STACKED

books

Audiosynced: Crocodile on the Sandbank

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The Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters is one of the first series I can remember listening to on audio.  It was on one of those long car trips with my family that I was introduced to resourceful Amelia, a female English Egyptologist from the late 1800s.  The first book I listened to was actually Seeing a Large Cat, which falls smack dab in the middle of the series, and it’s only recently that I’ve gone back and listened to the series from the beginning.

Crocodile on the Sandbank introduces us to Amelia Peabody – an unmarried woman of thirty (and thus a spinster for her time) who has just inherited a large sum of money after her scholar father dies.  Naturally, due to her inheritance, suitors come knocking on her door, but Amelia is much more interested in traveling and pursuing archaeology, in particular Egyptology (digging up tombs is a standby of each book).  She has a knack for getting herself in trouble, mostly because she tends to seek it out.  Amelia’s love and partner in crime is Radcliffe Emerson, whom we meet in this first book.  The two exasperate each other on first sight, and their verbal sparring is one of the best features of the series.      

If you listen to the audio, the book will not only introduce you to one of the best female protagonists out there, but also to the wonderful narration of Barbara Rosenblat.  That woman is good.  I’m not English, so my opinion may not necessarily be the most valid, but she fooled me into believing she was, in fact, English herself.  (She is not – Barbara Rosenblat is American and her natural speaking voice is American.)  She also has the rare talent of accurately impersonating a person of the opposite gender, which is very difficult to do.  Emerson’s voice as portrayed by Barbara Rosenblat is so unique that it can be recognized just by its grunt – a noise Emerson is famous for and which cannot be reproduced effectively in print.  And it’s not just me who thinks Rosenblat is spectacular – she’s won a ridiculous number of awards, including six Audies.

These books are perfect in audio form – they’re funny, full of adventure, and narrated in the first person by a smart and strong-willed woman who is way ahead of her time.  Peters herself is an Egyptologist, which makes these books a fascinating blend of adventure, romance, and history.  When I was in library school, I took the bus to and from class, and those bus rides could get looooong.  I needed something to help pass the time, and I discovered that NetLibrary offered many of the earlier Amelia Peabodies.  I was thrilled, and I loved listening to how Amelia met Emerson for the first time.  This series is always one I recommend to people who are hesitant about audiobooks.  The books are fun, clean enough to not embarrass you if you listen to them with your parents (as I did when I was younger), and spectacularly narrated.

It’s all about the format

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You know why to listen, how to listen, and have a good idea of the types of audiobooks there are out there, but do you have a preference for how you get your audiobooks? Do you download them, transfer from your computer onto a portable player, or are you a traditional audiobook-on-cd listener? We’ll give you a little walk through some of the different formats — there is something for everyone.

Traditional Audiobook (Kelly):

I’m a huge fan of these. They come fully set to pop into your car’s CD player and play. You don’t need to do anything, but you do need to be aware these bad boys can get long (and if you’re purchasing them, expensive). The Help, for example, ran 15 discs long. If you’re anything like me, I pull out ALL of the discs of a book at once and put them in the change tray in my car — 15 of those bad boys sometimes leads to the CDs falling off and under the seat in the car.

On the plus side, they require little to no work to begin listening. On the downside, they aren’t super versatile. You need a CD player of some sort to use them, unless you want to copy them onto your computer’s hard drive and then save them in your music player of choice.

MP3 Audiobook (Kimberly):

I’m going to be honest and say that I’ve never actually listened to one of these before, but they’ve got a lot going for them.  I was lucky enough to receive a free (signed) copy of Rick Riordan’s newest book, The Red Pyramid, at BEA on mp3 CD.  The print book is over 500 pages and the audio runs over fourteen and a half hours, but the entire book fits on ONE mp3 CD. 

Obviously, the compact size is a huge pro.  There’s no need to swap out discs while driving (yikes!) and they take up much less space on the shelf.  On the other hand, not all CD players are compatible with the format.  Most CD players being manufactured today can play mp3 discs just fine, but both my car CD player (from 2004) and my boom box (from the Jurassic Age) – the two players I use most often – won’t play them.  If I want to listen to an mp3 CD, I’ve got to use my computer, which is a pain.

In my experience, this lack of compatibility problem applies to most public library users today.  My library is not yet purchasing mp3 CDs, but I have a feeling that’s the way the technology is heading (along with downloadables, as described below).  Will we see the traditional CD going the way of the cassette tape soon?

