Friday, December 30, 2005

Audiobooks in the author's own voice

I have been an Audible.com subscriber for almost two years (with a few breaks to catch up with listening to my purchases!) I mostly listen to fiction on my devices (iPod Mini, Treo650, Palm T|X, or iPod Nano) while traveling by train, plane, or automobile.

The narrators of the audiobooks are great and keep me interested. (I especially enjoyed the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series), but I have recently purchased two items, with the authors of the books acting as the narrator, too. One of these items is Ellen Degeneres' book "The Funny Thing is...", which, being comedy, is best read by the comedian who wrote the text!

The other title, John Battelle's book "The Search: How Google & Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business & Transformed Our Culture" is narrated by Mr. Battelle. I am only through chapter two, but it is wonderful to listen to the audiobook in the author's own voice. Since only the author really knows what he/she means, their inflections and cadence make the book fun to listen to! (Of course, this title is so full of great quotes I will have to buy it in hard copy anyway to savor the text!)

If you have not yet tried the audiobook style of "reading", give it a try!

Kathy