AN OVERLOOKED PASTIME OTHER THAN SEX WIV YER MISSUS (Audiobooks - General)

Member Name: marandina

Product:	Audiobooks - General
Date:	17/10/03 (124 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Flexible, Can brighten a commute

Disadvantages: Not as exciting as movies

The printed word is an art form adored by millions. Books transcend all manner of language, creed, philosophy and ultimately bridges gaps that, at times, little else can. A tangent of the written word is audio. For the first time, I recently tried an audio book and wanted to draw people's attention to an overlooked form of entertainment.

I intend to review the specifics of the audio book involved sometime soon (when the category gets added!) but feel it's worth pointing out some of the pros and cons of my recent experience.

Basically, audio books are tapes of stories that can be listened too as opposed to reading. You might be surprised by the amount of titles available in this form but a search an amazon will reveal a great choice. Examples of high profile stories on tape right now include Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix although this may set you back approximately £50 unless you go for a used version via the market place facility but even this prices the offering in the £40+ bracket.

The reason I tried an audio book at all was because my car journey to work is over an hour there and an hour back and I'd got bored with listening to music tapes and/or the radio. I wanted to try something different and had even considered Radio 4 (just how old have I become?) but the Today programme is mainly news based and I can often goes days without bothering to catch up with news in general. I just find it so depressing.

I was surprised by the experience. Not sure what to expect, I rented an audio book from my local library. From memory, it was about £2ish (tres cheap and you'll be helping your local library coffers) for a 3 week rental. I couldn't swear to which takes longer, listening to an audio tape or actually reading a book. I suspect the former as each word is intonated carefully by the speaker whereas there may be a tendency to skim at times when reading or you may simply be a fast reader.

If this
audio book is anything to go by, the pace and tone of the speaker was such that the story had an atmosphere all of it's own. With there being a number of different characters, the speaker took on the accents of the figures lending an authentic feel whilst pitch and pace gave the story an appropriate flux and wane that draws the listener in similar to a movie without the pictures.

I suppose it's stating the obvious to suggest that audio books are ideal for blind people but they are and can be used for any occasion. After all, the only thing that is needed is either a cassette deck in a car or a tape player together with an energy source in a house/flat etc!

More often than not, audio books will consist of several tapes. The one I listened to had 8 cassettes with the story featuring on both sides. I guess for the impatient, as soon as one side finishes then the tape can be flipped over to the next to carry on listening or, alternatively for lazy folk like me, the listener can simply let the tape run it's course for the deck to automatically start the next side.

Audio books are easy to come by. The listener can buy online at sites like Amazon, stores such as WH Smith will have a wide range (we still have an Adrian Mole story that I bought my good lady several years ago that has yet to make it out of it's wrapper!) or the cheapest option may be to hire/lend it from your local library. Mine had a reasonable if fairly narrow range of titles. Cheaper still would be to find someone to swap with in the same way that book crossing happens.

Taking us right up to date, audio book now come in CD format and can even be downloaded from sites like audiobooks.com. The main portal boasts savings of up to 80% and with all the music downloads that take place these days then it's almost the done thing nowadays to simply download material straight onto hard drives after paying a fee, of course.

For those with less time, i
t is possible to get abridged versions which means that the story has been cut in places. Personally, I would always want an unabridged as I consider it almost sacrilegious to alter an art form in that way but I suppose if you never knew it had been abridged it wouldn't really matter.

A point worth noting that doesn't come into play when buying/borrowing audio books is the speaker's voice. Easy to overlook, there's nothing worse than having to listen to a monotone affair for 5 or 6 hours. Apparently, Stephen King's voice is fairly dreary. Stephen Fry is a popular speaker and Barry Foster was right on the mark for the audio book I tried out.

I did wonder whether listening to an audio book would be distracting whilst driving along and it was no more distracting than the radio albeit I did drift off into other reveries at times, resisting the desire to rewind the tape as I just managed to pick up where I left off before too long. I don't remember swerving into any innocent passers-by which suggests the pastime is reasonably safe. Needless to say, it can be a bit galling if you do lose the plot but then rewind buttons are there for a reason.

Oh well, there you have it; please try audio books especially if you are faced with any sort of commute to work. I'm sure you'll enjoy the change as I did and you can always go back to listening to music/talk radio to keep things fresh.

Adios amigos.

Marandina

Useful sites:

http://www.audiobooks.com/

http://www.amazon.com

http://www.blackstoneaudio.com/

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