Regarding Blandings

A previous post touched on the subject of PG Wodehouse and his Blandings castle saga.
I proclaimed that no specific reader had tied it up but didn't realise just how true this is -
BBC audio (formerly Chivers) holds the rights somehow so in their full unabridged versions we have

1. A Pelican at Blandings - Nigel Lambert 4
   
2. Blandings Castle - James Saxon
3. Galahad at Blandings - Jeremy Sinden
4. Summer Lightning - John Wells 4.5
   
5. Uncle Fred in the Springtime - Jonathan Cecil 4
   
6. Something Fresh - Peter Barker 5
   

and no doubt others.
I haven't heard the second or third but the others I report in all respects superb.
I like Something Fresh partly because it doesn't follow the formula estabilished in later Wodehouse and partly for a technically ridiculous reason. Peter Barker occasionally uses the wrong voice for dialogue, particularly in unattributed volleys. Strictly this should detract from the performance but I think it adds to the fun, particularly when a slip means he uses the male lead voice to bemoan male ignorance and has the female lead apologise.
Bonus half mark to Summer Lightning since John Wells bumps up the quality with the most perfect cast imaginable.

Thinking it over it could be an exceedingly good thing that readers differ. You do not read Wodehouse for the plots but for language. Quite apart from being juvenile in the extreme and requiring considerable suspension of disbelief the plots are all basically the same so differing timbre and style adds that extra little nudge that makes it worth reading/listening to more than one. In any case with language and performances combined these are an excellent set of audiobooks and an investment in any will be worth the listeners while.

Story time

A point of variety is when people listen to audiobooks.
Top responses are

• At the gym
• Whilst doing housework
• Whilst driving

In my case its all the above plus...
I simply answer to the general case that people are making...
Any time when the brain is partially, but far from fully occupied.
Audiobooks take up that extra fraction of brain that was otherwise getting bored. They are more stimulating than radio (at least most radio) but are less demanding than TV (both physically and mentally).
I don't listen when I'm composing words but otherwise audiobook-on is my default.

Regarding Memoirs

OK...inaccurate...more on this today
The point of the debate on first person narratives is Memoirs of a Geisha.
I downloaded this from Audible a few months ago and really liked it. For those few in this world that haven't read or listened to it the book is the story of a girl growing up as a geisha in Japan in the thirties and the war. Though it is fiction it has the ring of absolute authenticity but can include a plot that doesn't drag.
In other circumstances this would be positively the worse audiobook I've ever heard. The narrator sounds as though she had never heard of the English language until yesterday and had then decided to model her accent on a Speak-your-weight machine. Secondary characters are done in the style of a person who not only cannot act but cannot do impressions either. Nethertheless it works and I have a theory why...

The book has a preface saying something along the lines of

these memoirs were dictated to me by Nitta Sayuri as she sits in her chair drinking Japanese tea and a-yada-yada-yada

The book is set up as a story telling session.
It is set up to be two people sitting in a cosy room with one dictating in stilted English the story of her life to the other.
Additional voices would extend the audiobook beyond the realm of storytelling.
Now I was told that the film was terrible. Could this be the reason why?

First person narratives

Now... as example the following books...

• Jane Eyre
• PG Wodehouse's Jeeves series
• The Time travellers wife
• Memoirs of a Geisha
• Catcher in the rye
• The Eyre Affair
  

...these are all first person narratives.
Secondary characters strictly all speak through the main character.
Here's the question: Should they sound like it?
Now if you were making a movie of one of these books it would be more than a single character sitting in a room talking to the camera so my initial impulse was 'Hell No!'
A little reflection has tempered that to 'Largely No!' Audiobooks are a medium in their own right and have their own artistic code.
More on this tomorrow but for now ta-ta

Ok...
As I was saying yesterday before accidentally and quite rudely interrupting myself and swinging off on a tangent the current webscape regarding audiobooks is limited, at least if one compares it to its juvenile spin-off the podcast.

Interesting point here is what differentiates an audiobook from a podcast?
Definition wise perhaps it is merely that podcasts merely don't stick to a script but if we face facts the difference exists in the same fashion that differences exist between high opera and four kids thrashing out a Sex Pistols medley in their Dad's garage.

Its actually quite a pleasing analogy
On the one hand you have opera: based in control and vocal technic, establishment, requires skills and training practically from birth
Garage bands: passionate, fast paced, potentially excruciating

Well perhaps professional readers don't work to quite the same level of training as opera singers
and, of what I have heard, the podcasts with an audiobook bend ain't that bad but still the distinction is there.

Categories of sites

We return today to the other, limited, sites dedicated to audiobooks out on the web.
Actually screw it, we do that tomorrow.
Today lets do a bit of considering.
If this blog is going to cover matters not strictly limited to my specific collection of 30 or so audiobooks I guess we are gonna have to clarify matters a little.
There's a lot of spoken word content out there on the net and it ain't really sensible to compare some of them...

Just an opinion friends but lets do this by site type giving a couple of examples of each (though I'm afraid I've picked UK sites when they aren't international)

Category One: Hardcopy
Isis or BBC Audio (cunning disguise that one)

Category Two: Download
Audible or Simply

Category Three: Copyright-free classics
Notably Librivox but also, as aforementioned Project Gutenberg

Category Four: Modern freebies
I expect there are others but Podiobooks initiated this ramble. This site permits authors the opportunity to extend their audience by doing an audio version of their work.

Category Five: Radio on the net:
Radio Four and BBC 7 spring immediately to mind.

No doubt more to follow.

Audio Book Review - The Eyre Affair

I'm getting into a habit of being really harsh on people who have done pretty well nothing to deserve it. First Project Gutenberg, then AudioBooksForFree.com and now Gabrielle Kruger who reads



The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde
Read - Gabrielle Kruger
11 hrs 20 mins





The fact is I love this book and her narration didn't work for me at all. Actually that isn't entirely true... predominantly the book is a first person narration and her voice for the primary character was full of personality without being irritating. Secondary characters, however, pretty well sounded alike.

Book: 5
Primary voice: 4
Secondary voices: 1
Atmosphere: 3

Overall: 3/5

Its possible, I suppose, that this is a gender thing. As a guy am I more likely to pick up on bad male voices? Alternatively how are you supposed to do the male voices in a first person narration by a woman? I don't know but I do know that The Eyre Affair on audio didn't live up to the book.

Such is life.