Audio Books

[Gwennie]

Tell us all about your Audio book. Did you love the narrator? Was it dull and boring, or exciting and kept you interesting?

This is a folder for all things Audio.

[Dee]

I love audiobooks!! I have a 2 hour round-trip commute to/from work each day and honestly radio drives me nuts....so I listen to audiobooks

favorite narrators - Susan Erickson (lots of romance, especially JD Robb's In Death series); Davina Porter (Outlander) and Simon Vance (lots of mysteries).

On the YA front, just finished listening to Daughter of Smoke and Bone, narrated by Kristine Hvam...loved her narration, I felt like I was in prague with Karou.

[Hillary]

Favorite Narrators:
Nick Podehl is wonderful on Name of the Wind/The Wise Man's Fear.

Phil Gigante has a DELICIOUS voice and does swoon worthy narration of KMM's Highlander Series.

Alan Cumming narration of Westerfeld's Leviathan series was good. The guy has a cool voice...but watching him in movies and TV shows...he just looks creepy, and I feel bad for thinking that, but thats probably because the first movie I saw him in, he was a total perv creeper so it's stuck to him in my brain.

Renee Raudman--I know a lot of people didn't like her narration of Magic Bites, but after the first half hour I got use to her, and then actually started to enjoy her narration. She does most of Iona Andrews audio's.

Jennifer Van Dyck I have listened to her narrate a few series and I LOVED her narration of Vincent's Shifter's series. I also enjoyed her narration of Mead's Dark Swan, and Snyder's Glass series.

There are a couple others but I don't feel like looking them up. lol

[Regina]

I loved Raudman's narration.

[Dee]

so you liked Alan Cumming? he is the narrator for an audiobook I just grabbed from the library and I don't think i've listened to him before

[Hillary]

Yes, I did enjoy his narration.

[Regina]

I like Lorelei King as a narrator. She does the Mercy Thompson series (which I think is really well done) and some of the Stephanie Plum series.

James Marsters is an amazing narrator, of course! He does the first 12 of the Dresden Files and also the anthology Side Jobs. #13 has a different narrator.

[Carina]

I've only heard the last Harry Potter book on audio, and that was back before the last movie was released. I just don't have enough driving time or listening time on my hands to trully listen and enjoy an audio book.

[Regina]

Most audio books are not as long as the Harry Potter ones. Just in case you have an interest. For example, most are between 6 to 14 hours, 10 being a huge average. Harry Potter books are loooonnggggg!

[Carina]

It was very long.
I'm specially interested in listening to , if I can find it.

[Hillary]

Listening to CoFA was AWESOME. Ed Westwick has a delicious voice, and he did really well. I could have lived without Molly Quinn. Ed should have done the whole thing!

I listened to that on my drive home from Baton Rouge.

Ed Westwick could read the phone book and it would be wonderful to listen to.

[Dee]

Audible has it...its just shy of 13 hours

[Lyzzibug ~Still Breathing~]

Alan Cumming, I bet he would make a good narrator. I've listened to a few audiobooks, but don't have much time for listening.

[Carina]

Hillary wrote: "Listening to CoFA was AWESOME. Ed Westwick has a delicious voice..."

He is the reason I want to listen to this book! haha

[Emily]

Love this new thread! I am a big audio book listener with a 45 minute commute each way. I finally got rid of my car with a cassette deck so I can actually listen to audiobooks again!

I finished Beauty Queens by Libba Bray last week and loved knowing that the author read it. She did character voices and it was hysterical, and it was even funnier to me since I figured (and hoped) that she made the characters sound like they do in her head.

[Hillary]

Libba Bray is hilarious, that might make me get the audio of that. Hm..

[Dee]

who was the narrator do you remember? i'm always on the lookout for new ppl - I picked up A Great and Terrible Beauty in audio to listen to - the narrator is Josephine Bailey, not sure if i've listened to her before of not

[Emily]

Dee wrote: "who was the narrator do you remember? i'm always on the lookout for new ppl - I picked up A Great and Terrible Beauty in audio to listen to - the narrator is Josephine Bailey, not sure..."

If you're asking about Beauty Queens, Libba Bray reads it. Not all authors could pull that off, but she does it really, really well.

[D.G.]

I tend to avoid books narrated by the authors (most of them are not good enough actors to pull off the different voices) but there are exceptions. I've heard that Neil Gaiman does a wonderful narration of Stardust.

[Dee]

DG - i'm the same, although i didn't mind Frank McCourt's reading of Angela's Ashes

[Emily]

I listened to the beginning of Neil Gaiman reading The Graveyard Book and thought it was okay. Not bad, not stellar. I didn't finish mostly becuase I had alreaday read the book and I wanted to move on to something new.

I'd consider adding Libba Bray to your list of exceptions. I really liked her reading, and I've read other GR reviews that actually rate the reading higher than the book itself.

[Stacia (the 2010 club), groupaholic, YA-MA founder]

Does anyone know how long it should take an audiobook to download? I'm in the process of downloading one atm and it's saying that it's going to take 3 hours. Doesn't that seem like an obscene amount of time?

