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What Is Everyone Reading?


Demigod

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speaking of audiobooks. the next episode of the hitchhikers guide is now available for download/ streaming here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/index.shtml?rhppromo

They just started showing them on BBC2 agin last night, I haven't seen it in 15 years.

t's a pity for Adams he isn't around to reap all the benefits of the big upcoming movie.

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

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Music has to be read and interpreted to be performed, and my entire point here is that a performance of a book by a good actor is superior to a cold reading of text inside your own head.

Yes, my point is that the performance inside my head is superior to that of an actor reading out the words for me. Because it's a performance tailored by me, for me. And the avargae bookreader is creative enough to be able to do this also. You say that you read a book in your own voice, 'cold'. Well, that's your loss. :)

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Pure arrogance. I bet you narrating a book would be crap, so it's good job only yourself has to listen to it.

Why don't you learn to read music as well, since other musician's interpretation of music couldn't possibly be good enough for you.

You it need tailored by you for you.

I'm happy to admit there are people better at interpreting and performing music than I am, and there are people better at interpreting and performing literature than I am. Those people bring something extra to the piece of music or text that isn't inherent on the page and wasn't intended by the author.

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

character models site

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Pure arrogance. I bet you narrating a book would be crap, so it's good job only yourself has to listen to it.

Ooh, someone's angry. I thought you were thirty-three oDD, what's with this 'I don't know you but you're crap'? What next, 'my dad is stronger than yours'?

 

I'm afraid you've misunderstood me, though. This has nothing to do with narration, but how I creatively interpret the world the author has created. If I listen to a audio tape it means that someone else is interpreting parts of the author's world for me.

 

Is it arrogant of you not to want slow fall potions in Thief? No, it's the way you prefer the game to be. If I prefer Character A to be a certain way, and the actor interprets him in a different way, is it arrogant of me not to like it? Nope. I can interpret a text based on my own preferences. That is why reading is better than, say, going to a film.

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Good authors tend to describe their charcaters and locations properly and not leave much ambiguity for interpretation, and narrators read the dialogue 100% as written. The visual interpretation is still entirely yours with an audiobook.

THis is all heavily dependant on the narrator's talent of course, I've heard some actors murdering good novels, and the same goes for movies that have been made from books.

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

character models site

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Another problem with audio books is that much of what authors attempt to convey in Sci-Fi, fantasy or horror fiction lies outside the realm of what can be recreated by an actor. A perfect example is Tony Robinson's Death voice in the Discworld audio books. Death is described as having a voice like two vast sheets of ice smashing against each other (or something similar). This is impossible for Tony Robinson to mimic, and of course it's up to the reader's own creative interpretation what two vast glaciers crashing against each other sounds like, so he gives Dath a crap whispery voice. Bah.

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I prefer reading over audio books simply because it's a faster way to consume a book. Do I look like I'm made of time??!!

 

They're great for when you're driving tho, or if you're like me even when you're a passenger on a long roadtrip 'cause I'll get motion sickness if I read.

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Narrators in unabridged versions read the text word for word, they do not improvise. THey imbue the characters with extra life, and while the particular voices, accents and emotional timbre etc they use are choosen by them, I don't think that makes a significant difference to the authors intent as opposed to reading it yourself.

I'll take it a step further, then, and say why not just watch the movie? That is, instead of just the auditory elements being played out for us on tape, why not add visuals? Personally, I can derive a good deal more satisfaction from a good movie than I do a good narration or book. I get the best of all worlds: the story, the visuals and the audio.

 

Although, I must say an active imagination where you can paint the pictures and hear the text spoken in your mind can go a long way.

 

I can see everyone's viewpoint on this; it all maybe just depends on if your auditory, visual or kinesthetic.

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In most cases a good audio book is PROBSBLY ok. Of course in cases like Death from Discworld, this is different, but depending on the book this is not always required. On the other hand I tried to listen to Lord of The Rings and I couldn't really stand it. First I would have to do this exclusively because I can't really listen to the words and do something else besides, so the time factor is gone. And second I didn't find it as good as reading and imaginating it. Maybe this was just a bad example though.

Seeing a movie from a good book is usually always a waste of time, but the worst of all is to go into a funpark themed with your book. I could never understand why people would like to go to like Disney World and seeing Mickey, Harry Potter ar whoever, because this TOTALLY ruins imagination. It just looks cheap and destroys the aura that such a book can create.

Gerhard

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They're great for when you're driving tho, or if you're like me even when you're a passenger on a long roadtrip 'cause I'll get motion sickness if I read.

I do as well. I have to be able to watch where I'm going or I feel terrible. Im fine when Im driveing or in the front passenger seat but If I sit in the back or look down at the map for two long when Im navigating I feel really ill.

