Audio version of EOYLFB

I am getting a late start on the conversation. My darn day job has been getting in the way. To make up a bit on being behind I'm actually listening to the audio version on my way back and forth to work. Then, when I'm home I read the printed copy I received in the mail.

Is anyone else listening to this book? The narrator is Jeff Harding, and he is very good. As much as I enjoy most audiobooks, I believe that when you listen to a book you abdicate your role as co-creator with the author (at least in part). At least that is my opinion. Does anyone else have a thought about the audio version of this book in particular or about audiobooks in general?

I didn't listen to this book, but I do enjoy audio books in general and am always listening to at least one. As a child, I loved being read to and audio books allow me that pleasure in adulthood.

I'm interested in paula's comment about abdicating the role as co-creator. Would you want to elaborate?

As with text, sometimes an audio book comes alive for me and sometimes it leaves me flat. I don't see my role as reader as much different in different formats--audio, book, e-reader.

Another thread discusses sharing books and one thing I like about audio books is the unexpected sharing I find happens when my kids or other people get into the car and the book is on. Sometimes, one of my kids will ask what happened when he wasn't listening or ask me to wait to listen until he's in the car. It always feels like a treat when we unexpectedly share a book that way.

I, too, loved being read to as a very small child - but I also loved to grab the book, pretend like I knew when to turn pages, and tell the story back to my mother from memory. Maybe that was an indication that I wouldn't be a fan of audio books. I listen to foreign language CDs in the car before trips but just can't get into audio books at all.

When I say that when you listen to books you abdicate your role as co-creator of the book, I mean that readers and writers build stories together. Readers have to engage their imaginations and past experiences to interpret the writer's written words. When we listen to a book, we introduce a third party (assuming the narrator is not also the author) into the construction of the tale. For example, if the narrator makes his/her voice lilt slightly at the end of a passage of dialogue, the character sounds hopeful, wistful, possibly cheerful. Perhaps, though, you the reader (without the narrator's help) would have read that same text in your mind's ear as trailing off at the end or with sarcasm. The character may have sounded bitter or depressed. When you listen to a book, it's akin to watching a movie adaptation of a novel. There is a third party's interpretation added to the mix. In fact, once you've heard it spoken by the narrator, it's difficult to imagine how you might have read that passage yourself in the first place.

I agree with Paula that you do abdicate some of the responsibility when listening to an audio book but, when the book is well read, that's a trade off that I'm more than happy to make. For me, a well read audio book adds significantly to the experience, for example, delivering the dialog in accents that are correct for the characters instead of how I would read them (even in my head!).

But the flip side of this is that if the narrator's delivery is off in some way it becomes intrusive and irritating. For example, I'm currently trying to listening to Robert Massie's "Catherine the Great" but the narrator refers to Russia's capital city as Mos-cow whereas I have always known it as Mos-co. Each time the city is referenced it irritates a little bit more, and considering it's mentioned every few pages, I've reached the point where I just bring myself to listen to the book anymore - which is a pity.

I'd never thought about listening as abdicating some reader-responsibility.

For some books, for me, the reader(s) make the book come alive and I have a much richer experience than I would have only reading the text. Stockett's "The Help," for example, was an audio read by four narrators; I refused to see the movie because the characters I saw in my head while listening to that book were so lively and vivid. And, other narrators kill the book.

So much depends on the more than just the text even when reading a physical book--the feel of the book (I refuse to read trade paperbacks, e.g.), the typeset, and most importantly my mood and place in life. Sometimes a book works, sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes it will work at a different time.

I love CD books for long car rides but my commute to work is all of about five minutes. I know, you hate me! When I had to drive back and forth to grad school (an hour each way) time went so quickly listening to books. I loved that.

I also have "mental drift" issues, when I find myself either paying 100% attention to driving or giving over half my attention to listening. I do better with nonfiction than fiction, for some reason.

I like when an author reads his/her own books, though sometimes s/he has an awful voice, which is a let down. I like Sarah Vowell's CD book readings, for example, but a lot of people find her too annoying. I love hearing the sarcasm in her voice, the deadpan way she delivers hilarious lines but yes, she does have a "distinctive" voice.

Lisa