[Hillary]

That is an outrageous amount of time. Tops for me is 5min.

[Dee]

I think it depends on ur internet speed - mine at most takes 10 minutes for a standard book

[Stacia (the 2010 club), groupaholic, YA-MA founder]

I ended up cancelling the download. I'm nervous like that.

We have the midgrade DSL so I'm thinking our speed is more than adequate.

[Hillary]

With midgrade DSL youre looking at anywhere from 10min to half an hour. I use to have dsl...it was a pain sometimes and would take over an hour. It could be a combo deal between your net and the site that was making it take that long.

[Gwennie]

Mine takes somewhere around 30 minutes.

[Dee]

i don't have DSL, but I assume there are peak useage periods and stuff where it slows down...maybe try downloading at a non-peak time

[Isamlq]

.. mother of! I do not like the narration... i can easily imagine falling asleep because of the girl's voice.

[Stacia (the 2010 club), groupaholic, YA-MA founder]

Did you start this one in print the first time you tried to read it and that's why you switched to audio?

[Isamlq]

Stacia *the pusher wrote: "Did you start this one in print the first time you tried to read it and that's why you switched to audio?"

I started on audio... i might switch to print though... :)

[Regina]

Stacia *the pusher wrote: "I ended up cancelling the download. I'm nervous like that.

We have the midgrade DSL so I'm thinking our speed is more than adequate."

I think it depends too -- what is the source. There are some where the source purposely makes it slow down. But from audible it is quick. Is it from overdrive? The download from overdrive for WMA or longer books can take up to 20 minutes.

[Regina]

Isamlq wrote: "Stacia *the pusher wrote: "Did you start this one in print the first time you tried to read it and that's why you switched to audio?"

I started on audio... i might switch to print though... :)"

Is the audio not doing it for you? I have contemplated doing audio for that book.

[Regina]

I need help -- audible has a sale where you spend 4 credits and they give you $10. I just spent 3 credits and I need to spend one more. I tend to not buy things I can get from the library -- any suggestions of audio books you loved?

[Emily]

Dragonrider by Cornelia Funke is my all-time favorite audio book.

[Regina]

THank you Emily!

[Emily]

What kind of books do you like to read?

[Regina]

Emily, I am all over, I have a pretty diverse range -- classics, literary fiction, urban fantasy, fantasy, YA, mystery, romantic suspense, some contemporary romance, post-apocayptic/dystpoia, science fiction. I just tend not to like PNR.

[Emily]

Well, Dragonrider is fantasy, and I thought it was particularly good as an audio book. Another audio book that I loved that was really good as an audio is Seek by Paul Fleischman. It sounds more like a radio play than a book, and I liked that about it.

I do keep my audiobooks in a shelf, if you want to look at any. Recently, I will comment on the audio as part of my review but I haven't done that for the earlier ones. http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/...

[Regina]

Thanks. I will take a look. I appreciate it.

[Stacia (the 2010 club), groupaholic, YA-MA founder]

Regina, it was an mp3 file in two parts. It ended up taking about 2 hours to download. Not sure if that type of file usually takes so long?

[D.G.]

It shouldn't have taken that long, Stacia. We have DSL too and it takes me 30 mins. tops to download an audiobook.

[Dee]

REgina - have you listened to Joe Abercrombie - he writes fantasy - the first book in his series is The Blade Itself and its like 22 hours

[D.G.]

I've heard good things about Dragonrider but will only download it when I get my TBL under control!

[Regina]

Sorry I didn't respond I didn't get a notification. I agree with DG. Also in my experience MP3 downloads quicker.

[Regina]

Dee wrote: "REgina - have you listened to Joe Abercrombie - he writes fantasy - the first book in his series is The Blade Itself and its like 22 hours"

I havent Dee thank you I will look Into it!

[Regina]

D.G. ~Shameless Hussy~ wrote: "I've heard good things about Dragonrider but will only download it when I get my TBL under control!"

The last thing I should be doing is getting more books! Lol.

[Dee]

yeah i don't need any more either, but i couldn't avoid the 6 audiobooks for $20 that I bought all ebay the toher day either...lol!

[N.B.]

I'm so glad to have found this topic. Being blind, audio books are my main way of reading and I'd be lost without them. It's hard to pick my favourite narrators. Stephen Fry would have to be up there, as his narration of the Harry Potter books is second to none. How the man remembered all those voices is beyond me. I enjoy dramatisations. The BBC's production of the Sherlock Holms stories was particularly good. But nothing beats lying in bed listening to an unabridged book read in its entirety. It's like having a bedtime story each night, and the best bit is that you control when the reader stops. Mind you, that's only if the narrator is good. I just tried to listen to The Secret of the Alchemist by John Ward and was forced to give up. Not only was the style rather teedious, but the narrator sounded so bored that it was infectious. Maybe they forgot to give him his pay check or something.

[N.B.]

I've just finished listening to the Sisters Grim series by Michael Buckley. The narrator, L.J. Ganser was someone I hadn't had before and he did a brilliant job. This is one set of books that will have to be kept.