The Audio Books

[Reeve]

I lurk here mostly, so I may be covering something that has already been done...

 

I have been reading the series since the first book, and absolutely love it - to the point where almost any other fantasy book just seems lame. Except for Stephen Donaldson, but thats another subject. Anyway, I read fast because I read a lot, and each WoT book usually takes me a few days to read.

Anyway, I moved from the UK to the USA recently, and learned to drive (I am 37) and found I had long journeys in the car often over 6 hours, so thought I would try listening to the audio books as something to do.

 

I am amazed by how much I seem to miss when I read as opposed to when I listen. I think maybe that because I read fast, I dont digest everything as well as I could. I was wondering if anyone else has found the same thing? For example, I read all of ToM waiting for the Tower of Gengi bit, and when it came, I felt it was over in a heartbeat.

Here are just a few of the things I didn't notice reading but noticed when listening:-

 

Perrin worrying about the ache in his leg that should have been healed after Matt goes through the gateway

The mist / light thing when they first get in the tower

Noal going out and back in again

The descriptions of the tower

 

All these are small things, but there were so many of them and they really changed the way I felt about the scenes. Plus stuff I found kinda boring - like Aviendhas trip to Ruidean - was much more interesting when I listened to it.

 

I am now thinking about listening to all the audiobooks from the start because I am wondering how much other stuff I missed! Anyone else have the same experience? And...is it the same narraters for the whole series?

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

i've had exactly that experience. i never realized how much skimming i did when i read before i started listening to audio. whole huge chunks of detail i never perceived. i miss things while i'm driving, too, because of, well, driving, so i re-listen now and then. it takes me more than a year to get through the books this way, so i might try a listen-through at home, and get it done faster, without breaking up my attention so much.

 

i do find not being able to skip things a two-edged sword at times, because words and phrases that i would otherwise ignore, especially repeated ones, really can get annoying and cringey.

[dholm]

The narrators stay they same throughout the series, which is very good. (They also fix small pronunciation errors in the latter books.)

 

My recent "reread" was audiobooks throughout (except for Towers of Midnight). I would listen to the books while doing repetitive tasks on my computer (such as Mining while playing World of Warcraft).

[Miseo]

I really enjoyed the audio books. I think both readers, especially Michael Kramer, do a great job of bringing the story to life, giving each character their own voice, and not just simply reading the story. I haven't actually read any of the books, only listened to the audio books. I'm sure your right and by reading fast you'll probably miss stuff, and the slower pace of the audio books can help you catch more then the first time through. I found to have a similar problem in reverse. I mostly listened while driving, but I would also listen to it while playing a video games on mute, cutting the grass, any excuse to have my ipod on. I found myself either daydreaming at times, for one reason or another, and then the next thing I realize there is a battle going on, and I have no idea how it started. So I am actually going back and reading them through in the hopes of catching stuff that I missed while listening through them the first time.

[Ananta]

Audio books are too expensive for me :( And I never thought about 'reading books' by listening to them xD I actually thought that not many use them, but since I started going to these forums I noticed that quite a many do.

 

I guess they could be rather convenient, especially since I'm in the army at the moment, I don't have much time for reading, but I do have time to listen to things with headphones.

 

Also, since I'm not native english speaker, they could be really good practise for spoken english, which I'm not too good at.

 

 

 

If only they weren't so expensive... D:

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

i don't know if you have any kind of library access where you are, but libraries can order whatever audiobook you want to borrow.

 

i get mine used from amazon, not so expensive that way. and if you get cassettes, they're really cheap.

 

i think there's something people do with the kindle that lets them download audiobooks as well as e-books, but i'm not sure how, or if these are among the available books.

[Ananta]

i don't know if you have any kind of library access where you are, but libraries can order whatever audiobook you want to borrow.

 

i get mine used from amazon, not so expensive that way. and if you get cassettes, they're really cheap.

 

i think there's something people do with the kindle that lets them download audiobooks as well as e-books, but i'm not sure how, or if these are among the available books.

 

I do, but I don't think it's possible to ask them to order whatever audiobook I wish to borrow... And since I would like it in English, I just migh be the only person in the whole city who would ever use it xD (A rather small 'city' I live in, only about 16 000 people live here. And Wheel of Time really ain't big thing in Finland. Neither is Fantasy in general.)

[Miseo]

I downloaded all of mine at http://www.audible.com/ I had to sign up for a membership, but the first 2 downloads are free, and for paying $15 a month I got 1 free download each month. So instead of paying $45ish for each of them, I would simply apply the credits towards each one and it was like each book was only $15 bucks and the membership was free. I hope that all makes sense.

