Audiobook questions

Skeezon

What can ruin an audiobook for you?

What can make it great?

Have you ever read a book AND listened to the audiobook? Which did you do first?

RevJen

The narrator.

And the narrator.

When I started listening to audiobooks, I would go with books I've read prior.  Now I've expanded into books I've never read before.  But I generally only get them in audiobook.  I rarely get them in physical books too.

ThisModernLove

I agree w/ @RevJen

The Narrator can make or break a book for sure.  I've listened to books that I've read in paperback too like the HP series.  Some books are better in paper format like the ones with pictures or sometimes multiple narrators if it isn't done right on audio.

babystinkbreath

ditto jen, the narrator can make or break a book.

I have stopped books because I couldn't stand the way it was preformed.  I mostly listen to books I have not read before but I have started to do re-listens to books I have actually read before.  Most of the time I still love them or love them more after re-listening to them.  However, I just finish re-listening to The Fellowship of the Ring and I was bored.  I loved it the first time I read it so I don't know if it is the narrator or my view has changed.

Mrs.GinTN

I completely agree.  The narrator will make it or break it for me.  I can't do the audiobooks of one of my favorite series because the narrator's voice is just terrible. 

I have listened to some books that I have previously read, but never the other way around. Usually, those are books that I want to share with my DH.  He doesn't read much. 

sneetches

ITA - the narrator is important.  I just listened to The Splendour Falls, and while the narrator was okay, there were at least 10 times that lines were repeated.  I let Audible know, although they wanted every time it happened, and I did not write them down.  That was a frustrating experience - I kept waiting for it to happen again.

beebe918

Ruin: the narrator and the format.  Some books just really don't lend themselves to audio, like sometimes ones with emails/journal entries and or a lot of switching of narrators can make listening difficult.  Also I dislike when books have sounds effects like thunder etc.

Make: The narrator and production

I've listening to books and read them and I've done them in both orders.  Some books I read when I was younger and wanted to re-read and just happened to go with an audio version.  Others I've listened to the audio version and either really liked the book and wanted to experience it in print or thought the book might be better reading it rather than listening.

j*&p*

The narrator can definitely enhance a book or send me running for a paper or Kindle copy instead. I'm very picky about narrators so I always (after some bad past experiences- Hello, Spellman Files) try to remember to listen to the sample on Audible before buying an audiobook. In the bad category, I can't stand narrators who flub accents or dialects, or males who do weird high pitched female voices/ females who do weird male voices. Also, I hate when preachy, condescending or obnoxiously highbrow-sounding delivery.  

A good narrator that seems so perfectly matched to the mood of the book and the sensibility of the main character can really make me fall in love with a book even more. The guy who performs the audiobook for I am the Messenger is so dead on perfect for Ed Kennedy that I've listened to it over and over again. 

It's usually hard for me to listen to books if I've read them first in paper or ebook form.  In those cases, I've already imagined the world and the characters a certain way in my mind and hearing it in a different way creates a big dissonance for me. I listened to a sample of Daughter of Smoke and Bone on audio and could not reconcile that voice with what I'd already imagined so I skipped it. I think the HP books are the one exception for me so far. 

I have many books that I listened to in audio format first and then bought a physical copy because I loved them so much. 

SnShne322

sneetches said:

ITA - the narrator is important.  I just listened to The Splendour Falls, and while the narrator was okay, there were at least 10 times that lines were repeated.  I let Audible know, although they wanted every time it happened, and I did not write them down.  That was a frustrating experience - I kept waiting for it to happen again.

I just finished this too. I thought it was so weird. The narrator was just ok. She sounded like she was in her sixties and the character was in her late twenties. It was distracting.

pinkybooklover09

The narrator and how much dialogue is in the story. I find that if it's prose is too descriptive or flowery I tend to drift off and not pay too much attention, but if there's a lot of dialogue, I'm usually riveted. I'm very picky about audiobooks though. 

sneetches

beebe918 said:

  Also I dislike when books have sounds effects like thunder etc.

------

This!  I wanted to like A Modern Witch, but the audio version would have typing sounds in between sections, and it irritated me.  It reminded me of being on hold, and the computerized voice says they will check on something, and then there is fake typing noise.  Like an actual person is looking up my information.  Hate.

sonore32

SnShne322 said:

sneetches said:

ITA - the narrator is important.  I just listened to The Splendour Falls, and while the narrator was okay, there were at least 10 times that lines were repeated.  I let Audible know, although they wanted every time it happened, and I did not write them down.  That was a frustrating experience - I kept waiting for it to happen again.

I just finished this too. I thought it was so weird. The narrator was just ok. She sounded like she was in her sixties and the character was in her late twenties. It was distracting.

This is my biggest pet peeve...can't remember what book I was recently listening to where the narrator sounded decades and decades older than the main character and therefore I had a really hard time with the book bc I kept envisioning a much older main character which didn't make sense with the other characters.

Skeezon

I'm surprised there was no mention of words or names mispronounced. That irks me. Though I find it most common in stories set in New Orleans. They almost always get last names and street names wrong. Though, it's hard to hold it against them with words like Tchoupitoulas. For the record, that is CHOP - A - TWO - LAS.

SnShne322

Skeezon said:

I'm surprised there was no mention of words or names mispronounced. That irks me. Though I find it most common in stories set in New Orleans. They almost always get last names and street names wrong. Though, it's hard to hold it against them with words like Tchoupitoulas. For the record, that is CHOP - A - TWO - LAS.

I wondered about that one! I pronounced it wrong! Mispronunciations do bug me, but unless I'm familiar with the area, it doesn't happen often.

RevJen

If I've never been to a place, I won't know it's being mispronounced.