Audio Books. Have you tried them?

[Hornspieler]

Our Public Libraries kept a limited stock of books in large print for those with eyesight difficulties. The problem was that doubling the size of the print virtually doubles the weight of the book and elderly people (the most likely customers) would have difficulties - not only carrying them home but also holding them up for long periods to read in bed.

The solution was to offer Audio Books which, like the BBCs "Book at Bedtime" are read onto cassettes or CDs; sometimes by the author or, more usually, by a well known actor.

"Did you like the book, Granny?"
"No. I didn't like the reader!"
or
"Why on earth did you choose that book, granny?"
"Because D***** B***** (the reader) has such a lovely voice"

You can't win! But have you ever tried reading from a text into a microphone?

I tried reading one of my own short stories onto my recorder and found it incredibly difficult not to keep stopping, pausing for breath where I shouldn't or stumbling over the words that I had written myself. How these professional readers can do a whole book, changing the voice to suit the character or situation must take hours - even for professional actors or speechmakers.

We all complain about presentation on Radio 3 and certainly a lack of preparation and basic research is sometimes obvious,
(the news readers are better - but they have more preparation time and experience in pronouncing foreign names and they read from an autocue, prompted by the programme director).

The Season of good will to all men (and announcers) is nigh.

HS

[gingerjon]

I always find it amusing that Jim Dale is best known over here for being a Carry On film stalwart but in the US he's the voice of the Harry Potter books. He holds the Guinness World Record for the number of distinct character voices in a single 'book': 146.

[Don Petter]

I always find it amusing that Jim Dale is best known over here for being a Carry On film stalwart but in the US he's the voice of the Harry Potter books. He holds the Guinness World Record for the number of distinct character voices in a single 'book': 146.

A suitable punishment, I'd have thought?

[johncorrigan]

I loved the William books when I was a nipper, though I always found them difficult to read out loud for the kids. Some books, I think are better read aloud - Treasure Island is a good example - great fun. But William didn't work for my kids. Cue Martin Jarvis. For me he brings those characters alive - great and distinctive voices, I thought - for a long while car journeys with the weans were littered with his wonderful interpretations of Crompton's characters.

[Dave2002]

I loved the William books when I was a nipper, though I always found them difficult to read out loud for the kids. Some books, I think are better read aloud - Treasure Island is a good example - great fun. But William didn't work for my kids. Cue Martin Jarvis. For me he brings those characters alive - great and distinctive voices, I thought - for a long while car journeys with the weans were littered with his wonderful interpretations of Crompton's characters.

Martin Jarvis has done several, including some Michael Frayn I think. He has also done one about himself. I particularly like the bit where he says something like

MJ:"Who's there?"
Teacher "No, Jarvis, It's 'tap,tap, who's there?'"
MJ:"But I don't think he says 'tap,tap'. Isn't it a er stage direction?"
Teacher: " No, No, Jarvis! You must say 'tap,tap'.'"

when relating a story about a woodcutter in a hut, and his interaction with his teacher. The book is called Acting Strangely.

The way he does that is very amusing, and of course makes a rather telling comment about the quality of some of our teachers, though I detected he was quite fond of the person "teaching" him.

[salymap]

I prefer to listen on the radio. Why can't there be a station like R4 Extra available on a little FM radio?

[Dave2002]

I prefer to listen on the radio. Why can't there be a station like R4 Extra available on a little FM radio?

Actually - confession time - we have discovered that trying to listen to speech tapes and CDs is generally a very good way of getting to sleep. We hardly ever hear the end of any speech or tape CD. Music, OTOH, doesn't seem to work. This could be a personal thing, though.

[salymap]

Actually - confession time - we have discovered that trying to listen to speech tapes and CDs is generally a very good way of getting to sleep. We hardly ever hear the end of any speech or tape CD. Music, OTOH, doesn't seem to work. This could be a personal thing, though.

Yes Dave R4 Extra is a speech programme and I don't have a small player for audio book tapes anyway

[Pabmusic]

For a few years I had to travel round England and Wales. I soon found that I could not (usually) listen to music with any pleasure while I was driving - mainly because I generally listen too intently and couldn't concentrate on the driving. Spoken word was perfect, though. Then I had a stroke in 2008, and spoken word recordings became very important to me when I couldn't easily read (that is for about six weeks or so). Even now, it's not unknown for me to fall asleep with my iPod plugged into my ears. It's always spoken word - music is too serious, and I have to be awake and concentrating, or I become frustrated. I'm hopeless with any kind of background music.

[Hitch]

I've enjoyed a few of Jeremy Siepmann's potted biographies of famous composers, published by Naxos. There are plenty of musical snippets included, and the biographies are enlivened by actors reading letters written by Bach, Mozart, etc. I think Bob Peck enjoyed reading Beethoven's letters.

Don't forget that there are also audio newspapers and magazines. National Talking Newspapers and Magazines offer audio digests of many publications (read by volunteers) and full-text versions adapted for the blind and partially sighted. I must admit, in the interests of clarity, that I have a connection with the charity. That rhyme pleased me.

[Dave2002]

Yes Dave R4 Extra is a speech programme and I don't have a small player for audio book tapes anyway

salymap

Does your radio turn off after a hour or so, or do you wake up in the middle of the night wondering what's going on?

[salymap]

salymap

Does your radio turn off after a hour or so, or do you wake up in the middle of the night wondering what's going on?

No I listen for a bit, then turn it off. I must investigate an iPod or something but don't have anything to play tapes on but my big radio in the living room with CD, etc. Dave

[Hitch]

No I listen for a bit, then turn it off. I must investigate an iPod or something but don't have anything to play tapes on but my big radio in the living room with CD, etc. Dave

I have a Sansa Clip. It's the same size as a matchbox and weighs very little. Don't buy a black one or you'll put it down somewhere and never find it again!

[Bryn]

I have a Sansa Clip. It's the same size as a matchbox and weighs very little. Don't buy a black one or you'll put it down somewhere and never find it again!

Hmm. I recently bought a red Sanza Clip+ (4GB), attracted by the micro-SDHC facility and the claimed aac compatibility. Turned out the latter only applied to aac in an m4a wrapper created by iTunes, not straight aac files or those wrapped to m4a with mp4box. It was very cheap though, (less than £30).

Re. Audio book, I have a few in CD format. Mainly Joyce and Beckett bought in a fairly recent knock-down sale of Naxos audiobooks. I struggle with reading Finnegans Wake, not easily getting the appropriately Irish sound from the page. The abridged version read by Jim Norton, and Marcella Riordan helps me return to the text and get more out of it.

[Hitch]

Hmm. I recently bought a red Sanza Clip+ (4GB), attracted by the micro-SDHC facility and the claimed aac compatibility. Turned out the latter only applied to aac in an m4a wrapper created by iTunes, not straight aac files or those wrapped to m4a with mp4box. It was very cheap though, (less than £30).

Sorry to hear that. Not being a technological whizz, I stick to plain mp3s and steer clear of anything to do with iTunes.