I can only give my personal opinion from my experience with audio books. I think they are great and listen to them all the time. Never at home though. I get them from the library and always listen to them on my drive to work and on road trips. So what makes a good audio book ? I never get one that is abridged, I want the real deal. The reader needs to be able to do multiple voices for different characters, and I actually prefer when there is only one reader doing all the characters. I usually listen to novels and classics that I would normally not have the patiences to read. Some poeple might consider this “cheating”, but I actually think that I retain more of what I have read to me, than reading it myself.
I’ll take reading a real book personally any day over having it read to me. Still, there are times when reading a book isn’t possible. Generally I find the best time for audio books are on long car trips or if you have a regular, fairly long commute (say 45 minutes or more each way). Also, considering that audio books are usually MUCH more expensive than their paper counterparts, they can be a costly habit to get into.
Personally I favor audio books that have been dramatized (i.e. multiple actors doing voices, sound effects and so on). My personal favorites of those are The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and The Lord of the Rings.
Barring dramatizations then I’d go for the unabridged versions. Why would I want someone editing out portions of a book? If I want something read to me I want the whole thing.
As to what makes a good audio book good I’d first off it’s the person reading it. Again this is subjective but some people are clearly better than others. Unfortunately it’s usually hit-or-miss unless you recognize the reader and are already familiar with their style (and presumably like it).
Next is recording quality. Some books are done cheaply on cheap media and bad sound control. Others spend a good deal more time making a quality product. Usually you’ll get a sense of which publishers tend to cheap out and which spend a few extra bucks to get it right (although even then they might spend more for a known money maker and cheap out on a lesser book).
Finally I prefer CD’s to tape but that’s just me. Quick access times, better fidelity (usually) and longer media life weigh in their favor.
I love 'em. I loved 'em even when I had a short commute, but I love them even more now that I have an insane one.
My suggestions:
1.) Look into the collections at your local library, and at surrounding libraries. A much bigger selection, a lot of unabridged “Books on Tape”, and it’ll save you mucho dinero.
2.) If you’re buying tapes, buy something you won’t mind listening to again and again, because you’ll be pklaying those tapes a lot to justify the expense. I’ve found that non-fiction and classics “wear” better than contemporary fiction, which I can only listen to once.
3.) I love having The Iliad and The Odyssey and other epics on tape – you’re hearing them as they were originally experienced – recited, rather than read.
4.) Some fiction I can listen to over and over – Sherlock Holmes, Nero Wolfe, James Bond.
5.) Given my druthers, I’ll generally go with unabridged. But the actor can make a big difference, too. Four different people have recorded “Rumpole of the Bailey” mysteries, but the only one worth listening to is Leo McKern (who played Rumpole on TV). John Lithgow is a great reader.
Even with a narrator whose voice doesn’t grate on my nerves. Even if the dialog isn’t read with different nuances than I would imagine if I read it. Even if I didn’t have to pause the thing every time I got sidetracked.
A fine book is like a fine meal… you taste carefully, some bites more lingering than others, sometimes pausing completely for the experience to diffuse and sink into your psyche.
Now take that fine meal, put it all in a blender and whirl it around. Pour at a steady rate, into your mouth through a funnel.
That is an audiobook.
(However, I would like to mention that even though audiobooks are not for me, I would never insinuate that someone else’s use of them is “cheating.”)
I love them. I have probably listened to 500 books on tape in the last 15 years. Maybe more. I walk everywhere and constantly listen while walking.
Abridged books would be similar to reading Cliff’s Notes or Reader Digest Condensed Books - no thanks.
The best way to do it, IMHO, is to go to a good library and check out the Books on CD. Bring them home and rip them to MP3 format. Or listen on your CD player, what the hell.
The CDs have tracks every 3 minutes or so. This helps me because I get into a fog once in a while and suddenly realize that I haven’t been listening for the last 5 minutes. On tape you have to rewind and guess when to stop. On CD or MP3, you just go back 1 or 2 tracks until it sounds like you heard it before.
My favorite book Wilbur Smith’s Monsoon - Wilbur, if you are out there - we’re waiting for another book! I know you have a new, pretty, young wife, but…
I read Monsoon as a book first, then read it 2 more times as a Book on Tape. This is a normal scenario with my favorite authors - book first, book on tape for subsequent readings.
My favorite Book on Tape is Commanche Moon by Larry McMurtry, just because the Reader, Frank Muller, is so excellent - he’s just tremendous or it just strikes me right, who knows?
Obviously it is hard to argue with something that is so subjective so don’t take this as arguing against you but rather something to ponder.
I’ll grant reading a book is generally more satisfying. However, not all books can be put on an equal level here. Some books deserve contemplation, back-reading and so on. Others can be not much more than a joy ride. Fun while it lasts but not much of substance to dwell on.
Dramatized audio books are more like TV than a book. At least in an unabridged reading you get every last fiddly word and can perform your own interpretations upon it. For some books this would clearly be preferrable and for other books it might be downright necessary (I can’t see A Brief History of Time being dramatized). That said sometimes the dramatized ones can be really fun. I mentioned it in my earlier post but I LOVED The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio show adapted by the BBC Radiophonics Workshop (those people seem to do a consistently good job). Personally that is the only book I would rate as better in audio format than the book format (video format would be last but I enjoyed them all).
Finally, as already mentioned, consider books you might not want to read on your own. I did this for Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead. I always felt I should get around to reading it but could never bring myself to do it. However, when faced with a 16 hour car ride it made better sense to me. It’s not as if I would have much else to do during that ride anyway.
Just some thoughts…
(Oh yeah…I also enjoyed The Perfect Storm on tape. That book lent itself nicely to the audio format.)
I also really enjoy them. However, I really dislike the dramatized ones. They lack a certain intimacy that the single-reader style provides.
I discovered audio books a number of years ago when I was onstage in the evening about 150 miles from where I was working during the day and there was no radio station along the route I had to drive, but there was a truck stop that sold audio books.
I enjoy autobiographies, non-fiction, mysteries and adventure most of all. For me there is still no contest–always unabridged (if I can find them).
When I first started listening to audio books, I felt a little guilty to be listening as opposed to reading by sight, but then I got to thinking that really the tradition of story telling predates the written word by a long shot and I wasn’t being disloyal to written books only predating them a bit.
One thing I do with audio books that a few others may be able to take advantage of is, I donate them to our local library (They are elated when I come in with some audio books, but you must remember however, that I live in a very small town-1,200 people) and take 3/4 of the price of each new audio book off my income tax as a charitable donation. Last year it was a good chunk of money (my accountant says it’s legal).