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Category Archives: JIAM2012
Audiobook Week: Mid-Week Meme
Current/most recent audiobook:
I’m currently listening to A Discovery of Witches (by Deborah Harkness; narrated by Jennifer Ikeda)
A couple of people whose opinion I highly respect recommended this title; but quite frankly I’m quite disappointed with it. I had no preconceived ideas about what it was about or what to expect other than that the story would be compelling. It’s about a witch who calls up an alchemical text from the stacks At the Bodlean library at Oxford. I’m about halfway through and I’m just not feeling it. Jennifer Ikeda has a lovely voice but every passage in the book is treated with the same intensity, whether its that moment when the protag meets up with an avowed enemy or she’s in a yoga class. The evenness with which the narrator delivers the story bleeds the excitement out of the tale. And then there’s the issue of a couple of mispronunciations which is driving me batshit crazy: Stuff like Magdalene (College) being mispronounced “mag-da-lin” instead of “maud-lyn” and “dressage” being mispronounced as “dres-idj” instead of “dre-sahdj.” There are a lot of suspect pronunciations but I’m too lazy to drag out the OED to do a look-up every time a not-quite-right-sounding word pops up.
(So why haven’t I dumped the audio in favor of the book? Basically because I’m cheap. I spent my book allowance on a FitBit (a fancy pedometer) and the hold list on the library is rather long.) I’ll get through this; but when the sequel is published I plan on getting Shadow of Night in print.
One of my favorite audiobooks this year was actually released a couple of years ago, The Ghosts of Belfast (by Stuart Neville; narrated by Gerard Doyle.) I’m about to add it to my Personal Pantheon of All Time Great Audiobooks. The story is about a former IRA hit man, Gerry Fegan who is haunted by twelve ghosts. The ghosts will leave him in peace if he executes a vendetta against the people ultimately responsible for their respective deaths. It’s a great story and Gerard Doyle is perfectly suited and cast for it! You can read my review of it on this blog 🙂
My favorite new-to-me narrator is Wil Wheaton. His narration of Ready Player One (by Ernest Cline) was perfect! I often blow off celebrity narrators but this is an exception I’ll gladly make 🙂
Hmmm, next up may be Hillary Mantle’s Wolf Hall (narrated by Simon Slater.) I tried reading the book before and was lost. Then I switched to audio and was equally lost! Then I tried listening to the book and listening together and it all made sense! I stopped for some reason though. I need to get back to it however and wrap it up so I can listen to Bring Up the Bodies (by Hillary Mantle; narrated by Simon Vance.) I’ve heard that Bring Up the Bodies is more accessible (whew!)
I really can’t go there! Let’s just say that I make casting recommendations for a lot of books and sometimes I win and sometimes I don’t
06/27/2012: 10:100: UPDATE! I’m changing my answer! I wish Xe Sands had narrated the final chapters to The Last Werewolf (by Glen Duncan) and then gone on to narrate Talulah’s Rising.
JIAM2012 Photo: 25
When do I listen to audiobooks?
In #StudioA: I’m a studio engineer and so it’s generally a good idea to listen to the narrator while he’s talking to you! Most recently, I listened to Kevin Kenerly narrate First Evidence (by Ken Goddard.)
In the car: I listen to a lot of audiobooks produced by the company I work for AND by other audiobook publishers. I primarily listen for my own edification; but I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I was also not-so-subconsciously vetting or auditioning the narrator for possible future work. Some audiobooks make me miss my exit (e.g. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson; narrated by Simon Vance), make me late for work because I don’t want to go in a crying mess or make it difficult for me to drive (e.g. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein; narrated by Christopher Evan Welch) and/or have my DH coming out of the house wanting to know why I’m still in the driveway (To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee; narrated by Sissy Spacek.) Occupational hazard, I’m afraid.
On the exercise bicycle: I used to listen to heart pounding music like Drowning Pool’s “When the Bodies Hit the Floor,” etc; but when I realized that I could sneak in a couple of extra minutes of an audiobook; I made the switch. I don’t listen while I’m walking the dogs (I’m with my family and that would just be rude) or when I’m hiking (bear, rattlesnake, mountain lion and drunk hunter territory and that would just be stupid.) Right now, I’m listening to Deborah Harkness’ A Discovery of Witches (narrated by Jennifer Ikeda.)
When I’m playing Angry Birds: I can’t just sit on the couch or in a chair and listen. For some reason, when I try, I enter into some sort of catatonic state and quickly find myself asleep. Worse, when I wake up, I’ve found that I’ve got a crick in some body part and/or I’ve managed to drool. I can’t explain it, but something happens to my alpha waves and I’m down and out for the count! But now, if I want to make a point of listening to something, I sit down with Angry Birds. It keeps just enough of my brain waves activated that I don’t fall asleep. I mute the nook, turn on my iPod and play! BONUS: I don’t have to listen to the pigs laugh at me when I fail to clear a level. For the ultimate of uber-meta listening, game playing experiences, Ready Player One (by Ernest Cline; narrated by Wil Wheaton.)