Downloadable Audiobook (Kelly):

Many libraries offer a way for users to download audiobooks directly from their database to your home computer (and now, sometimes right onto your portable device). Though I haven’t tried this out yet, it’s on my list of things to achieve in the next few weeks. . . fitting with the goal of using audiobooks on my ipod for working out.

There are a few vendors for downloadable books, but the two biggest include NetLibrary and Overdrive. Both have their pluses and minuses, so you have to figure out the quirks of your library’s system for yourself (or ask the librarian, of course). Don’t think you have access to downloadable audio? Think again. Janssen has pointed out that there is a wonderful way to find out if your library has access to Overdrive via this link.

Another downloadable option is LibriVox. I’ve never used it, but I know people who do. It’s run on a volunteer basis, where readers choose to help record all of the books in the public domain. In other words, if you’re looking to listen to a classic, try them out. And, if you’re so inspired, try your hand at recording a title, too.

Playaway (Kimberly):

The Playaway is such a good idea – an audiobook player that comes pre-loaded with the audiobook.  No need to convert any files or go to the trouble of loading the files onto the device.  No need to even HAVE a device. 

It seems like Playaways are best for people who want a portable audiobook but may not be able to afford their own mp3 player or just don’t feel technologically savvy enough to download or transfer files to one.  I’ve read anecdotal evidence that public libraries in poorer communities see more use of the Playaway, but I don’t have any numbers to back that up.  There are some definite downsides – they can be pricey, require the user to supply their own batteries and headphones, and lack the flexibility of a normal audio player which can hold more than one book at a time.

Which format do you prefer?

AudioSynced: Highway Cats by Janet Taylor Lisle

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Before I headed out for a long weekend, I wanted to pick up a very short audiobook for the couple of days of commuting to work I’d be doing. When I stumbled upon Highway Cats, I remembered putting it on my GoodReads “to read” list a long time ago, and I was excited to see it was only 2 discs long. It’d be a quick one.

I was wrong.

There is nothing bad about this story at all. A group of cats who live along the highway are going to lose their homes to the greedy politician who wants to expand the highway in order to build more shopping centers. A litter of kittens is abandoned there, as well, and it is the kittens who will ultimately help scare away the construction crew and ultimately shift what happens to the politician in the story. It’s a cute premise with a pretty interesting message about human land use versus animal habitats.

I loved the narrator of this audio, James Jenner. He has a nice commentator voice on this, and he manages to make the politician a source of evil with just slight changes in his tone. His reading style reminded me quite a bit of the style of reading that we have in Hold Tight. Tension is build well.

Weighing in at only 2 hour-long discs, this should have been a very quick listen, but it took me nearly two weeks to listen to it. I had a hard time getting into the characters, and I felt all of the cats who played big roles in the story were one and the same. Highway Cats reminded me a lot of The Underneath by Kathi Appelt. It’s the animals as the main characters and people as the bad forces. Perhaps my problem is it’s hard to listen to that, as well as hard to read it. I’m an animal lover, so hearing a story about mistreated or forgotten about animals makes for a less-than-enjoyable experience for me. I haven’t read a single news story about the oil spill for the same reason.

Highway Cats has an audience, and there is ultimately a positive ending in the story. Fans of Appelt’s story will love this, and this would make for a good family listen. For a quick trip in the car, it’s a worthwhile listen. If for no other reason, listen for Jenner’s great narration and the excellent production — everything is seamless.

Promoting Audiobooks

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So now that you know how to review an audio and you get an idea of how flexible an option audiobooks are for getting more reading into your busy life, how do you promote audiobooks to the non-listener? Here are a few tips and ideas for spreading the audio love.

For me, promoting audiobooks is easy: whenever I talk a book I listened to, I make sure to emphasize that I listened to the book. I highlight some of the things that worked really well in the audiobook and sell that. Sometimes it works and other times it doesn’t, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised to discover how many audiobook listeners there are, especially among teenagers (that’s the age group with whom I work a lot). If I can model that listening is perfectly acceptable reading, then others will see it the same way. Sometimes, I like to play an audio clip, too, and it was a clip from M. T. Anderson’s Feed that turned many of the teens onto a book that had languished for a long time on the shelf. My audio copy got a lot of play for a couple of months after that.

