A Joyful Noise ---How audiobooks changed my reading (and working) life.
- jvquay
- Apr 6, 2022
- 2 min read
In 2001, my husband and I opened our very own cafe/bakery in New Jersey.
The hours were long, as expected, made longer by a lack of decent radio reception in the building we worked out of. Radio call-in shows were not my thing, and the one oldies station we found had a library of about fifteen songs.
One of our employees (also tired of static, talk radio, and hearing the song Brandy played twenty times a day) gifted us a portable CD/ cassette player, which saved the day.
But when I baked alone through the overnights, music, I found, wasn't the best company. I missed the human voice. Found myself making up voice characters and using them to call up and respond to the overnight radio DJ. Not the best use of my time.
My local reference librarian suggested audiobooks to keep me company through a night of solo baking. I had my doubts. Not sure my attention would last through seven-plus hours of narration.
Eureka! Magic! Not only did my favorite stories jump to life, kindness of great narrators, but I discovered so many new books this way. To my further surprise, I remembered much more of a story's details when I listened to a book than I ever did by physically reading one.
Where had this been all my life?
Since then, I've built my own audiobook collection, learned to borrow digital audiobooks from the library, even took a course on how to narrate audiobooks. More than half of what I read over the course of a year is on audio.
I even follow certain narrators, borrowing titles I wouldn't otherwise pick, but worth a listen to hear those beloved voices.
Some of my favorites?
Frank Muller --Especially his version of A
Tale of Two Cities
George Guidall
Can make a grocery list sound like a good story.
William Hurt
His interpretation of Stephen King's Hearts in Atlantis made this one of my all-time favorite books.
Will Patton
His voicing all the characters in James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux series will keep you listening in the car long after you've parked.
Bahni Turpin
My favorite female narrator. Warm, rich voice.
Toni Morrison
Her reading of her own Beloved vaulted this book to my top ten list.
Scott Brick
A great hard-boiled detective voice, but he brings several genres to life.
And many more!
I still dream of making my own book into an audio version one day. I'll have to finish it first, so ...
...back to writing!
Happy ISG Day!
What a great story! I seldom listen to audiobooks because I work as a programmer and find it difficult to divide my attention between two word streams. But I absolutely agree that a good reader is essential, and can make or break an audio book.
I've never gotten into audio books although I have listened to some. Glad they are a joy to you.
Some people absorb information better in the audio form, while others are more of the visual kind. I always liked to read better than listen. That applies to fiction and non-fiction both. At university, I needed a textbook for every lesson, while some of my friends got As just by listening to lectures.
Obviously, you're the 'audio' kind of person. For such persons, audio books are priceless. For me, audio doesn't work. I need to read the words to get their full impact.