Audiobook Week: 2011-2012, My Audiobook Year
I’ve been listening to audiobooks for something like seventeen years now and have been working in the industry for nearly as long! Every year, there is something new that captures my attention in terms of book trends, narrating styles or changes in the industry itself; but to bring this closer to my own personal listening experience, I have to say that the thing that I’ve “discovered” this year is audio drama! Now I have listened to and worked on audio dramas in the past; but it has been only one of the many forms of audio that I listen to. This year as a part of the Armchair Audies (hosted by @lithousewife at literatehousewife.com) I decided to listen to a couple of audio dramas that were finalists in this year’s Audies Awards. The Mark of Zorro (by Johnston McCully; dramatized by Yuri Rasovsky; full cast performance) was the first finalist I listened to and it was great: really well produced and a lot of fun! I was really hooked on the form and I ended up listening to all five of the final nominees! I’m now eager to claim the same category in next year’s Armchair Audies. What was really interesting to me about the audio drama finalists, was that it held a few sub-genres in an of itself: studio productions, live staged readings, podcasts, and radio broadcasts. The things I look for in the performances are how quickly the actors get the characters up on their feet, edge-to edge energy (does the performance slag off at any point?) and how the sound effects are used. This is addition to the normal considerations of any audiobook as to being well cast and well executed.
See Also:
2010-2011, My Audiobook Year (My response to Jennifer K.’s (@devourerofbooks at Devourerofbooks.com) Audiobook Week meme last year)
If you want to know more about me you can check out these two interviews:
- The Many Hats of Tanya Perez (Behind the Scenes interview conducted by Karen White (@KarenWhiteReads at Home Cooked books) for JIAM2012 and;
- Audiobook Interview with Grover Gardner and Tanya Perez (interview conducted by Jennifer Conner (@lithousewife at literatehousewife.com) for JIAM 2011
If you want to know more about the Armchair Audies, you can check out the Armchair Audies (hosted by @lithousewife at literatehousewife.com) and the wrap-up I wrote for the audio drama category, which also contains links to the individual reviews 🙂
n.b. – Jennifer will be moving the Armchair Audies to it’s own site before the next Audies start up, so stay tuned!)
JIAM2012 Photo: 21
None of our performing services agreements, whether actual or implied, include special items on the order on Van Halen’s (in-)famous M&M clause; but there are certain things that some narrators want or need and, within reason the studio provides them. Some of these things have become a sort of ritual between the narrator and the studio staff and we are always willingly oblige for the simple fact that it makes the narrators happy and, ergo the sessions run smoother.
Some of the things that narrators have asked for have included, but are not limited to:
- the same provisos that stage actors expect including water and scheduled breaks;
- quarters (as in money) and company to the vending machines;
- airfare, hotel, meals and/or snacks, and/or car rentals for guest narrators
- transportation to/from the studio;
- that the engineer pre-read the script to help them with figuring out what an author meant, if the typo is indeed a typo, or how a certain line might be read;
- that the engineer not pre-read the script so that the narrator can read the engineer’s expression and thereby provide direct reactive feedback to the narrator’s performance;
- chat sessions about the books and alternately, limiting or cutting the chatter and getting right down to recording (that the engineer shut up and just push the buttons or do lookups upon request);
- use of an iPad, enlarged fonts on paper scripts;
- specific chairs, lamps, tables, stands and/or foot rests for the booth;
- specific studio;
- specific engineer;
- room temperature re-sets;
- pillows to combat stomach growls from being audible
I know of one engineer who prepared special snacks for his narrators: sliced apples and a selection of teas and, other engineers who have had to basically become a guest narrator’s personal assistant on and off the grounds of the studio. And, as I mentioned before, none of it is an inconvenience and we’re happy to accommodate.
That said, if you get me as an engineer, there are a couple of limitations I have and that you should know about:
- I will not join you on a smoking break.
- I cannot for the life of me make coffee. I don’t drink coffee and the mechanics of a coffee maker baffle me. Theoretically, I just need to pour water into one section of the machine and coffee magically comes out another part of the machine; but as anyone who has known me for five minutes will tell you, kitchen appliances (indeed kitchens in general) are a complete mystery to me and the results are never pretty
- If you need a ride in my car, my car has dog hair
As studio engineers we really only ask of the narrators four things:
- that you come in prepared (having done your homework) and ready to work;
- that you take care of your voice/person on a physical and emotional level;
- you not treat any of the studio staff with contempt or in a condescending manner and;
- that you tell us what you want/need 🙂