Me And Audiobooks!

 Do you consider listening to an audiobook to be reading? I do, though I rarely listen to a book I haven’t read first. The reason for that is because I mostly listen to them in bed, where I am likely to fall asleep. It doesn’t matter as much if I know the story. A lot of people listen to them in the car or while doing housework. I sometimes listen to them while I’m doing housework or over dinner.

Also, I like to enjoy them as a performance. Quite often, the audiobook is read by a well known actor, such as Stephen Fry, who read the Harry Potter books. Nigel Planer, whom you might know from The Young Ones or Hogfather, is hilarious reading Terry Pratchett’s novels. I personally like Tony Robinson best for Terry Pratchett’s books, but he reads the abridged versions.

Kerry Greenwood’s novels are beautifully read by Stephanie Daniel(Phryne Fisher) and Louise Siverson(Corinna Chapman). 

I bought one of Joanne Harris’s Loki novels, Gospel Of Loki, read by the delightfully funny Allan Corduner, who absolutely sounds to me like Loki would.

But although I have about fifty audiobooks of my own, I borrow quite a few from my local library by download. Currently I’m listening to Kerry Greenwood’s Death Before Wicket, the novel in which Phryne Fisher visits Sydney. My local library has quite a few Kerry Greenwood audiobooks.

In recent months, I have discovered that a lot of audiobooks are available on YouTube. I don’t recommend most of the Harry Potter books, which are not read by well known actors - in fact, they sound like they are not read by real human beings. But most others are the ones I have mentioned before - Terry Pratchett’s books read by the likes of Nigel Planer, and I have just discovered that the Kerry Greenwood mysteries are available, read by Stephanie Daniel and Louise Siverson. Which is great, because the ones from my library are mostly out on loan.

Quite often, when a book is out of print, you can still get them in audiobook. Barbara Hambly’s Bride Of The Rat God is no longer in print, though the reworked versions, Silver Screen Mysteries, are easy to get, and Amazon often sells them cheaply in audiobook.  Bride Of The Rat God is beautifully read by Marguerite Gavin. I hadn’t heard of her before I bought the audiobook, but love her now.

If you haven’t bought any audiobooks, why not check them out on YouTube first? They are free and you can listen to them any time. Or listen to them from your library.

What do you think? Are you a fan?