area that could be developed more .... instead of describing the wolf howling in the distance through pouring rain one could hear it in the audio.

[Jeanne Behnke]

I’m not an audio book person really. I like to listen to music while reading. That’s relaxing to me. Sometimes I even try to match the music to the time period which is great fun. Sometimes on a long road trip an audio book will work but for me it needs to be something exciting like a thriller or murder mystery. Otherwise my mind wanders like Andrea!

[Kareni]

What an interesting topic! Thank you, Word Wenches, for weighing in.

When I was a college and graduate student, I used to study to music; this had the net effect that it became the norm for me to ignore sounds in my immediate area. My first experience with an audio book was when I was painting the interior of our new home. I borrowed a book on tape (yes, this was some decades ago), put in the first tape, pressed play, began painting, listened to the first paragraph, and then heard the tape stop. Oops!

My daughter loved books on tape when she was a child as they enabled her to listen to a book while doing something (playing, drawing, etc.) At some point, we began playing audio books on long car trips to keep her entertained. My husband grew to enjoy them, too, particularly on long trips on familiar routes. I generally followed my usual path of listening to the first paragraph and then zoning out and in! I can recommend a very few books that I listened to in their entirety -- The Martian narrated by RC Bray was one. A gripping story and/or a lot of humor are two things that can keep me listening.

[Anne Gracie]

Thanks, Karin — that's a bit scary, losing concentration in the car. Driving on autopilot is a weird thing, isn't it? I have often arrived home, and realized I'd been thinking of something else the whole journey and barely noticed where I'd driven.

For people with eyesight problems the boom in the production of audio books must be a real boon.

[Anne Gracie]

I'm a bit the same, Lil. If I'm just listening, an audio book often feels a bit slow, but as long as I'm doing something else as well, it's easier.

I once sped up the reading speed of my computer voice when I was checking a chapter, and it became quite funny — sounded like the chipmunks. Anyone remember them?

[Anne Gracie]

Quantum, you are a fount of knowledge! I had no idea that kindle would let me read or listen. And yes, I think for audio listeners, there would be a lot of good deals around — you just need to explore the web.

I love your idea of having a wolf howl etc. but I also think it would create a dilemma for the audio producers. The author needs to write it, or else it wouldn't exist in the story, but I suspect including sounds etc would complicate the audio production process quite a bit, and probably requiring a good deal of rewriting, instead of simply reading the book. You wouldn't want the narrator reading "in the distance a wolf howled" and then the sound of the wolf ... or would you? I can't decide.
But one thing is certain, with the developments in AI I'm sure they'll bring a whole raft of new aspects to the listening experience. At the moment they're training AI to do the reading. Not so sure about that. As you say, some narrators really stand out — much like an author's "voice."
Thanks for the interesting discussion.

I once attended a very funny and engaging stage presentation of a radio play, where the actors created the sound effects as they spoke — I recall a cabbage being slapped around, and other surprisingly convincing sounds using unexpected methods.

[Anne Gracie]

Ah the wandering mind — yes, if can often happen. I know I've sometimes wandered down a thought pathway and come back some time later and had to go back because of what I'd missed. As you say, it has to be gripping to keep your attention.

[Anne Gracie]

Thanks, Kareni. My first experience with audio books was also while doing renovations — in my case scraping off layers of particularly stubborn wallpaper in my old house. It was a very dreary job, and the prospect of a whole day scraping drove me to my local library, where I borrowed a stack of audiobooks. And the time flew. By the end of the weekend I'd "read" a heap of books and scraped the entire hallway clean.

[Mary T]

Like Kareni my first audio book was on tape - Maya Angelou's I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS. I remember listening to it while I was cleaning house. If I am sitting down while listening I tend to fall asleep.

I only have a few on my kindle right now. I really do prefer to read the book myself. If it is a favorite book I have read before (usually many times), I sometimes feel like the narrator is coming between me and the characters. I do better if it is a new read.

I am grateful they are there though. They are necessary for so many people. And there may come a day when I need them more than I do now.

Thanks for the interesting post.

