Audiobooks discussion
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At what speed do you listen to audiobooks?
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Sorry if someone was offended by my previous posts, "obnoxious" yes, but willfully so, to stir up the interaction, and stimulate discussion... Hovever, let's agree to disagree on this topic, shall we, and let's get back to discussing books?
Daphne, i'm pleasantly surprised of your positive experience. Italians in general are the probably the worst people ever... :)
In case you haven't noticed by the amount of discussion on these boards it is not necessary to be rude and obnoxious to "stimulate discussion." You owe everybody on this topic an apology for rudeness.
Simone wrote: "Hovever, let's agree to disagree on this topic, shall we, and let's get back to discussing books
."
This topic is titled "at what speed do you listen to audiobooks." If you want to discuss books, perhaps you should click on another topic.
I listen at normal speed unless I'm terribly bored or the narrator painfully slow because my free time is precious to me.
Jeffrey wrote: "In case you haven't noticed ..."Ignore the troll. I feel dumb getting sucked in. No sense feeding it.
You're right! I shouldn't take the bait!
Of course i'm apologizing... i didn't realize i had stepped over the line of decency..but let me add one more thing.. if i really were a troll, i wouldn't have stopped writing after you all "ganged up" on me... i would have felt more excited...
the problem is that i believe very strongly in what i wrote, and so i convey it with a little sharpness, so to speak :)
I almost always read at normal speed, but I have sped a couple of books up to 1.25, I think, because the narrator's pace was *so* leisurely that my mind would drift.I was using the Audible app, by the way, and it seemed to me that the pitch of the voice didn't change when I sped it up, just the duration of each sound. So it wasn't Chipmunky in that way.
(BTW Simone, I would very much like you to remain and contribute, as everyone is entitled to a say. But I would suggest that a preference is just that - and someone else's differing preference doesn't make them wrong or weird. I know you know that, but the tone of your discussion came across differently)
I have no problem with the tone changing when speeding up a book using the Audible app, but I tried to speed up a book on Hoopla it became very difficult to listen to because of the pitch of the voice.
Hunchback wrote: "(BTW Simone, I would very much like you to remain and contribute, as everyone is entitled to a say. But I would suggest that a preference is just that - and someone else's differing preference doesn't make them wrong or weird."Agreed. I really dislike it when someone tells me I'm "wrong" for a preference.
I got a comment on a review last night that said I had no business judging a book because I listened to it. That just gets my back up. It's comment 6 & 7 in this review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Can you believe the nerve?
Jim wrote: "Agreed. I really dislike it when someone tells me I'm "wrong" for a preference. I got a comment on a review last night that said I had no business judging a book because I listened to it. That just gets my back up. It's comment 6 & 7 in this review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Can you believe the nerve? "
OMG I can't believe people can be so rude, that too for listening!
I personally feel glad having listened to the books, because if it wasn't for audio books I'd have pronounce half the names and words incorrectly.
Besides, it's so good being read to.
The point is, a narrator does infact bad service to a book when he puts too much of him/herself into it. That's the only actual point in favor of the "if you listen, you are a second rate book lover" party...the rest are just haters doing their hating...
Simone wrote: "The point is, a narrator does infact bad service to a book when he puts too much of him/herself into it. That's the only actual point in favor of the "if you listen, you are a second rate book love..."A narrator CAN do a book disservice by putting too much of themselves into it, but it's certainly not a sure thing. I doubt they can when the narrator is the author. Their book, their interpretation, so it's a bonus when they do it well. Adams reading his "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" or Gaiman reading his books make the stories for me. Actors reading their autobiographies are another case where it's hard for them to fail. Who knows the material & emotions behind it better?
It's also the point behind audio performances which can enhance dry text. I certainly appreciate most plays better when read by various actors & some books come alive that way. I can't recall if it was Fry or Dale, but one was pretty over-the-top while the other gave a more staid reading, yet the Harry Potter books were good both ways, IMO. Wil Wheaton brought Ready Player One alive with his enthusiasm. Guidall's laconic voice fit perfectly with the Longmire books, too.
No, a blanket statement of saying that a narrator always does the book bad service or makes it a 'second rate' anything doesn't work for me.
Jim, i was mainly talking about overacting. A narrator like Guidall is unlikely to overact, because is delivery is pretty much the same... (i listened to him a few times, in books of different nature).The epitome of the narrator i'm talking about is Anthony Heald... he clearly ACTS instead of reading, and that doesn't work for me, i don't agree with that approach in general.
My Audible Android App is pretty much permanently set at 3x, although as one comment mentioned earlier, it isn't that fast. I've found that listening to audio books is a skill, not unlike reading. The more you practice, the better you get at it. I have acclimatized to that speed and anything else seems too slow. As for how it sounds, my wife J.A. Carter-Winward just published her first audio book, No Apologies and I listened to that at 3x as well. It still sounded like her and biased that I am, I loved it. There seems to be some metaphysical conundrum to listening to your wife at 3x, but I can't figure it out. Probably should have slowed down a few of those philosophy books.
Vishakha wrote: "Jim wrote: "Agreed. I really dislike it when someone tells me I'm "wrong" for a preference. I got a comment on a review last night that said I had no business judging a book because I listened to..." You raise an interesting point -- "It is good being read to." If it is great for our kids, why shouldn't it be great for adults?
Julie wrote: "KentCongratulations to your wife on her book. How exciting !
I was thinking about what speed my husband would want to listen to ME at , here at home.
He'd probably play it as fast as possible s..."
And this is only the tip of the "how fast should you listen to your wife" iceberg. Throw into that mix having telltale things about yourself showing up in fiction and poetry -- yikes.
Simone wrote: "Jim, i was mainly talking about overacting...."That's always a danger, but so are poor readers. I listened to almost all of the Horatio Hornblower novels & loved them, but one book had a different reader that I couldn't take at all. I read the text instead.
I quit even trying Librivox recordings for years because I ran into too many poor readers. They try & I appreciate it, but their untrained voices set my teeth on edge. I guess I just had a bad run, because I later found some good ones through suggestions here. I'm tickled about the topic in this group which lists good ones.
I know several couples that read to each other on a regular basis. Road trips are a good excuse, but some do it instead of watching TV.
I prefer to listen at 1.25 speed. I find that 1x speed is frustratingly slow to listen to. Even listening to the samples on audible drives me bonkers. If the narrator has a strong accent, I will slow it down so that I can understand it better. That doesn't happen often.
Audiobooks
Books mentioned in this topic
No Apologies (other topics)Ready Player One (other topics)
No Lesser Plea (other topics)
Gardens of the Moon (other topics)
We Were Liars (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
J.A. Carter-Winward (other topics)Ray Bradbury (other topics)
If you look at different threads in this group, you'll see there are widely varying opinions on books, narrators, and audio providers. And of course there are many people outside this group who think that any kind of listening isn't getting the "real" experience. I've enjoyed some audiobooks so much, that I feel those who read in print are the ones missing the "real" experience. But again that's just an opinion.