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There is no problem walking and reading at the same time. I still see where I'm going. I've been reading my entire life when I was walking in the streets and I never had a problem because of it.

well, try that in vienna and you'll have a nice collection of dog-poo samples on your feet when you get home. :P

 

kind regards

gleeful

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I'll take it a step further, then, and say why not just watch the movie? That is, instead of just the auditory elements being played out for us on tape, why not add visuals? Personally, I can derive a good deal more satisfaction from a good movie than I do a good narration or book. I get the best of all worlds: the story, the visuals and the audio.

Well, because movie versions of books don't often exsist, and also becasue a movie take complete creative control away from you and does everything. THis is fine if it's a great movie. For example, I thought most of the visuals and sounds in the LotR movies were fantastic and much better then I'd imagined while reading the books,. and it also makes a big difference to see them fleshed out in intricate detail, rather than the vague and fleeting ghostly images you get in your head of things while reading. I suppose some people will can see everything in perfect clarity and detail in their minds eye while reading descriptions in text, but I can't.

I can happily model while listening to a book, so it is a time saver for me over reading.

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

character models site

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I honestly like both. I do have some trouble with some of the voice actors though as they can ruin the book for me. But others like the bbc's lotr series were very good even for an abridged version.

 

While I do prefer to read. I can agree that some audio books add a new dimension to the immersion, some books can gain from a good story teller other don’t. But I cant say hearing it rather than reading it is really better or worse for me. I just prefer to read.

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I AM from Vienna. :) And I've been doing this there as well all the time. :)

 

Are you from Vienna? Where from?

hey, a fellow viennese! :)

 

i'm living in the 19th district right now (nice, green, quiet - not too much dog-poo :D ).

 

still it amazes me that you dared take your eyes off the pavement.

 

some philosopher once suggested that the viennese way of walking (head down, eyes on the pavement to scan for dog-poo) was responsible for the world-famous viennese grantigkeit (= a local sort of grouchiness).

 

where do you originally hail from?

 

kind regards

gleeful

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That's hard to say. :) I was living in the 7th district, most of the time in the 17th then a long time in the 20th and afterwards in the 10th.

 

Though I must say that the 10th was the worst. Actually when I went to the 20th I was not so happy about it, but when I had to leave I noticed that this had many advantages. 5 minutes to the Donauinsel, Schnellbahn nearby so I could get home even at 1:00 in the morning when I had no car, much green, Inlineskating devices, etc.

I wouldn't move to the 1th anymore, at least not in the part where I had my flat afterwards.

Gerhard

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So why is jordan crap anyway?

 

Is it the lack of any events in his books?

 

Is it the wandering plot line?

 

Are these things the signs of a desperate man who fears loosing his cash cow?

 

Anyway yeah I read them, but they were kind of sad.

 

Goodkind has all the same cliches that are in fantasy, but in the first books at least things happened and were resolved, IMO a book must be self contained, there is not excuse for it to ramble on and on, kind of like a sentence with no periods that seems to change topics as it meanders down the post, waffling from side to side with no clear attempt at closure, but a simple feeling of regret for things not finished... :huh:

Edited by sxotty
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The first seven Jordan wheel of time books were ok but he is very long winded and seems to have serious issues regarding women. The last what four books now just seems like filler and not that much happens of interest despite the page count. The prequel was allot better (winters heart iirc) so you never know the next book may be better.

 

 

edit: spelling

Edited by Demigod
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I agree. The first seven books are really good and containing big world. But he seems to be loosing his focus. There is no progress and you have the feeling that nothing really happens. New plotlines are opened and none are resolved, and the time a new book appears is taking longer and longer.

This makes on me the impression that he fears to loose his cash cow and his focus. Or his interest in this story.

Gerhard

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Regarding WoT: I liked the first 5 books a lot, but thought it started to go downhill at the 6th. I didn't read the latest ones yet (think last one I read was book 8, not sure), but he really seemed to start dragging the plot out. Too many divergent plotlines and no real convergence anymore. It's as if he's getting paid by the word. And he doesn't have the same gift as Tolkein for taking 50 pages to describe a culture and still making it interesting.

 

Most of those long and tedious "culture descriptions" could be summed up in about 2 sentences: "They dress differently than everyone else. Their society has strong Matriarchal tendancies. The end." ('the end.' is not a descriptive sentence :) )

 

And I can understand a wish to show things from the perspective of many different factions in the same world, but I much prefer how L. E. Modesitt's Recluce series does this with a different book telling a complete story from the perspective of an "enemy" faction to the previous book, rather than interleaving all the stories from all the factions in one book that ends up going nowhere. (Granted, all of Modesitt's protagonists seem to be pretty identical in personality)

Edited by Ishtvan
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