[Janice J.]

Thank you, Anne, for bringing up my question again, with time and space for so many comments. About the responses I would have expected -- you're all different! What works for you doesn't work for the next reader, writer or listener :)

Pat, I feel your pain. When we had reading circle in the first grade, it drove me nutz to have to listen to the other kids struggling to decode the marks on the pages when I had finished the book already! I learned to read very easily but I heard the words in my head as they seemed on the page; books sometimes used words I had never heard and did not know how to pronounce. Kids' brains are so plastic - I wish they'd started teaching math as early as they taught reading. I became such a voracious reader, picking up so much odd information, that I coasted through school right up until we hit second year algebra and then other kids were way ahead of me because they had learned how to study and I had not :)

As for me, it's a mixed bag. I do like well done audiobooks very much and I often buy an audio version of a book I really like to listen to at night. I used to listen in the car also but the CD player croaked a few years ago. I have found that a narrator I like enhances the book while a narrator I don't like can make it unlistenable. Sometimes my attention drifts and I have to rewind; I think this is akin to the moments when I would put a book down to rest my eyes or change position and get distracted. I have a small shelf of audios in rotation and they are mostly classics - Tolkien, Heyer, some Alan Furst. I have them in CD or MP3 format. I still have some cassettes around somewhere but have no player at the moment that will handle them.

[Mary M.]

I used to read for Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic—mostly textbooks, so nuance was not generally required. The students became adept at absorbing the material quickly, so often they sped up the pace. One of them spilled the tea: "You all sound like chipmunks to us!" My voice was already quite high-pitched so I deliberately read fast to avoid their having to hear me at dog-whistle pitch.

[LilMissMolly]

I absolutely loved this post.🥰 As an avid audiobook listener for over 30 years, I cannot live without them. I started listening on cassette tapes when I lived in LA and had a 3-hour daily commute. Now I listen because reading print literally hurts my eyes (I do not make tears). 😢 Audiobooks have come a long way and I’m grateful for that. They started out as just someone reading the book, to now you can hear emotions and feelings. I’m definitely one who frequently sits in my garage so I can finish the chapter! 😉

[Elaine B.]

I used to listen to audio books while commuting to work, that was years ago. Now retired I can't imagine listening to one of Andrea or Alyssa's books...I love holding one of their new books, stopping to imagine a scene and continuing slowly to "feel" the stories. No audios for me...

[Annette N]

I am old and when I was a child, I loved listening to the radio. Saturday mornings were lovely the show was "Let's Pretend" and the actors were marvelous. There were also sound effects which made everything very real. I also listened to The Shadow, The Lone Ranger, Sgt Preston of the Yukon, Sky King and on and on. I loved it all. For most of the stories, I already knew how it went. That did not bother me, because it was all make believe.
I hate listening to audio books. I believe it is as Pat and others have said, I can read faster than the reader and it just makes me feel I am slogging through.
I have listened to some of the samples of readers, and they all sound wonderful. I am a huge fan of English readers and actors. But, I do not want to listen to someone read me a story.
All the descriptions of all the wonderful effort which has gone into audio books is impressive....they are not for me. But, I do understand their appeal.

[Anne Gracie]

LOL Mary — I can just imagine it. But good on you for reading for the blind and dyslexic. My earliest books were recorded by volunteers like you. It was a wonderful service.

[Anne Gracie]

That's a very interesting observation, Mary — " If it is a favorite book I have read before (usually many times), I sometimes feel like the narrator is coming between me and the characters."

A book is a collaboration between the words of the author and the imagination of the reader, and I can readily see that adding in a third interpretation could be distracting or annoying.
I feel the same about covers — they're almost never how I imagined the characters.

And yes, I mostly read on kindle these days because the ability to increase the font size when my eyes are tired is so useful. I can easily imagine the day when it will have to be audio books all the time.

[Anne Gracie]

Thanks, Janice. It's frustrating how technology keeps developing and putting things out of date. I don't know how many videos, records/CDs and books I've had to buy over again, just to continue to have access to them.