[Sid]

Wait, Avi in Rhuidean was boring the first time?

 

As for getting the audiobooks, Miseo's method is probably the cheapest way to purchase them. I know my local library only has immediate access (as in their local system of libraries) to less than half the books in the series, and they're almost always checked out with a waiting list. Very hit and miss for availability.

 

I do enjoy the audiobooks, and often glean extra information from listening to them on top of enjoying both the readers' talents and the ability to do other stuff while they're playing.

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

have you asked your librarian if she can order something for you, Sid? i've done this in quite a few libraries, and they have all been willing to order me anything in the catalogues. sometimes i have to wait a couple of weeks, but for free it's worth it.

 

but the audible thing does sound like the best idea.

[Mandro]

I lurk here mostly, so I may be covering something that has already been done...

 

I have been reading the series since the first book, and absolutely love it - to the point where almost any other fantasy book just seems lame. Except for Stephen Donaldson, but thats another subject. Anyway, I read fast because I read a lot, and each WoT book usually takes me a few days to read.

Anyway, I moved from the UK to the USA recently, and learned to drive (I am 37) and found I had long journeys in the car often over 6 hours, so thought I would try listening to the audio books as something to do.

 

I am amazed by how much I seem to miss when I read as opposed to when I listen. I think maybe that because I read fast, I dont digest everything as well as I could. I was wondering if anyone else has found the same thing? For example, I read all of ToM waiting for the Tower of Gengi bit, and when it came, I felt it was over in a heartbeat.

Here are just a few of the things I didn't notice reading but noticed when listening:-

 

Perrin worrying about the ache in his leg that should have been healed after Matt goes through the gateway

The mist / light thing when they first get in the tower

Noal going out and back in again

The descriptions of the tower

 

All these are small things, but there were so many of them and they really changed the way I felt about the scenes. Plus stuff I found kinda boring - like Aviendhas trip to Ruidean - was much more interesting when I listened to it.

 

I am now thinking about listening to all the audiobooks from the start because I am wondering how much other stuff I missed! Anyone else have the same experience? And...is it the same narraters for the whole series?

 

I think that it is less at the speed at which you read, or a reduced level of comprehension. I'm pretty sure that the voice actors in the audio books get some sort of direction, which helps with the performance. Part of that direct is likely pointing out which portions of the performance have special meaning, so they actors deliver a more poignant performance at those area of the books, rather than leaving it to the reader to puzzle out on their own.

[Mandro]

have you asked your librarian if she can order something for you, Sid? i've done this in quite a few libraries, and they have all been willing to order me anything in the catalogues. sometimes i have to wait a couple of weeks, but for free it's worth it.

 

but the audible thing does sound like the best idea.

 

every library in my state is a part of a sharing deal, so if any library has the book, the audiobook or even the movie, then you can check it out. I sorta cheat, I check out the audiobooks, I don't get them in order, but I rip them, then I listen to them when I have all of them stored. Took me about a year to get the series, still waiting on ToM.

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

that's naughty, but it is a very expensive series. . .

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

(btw, don't try this with some of the sorta newer audiobooks, like the graveyard book, or lion among men, cause they have some kind of protection that scrambles the original when you try to copy it - of course, those books are quite inexpensive enough not to need to copy, anyway. . . they might be onto something with that.)

[csarmi]

Isn't that illegal? Ripping the book off the library?

Cause there are MUCH better illegal solutions, if it comes to that.

[Mandro]

TECHNICALLY! just consider it an extended checkout with more convenience for both.

 

I'm not suggesting it, I'm just saying it's what I did.

 

There is an open source lawyer guy who used to blog who said that as long as the point of "purchase" was considered legal, then any trnasformative exchange (putting on a cassette tape, ripping into drives) is technically legal.

 

It's why you do it through the libraries, because the point of "purchase" is legal, while the transformative exchange might not be, TECHNICALLY.

 

I think the argument is that it isn't the possession it's the distribution that makes it Actually illegal, rather than technically.

 

[i'm remembering old conversations when I talked with an old bud about an old thing about intellectual property.]

[Sid]

have you asked your librarian if she can order something for you, Sid? i've done this in quite a few libraries, and they have all been willing to order me anything in the catalogues. sometimes i have to wait a couple of weeks, but for free it's worth it.

 

but the audible thing does sound like the best idea.

 

Yep, I did ask, and like I said, some were unavailable and the rest had long waiting times. It's no big deal now, since I have them all. I do remember back in the day when they were books on tape, and all I could get my hands on were abridged versions... which is just completely unacceptable