Thursday, January 19, 2006

The audiobook problem

Andrew Adam Newman has an interesting piece in the times, How Should a Book Sound? And What About Footnotes?:

Early in 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time' is the passage: 'When I first met Siobhan, she showed me this picture,' under which is the inverted-smiley face, and below that the text, 'and I knew that it meant 'sad,' which is what I felt when I found the dead dog.' In Recorded Books' version, the narrator, Jeff Woodman, reads, 'when I first met Siobhan, she drew a picture of a face, and I knew that it was a sad face. Sad is what I felt when I found the dead dog.'

I don't think I've ever listened to an audiobook in my life. I am too impatient, I could never stand being read aloud to even when I was a little kid. However (this is a bad character trait, I think) I enjoy reading aloud to other people, there's an element of acting/imposing your interpretation that is extremely satisfying.

No comments:

Post a Comment