I think it's well worth listening to the audio clips on line before you buy an audio book. So many people have said how the wrong narrator can spoil their enjoyment of a book. I remember one from the library that I listened to in the car that I could not finish because the narrator had such a whispery annoying voice.

As for having kids reading aloud in school, the one year the teacher did this regularly, she only chose two of us to read, and as I was one, I didn't get frustrated. As well, though, she gave us puzzles of various sorts and coloring-in things, so we could listen and do something at the same time. I still do that today — if I'm just listening, my concentration will wander, and chances are I will scoot off and buy the book to read it myself. But if I'm doing some chore, or making jewelry, I'm fine.

[Anne Gracie]

LilMissMolly, you were obviously well ahead of the time. I love that audio books have become so easily available, and that the quality seems to be improving all the time.
But wow, I can't imagine a three hour daily commute. It used to take me 90 minutes by public transport to get to high school but I managed to get a lot of my homework done that way. You'd be driving though, I assume, and though I love driving, peak hour traffic is not fun!

[Anne Gracie]

Thanks, Elaine — yes, for many the pleasure of the actual book in their hand tops everything. I'm culling my books at the moment, so they'll fit in my new bookshelves, and though I have some on kindle, I'm still keeping the paper copies because they're a bit like old friends and I just can't bring myself to cull them. Besides which I'm aware that amazon could just shut down any moment —as any company could —and I'd lose my whole kindle library. I know it's unlikely, but I've had readers write to me saying their e-book supplier closed and they lost everything. So I'm hanging on to my favorite books anyway.

[Anne Gracie]

Annette, when I was a kid we lived in the sticks and TV wasn't available. Then when it was, my father didn't approve of it, so I also grew up listening to the radio. But I was always doing something else at the same time — drawing or coloring or some kind of craft.

I also read faster than anyone reading aloud, but also I often skip things. I was just rereading a Bernard Cornwell "Sharpe" book and though I always enjoy him, I had to skip over all the bits where the battles were described in detail and as well as all the brutality they attacked the horses so horribly. So I skip until the battle is over.

[Constance]

For the last 2 years of my father’s life, my husband and I made the 13-hour drive (each way) every other weekend to help care for him. Audio books kept us sane on those long journeys, and, I do believe, taught us to appreciate each other’s preferred genres. I would never have read Robert Heinlein, and my husband now loves Jane Austen. And, yes, there were times when we were nearly home and drove around the block several times to finish a book.

I agree the choice of narrator makes all the difference, and I agree that books with a limited number of characters usually work best. That said, we listened to all The Chronicles of Barsetshire, with its multiple characters, read by someone whose attempts to give each character a different voice were more commendable in the attempt than in the finished product. My husband growled through many of them, but Trollope’s stories were so fascinating that we persisted!

[Cindy DeGraaff]

I have been reading aloud to my kids all their lives, and it’s something my parents did when I was a child. My children all have ADHD and sitting still to focus on reading was difficult for them when they were young students, making them reluctant readers. My reading aloud helped them become interested in the stories and it was a fun, rewarding experience for all of us. I am not a huge enjoyer of audio books because I am hearing impaired, but I have been researching the field because I would like to become a narrator. I read at least one book every day since I read really quickly and think that it would be incredibly interesting. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this subject.

[Janice J.]

You went to school in a later era :) When I was in the lower grades, we were expected to sit quietly in the reading circle, follow in the book, not fidget and pay attention. Each kid read a bit and then it went to the next kid to struggle through. It was common practice but counterproductive as sooner or later even the "good" kids would start to fidget :)
I'm older now and no longer feel the urge to leap up and run around the building a few times to shake off the willies :)

[Janice J.]

I love old time radio, especially the detective and science fiction shows, and I am grateful to the internet for so many sites where I can download Sam Spade or Fort Laramie or Yours Truly Johnny Dollar and hear those wonderful radio actors again.

[Anne Gracie]

Maybe it wasn't so much a different era, but a different country. The reading aloud sessions I mentioned, with only two students taking it turns to read, were usually held on a Friday afternoon. The intention, I think, was to show the class members that stories (and therefore reading) were fun, rather than a chore.