Likewise, I try to always have an audiobook going. It keeps me fresh and helps me quickly talk an interesting title to those who are new or are looking for something different. I had a family, for example, who exhausted many of the titles in the children’s area and needed a family-friendly, lengthy series of audiobooks. Redwall was my first instinct, and they’ve been making their way eagerly through that series.

Other ways I personally promote audiobooks involves including them in displays and putting them out within the book stacks. In Illinois, there are two sets of award books for teens: The Abe Lincoln Awards and the Read for a Lifetime list. I intershelve my audio copies with the print copies, and I see both moving quite a bit. I think too easily that readers can overlook audiobooks, and when they see them right there with the print titles, they remember that those can be just as enjoyable (and it helps the titles on these lists include family friendly reads, adult titles, classics, and teen classics). I’ve also made sure that teens know during summer and winter reading club, audiobooks are DEFINITELY considered books, and they should be counted toward meeting their reading goals.

Perhaps the biggest promotion tool is right here on the blog. We make an effort to review for a reason, and Abby (the) Librarian and I developed AudioSynced for this precise reason: to get the word out about audiobooks. It’s important to review them, to talk about issues such as readers and production, and to emphasize that listening to a book is an easy way to increase your reading. Many people ask how I read so much, and it’s easy to say audiobooks have helped me carve out more reading time in my daily life.

I’m always talking about what I read with friends and family (and when I get the opportunity to do so with patrons, I seize it as well).  When discussing books, I make sure to mention that I listened to the book rather than simply saying I read it.  I think that this technique helps push the fact that listening to audios is, in fact, reading.
If people tell me “I like to read, but I just don’t have the time” (which is a dubious statement, but nonetheless…), I’ll urge them to try audiobooks, particularly if they have a commute to work.  I’ll mention that it makes doing household chores much more tolerable and actually speeds up my morning routine.  So, not only does it allow me to get in more reading, it actually helps free up time for traditional reading. Win-win!
Honestly, just having an audiobook playing when someone visits me at home or when I give someone a ride in my car is good promotion.  Many people are skeptical of audios, but if they actually hear one, it changes their mind.  Wouldn’t it be nice if libraries could have those demo stations for audiobooks like music stores have for CDs?  (After I wrote this, I thought about it some and decided some libraries probably do.)
At work, I don’t get a lot of face to face time with patrons, so I have to find other ways.  Wherever I highlight new titles (the monthly newsletter, the website, etc.), I make sure I include audios.  Our new audios are out on the shelf with the new books, and I try to display audios that I think will circ well face-out.  Unfortunately, we put our check-out pockets on the front of our audios, obscuring a large portion of the cover.  This is a practice I wish we could change.
Kelly’s mentioned other good techniques, so I won’t rehash them here.  How do you promote audiobooks?

Audiosynced: His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman

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In my very first post for STACKED, I mentioned my intense love for Philip Pullman’s masterpiece of a children’s fantasy trilogy, His Dark Materials (including The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass). Impeccably written without a single flawed section, these books are far and away My Favorites.

Despite that, I was hesitant to pick up the audiobooks. They’re done by a full cast, each character’s voice (and there are many, many characters) performed by a different actor, with a few overlaps, and the narration is performed by Pullman himself. I was concerned that the voices for the characters – in particular Lyra, the protagonist – would not correspond with my own inner voices I had used since I first read the books as a twelve year old.

I needn’t have worried. This audiobook trilogy completely won me over to fully-voiced productions. I am frequently frustrated when male narrators voice female characters, since the voices so often come across as breathy and weak. It would have been tragic to hear Lyra – a strong, impetuous character – voiced in that way, but it obviously wasn’t a problem.

I cannot say enough good things about Pullman’s narration. He speaks neither too slowly nor too quickly, infusing just the right amount of inflection into each sentence. He turns the audio production into a work of art. Normally I need to be active when listening to an audiobook (driving, getting ready for work, etc.), but with these, it was enough to just sit and listen.

I didn’t really believe it was possible, but the audiobooks deepened my appreciation for these books. My attention was drawn to new details, and parts I found only mildly interesting before became fascinating. (For any of you who have read the third book, Mary and the mulefa tended to drag for me, but the person who voiced Mary was so utterly perfect that these sections were a joy to listen to.)

I’m always so grateful when I discover that a book I love has been transferred so wonderfully into audio. I have no doubt that I’ll be listening to these again sometime soon.