Embracing Technology - Audio Books

Today we have a guest post from Kathleen Hagen, who is blind, and has been her entire life. When I asked her to write about her experience with audio books for our technology themed posts this month, I  did not know she was blind. I just saw her comment in a reader forum about needing to buy stock in Audible.com and figured she could address audio books in a way that I cannot, since I don't often listen to audio books.

I have used Braille since I was five years old, so I read it at a fast rate, but putting books in Braille is a very voluminous process, (the Bible, for example, is 16 large volumes). Starting in the 1930s, the Library of Congress hired actors to read books that would be available only to the blind. These were called Talking Books, and I still read some of them. However, the commercial audio market has provided a much wider market for me.

I should own stock in Audible.com. I’ve bought many hundreds of books since 2005, and I read constantly - in bed, while I’m doing things around the house, in waiting rooms, anywhere at all. I read approximately 20 books a month - mysteries, general fiction, biographies and memoirs, and history.  Since 2005 I have made a journal entry for each book that I have read, and in 2007 I started posting my book entries on Goodreads.

Some people question whether listening to a book is the same as reading a book. I consider listening to be a form of reading. People who don’t agree with that would say I’m illiterate because I don’t read print, and that makes absolutely no sense to me. There’s no downside to reading audio books unless you are a person who can’t process material as well when you receive it orally.  

I have enjoyed some books in audio and some in Braille. For example, I tried to read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night as an audio book and it made no sense to me. I could never keep track of what chapter we were in and the numbers didn’t seem to follow each other, so I gave up. When I read it in Braille, I realized that chapters were named in prime numbers instead of in our usual sequence.

On the other hand, I just finished Rob Lowe’s book: Stories I Only Tell my Friends: An Autobiography and I think that book is much more entertaining as an audio book than if I read it in Braille. Rob Lowe narrates the book himself, and it’s like listening to a comedy monologue. Jane Fonda also narrates her books, and they are also much better read as an audio book because it’s like listening to Jane herself talking to you.  

The author is not always the best narrator for his/her book. Elizabeth Edwards narrated her books, and they were so emotionally charged that, at times, she was almost whispering. That made it hard to understand what she was saying. Some men have a hard time showing feelings when they read their own books, and it makes the book sound as if the author had no feelings about it, which is absolutely not true. I was disappointed when I listened to Anderson Cooper read his book. Although he is a wonderfully versatile broadcaster and talk show host, that did not come across as he read his book.

The main advantage to an audio book is that most often they are read by an actor, and audio publishers are careful about who they choose to narrate a book. In the case of a series, readers/listeners will be upset if the narrator changes in the middle of the series. I can’t listen to anyone but Will Patton doing James Lee Burke books. George Guidall has to read books by Craig Johnson and Tony Hillerman for me to enjoy them. I actually do sometimes choose not to read an audio book if I can’t stand the narrator. On the other hand, a good narrator can make even a dull book entertaining.

There are some good audio book list serves as well as a magazine, AudioFile, which reviews audio books. The Audio Publishers Association has its own audio award categories each year. GoodReads has an audio books group where people talk about audio books they’ve read. I enjoy very much being a part of the audio book world.

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Kathleen Hagen is a retired staff attorney for Minneapolis Legal Aid, where she worked for 17 years.

Posted by Maryann Miller who read her fist audio book just recently and will post about that next week. Maryann  is a novelist, editor and sometimes actress. To check out her editing rates visit her website. When not working, Maryann likes to take her dog for a walk and work outside on her little ranch in East Texas. She also likes to read the funny papers. That's much more fun than reading the hard news.