[Anne Gracie]

Janice, thanks for reminding me that old-time radio shows could still be found on the web. I might go looking for some of my favorites.

[Anne Gracie]

Wow, Constance, what a long journey that was to make every week. I can readily appreciate how audiobooks made the time fly. And also how you and your husband found new writers—and genres—to enjoy. Thanks for sharing your story.

[Anne Gracie]

I was also read to when I was small, but as soon as I learned to read, I preferred to do it myself. But you are so right that hearing stories read aloud helps people to get interested in them, and make the experience enjoyable. Thanks, Cindy. Best of luck in finding an opportunity to become a narrator.

[Janice J.]

Check out Down These Mean Streets podcast, and don't forget YouTube - they have a ton of shows.

[Vicki L]

I totally agree that the correct narrator makes or breaks an audio book. I've thrown my hands up in disgust and quit a book or two because I couldn't stand the narrator.

Also agree that once you have a series going, you need to at all costs keep the same narrator. Too jarring when they change.

When I had a commute I did listen to audio books a lot. That was the only part I missed about not commuting. I do pull out my favorite audio books to listen to if I've got a long boring task to do in the house. Also if I've got a repetitive series of drives to do.

At the book sale this week I picked up 9 audio books because you never know when you'll need one to listen to.

Listening to a book is a different kind of immersive experience. Because they take longer to listen to than to read (for me) its almost like I become part of the characters. Also the different accents make them fun. I don't hear accents when I read. Though the books I've read after listening to the books I do hear accents for those characters when I read them in book form.

Back in the day, I found many a good author that I've continued reading because I found them on audio book at the library. Books I would never have read or found otherwise.

So yay me that I do like listening to books. Story telling at its best.

[Laura Lee]

The majority of you wenches don't seem to care for audio books. I've been known to listen to a book while driving and then read a book while at home--I can devour more books that way. I wonder what you all would think of your books made into movies? You'd have to listen to them and visually experience them at the same time!

[Anne Gracie]

Thanks, Janice. The trouble is, while I remember some of the openings of the shows I used to listen to -- "Breakers ahead, all hands on deck!" -- I can't recall the actual titles. LOL
I did get right into repeats of the old BBC Goon Show when I was in my teens and have since listened to that, on occasion.

[Anne Gracie]

Thanks, Vicki — yes, driving/commuting and doing boring jobs are my best times for listening to audio books.
Sadly though my new(ish) car doesn't have the facility to play CDs so I can no longer play my faves -- music or audio books — in that, unless I repurchase them in a different format.

And I agree, when I borrowed audio books from the library there were a lot of new-to-me authors represented, and some of them I followed on to buy.

[Anne Gracie]

Laura, I think we all love having our books made into audiobooks, and I think we'd all love to have our books made into movies or TV series. That said, I bet it would be difficult-but-fascinating for each of us to watch any movie adaptations, as movie scripts would have to make big changes in the story, and even sometimes the characters. Most romances have quite a bit of internal reflection by the main characters, for instance, and you can't show that in a movie. Look at the difference between the original books by Julia Quinn, and the TV series The Bridgertons — both smash hits, but very, very different.

I read recently that Bernard Cornwell said that he'd originally described Richard Sharpe as having black hair and a scarred face, but after the TV series of Sharpe was made, he could only see Sean Bean as Sharpe, so he stopped describing the color of his hair, and he'd even forgotten what side of the face the scar was supposed to be.

[Laura Lee]

It would be a hard decision to allow one's creation to become a movie, with little say in changes to characters, plots, etc. I recall Janet Evanovich"s "One for the Money" was not nearly as funny as the book. And I never would have chosen the actors to play the parts they did. I believe I read Janet said she wouldn"t have chosen those actors either.

[Anne Gracie]

Thanks, Laura. I believe that after Georgette Heyer saw the film version of the Reluctant Widow she said no more film adaptations. The film is pretty awful in my opinion. Such a shame. I long for Heyer films done well.