We are living in a digital world- and I am a digital girl

Photo by Obi Onyeador on Unsplash

I do hope you sang that- as I did while typing it!  I am a musical and audio person, and one of the most exciting things for me is my new(ish) embracing of audiobooks.  More than a decade ago I would occasionally listen to audiobooks on CD that I checked out from my local library, but it was rare.  Still, there were good audiobooks that hooked me- like the Harry Potter audiobooks narrated by Jim Dale, and Christopher Moore’s A Dirty Job narrated by Fisher Stevens.  However, it wasn’t until 2017 when I started working at the Prescott Public Library and was introduced to the Libby by Overdrive App that I became an audiobook-aholic. 

Libby is so easy to use, and recommending and teaching people to use Libby is my favorite, because many have never even considered audiobooks or ebooks outside of CD’s and the Kindle.  Libby can be used on any smart device- phone or tablet- and allows you to have multiple library cards, multiple hold lists, and can listen to titles on multiple devices. The App is available in the Google Play and Apple Stores and has ways to download books with WIFI or data.  It is also user-friendly and easy to learn- and certainly less difficult than accessing Overdrive online, downloading files to your computer and then uploading them to your device. 

But enough about technology, back to audiobooks. 

As a theatre person I put A LOT of emphasis into the narrators of the audiobooks I listen to- and for me, a good narrator can make or break an audiobook.  A good narrator is not just a reader, they are a performer who can transform a written character and the descriptions of their world and actions into a vivid and multi-faceted audio universe.   As mentioned by Katie Mediatore writing for Reference and User Services Quarterly (2003), “How well a narrator adopts different accents or pitches in voice to distinguish between characters is a necessary element to the audio book,” (p.319).  I have my favorites narrators who I will ALWAYS listen to and below is a sampling (in alphabetical order):

Tai Sammons- narrated books include:

If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch

Damned by Chuck Palahniuk

Doomed by Chuck Palahniuk

Fisher Stevens- narrated books include:

A Dirty Job

Secondhand Souls 

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal 

all by Christopher Moore

Julia Whelan- narrated books include:

Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala

A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro

Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Emma in the Night by Wendy Walker

A Million Junes by Emily Henry

Julia Whelan is prodigious as a narrator, and she is GOOD.  When someone is looking for a good audiobook recommendation and are not regular listeners I recommend her because she narrates a huge variety of genres from thrillers like Gone Girl and Emma in the Night to YA, Middle-grade, and Nonfiction.  Also, her pacing, tends to be conversational and draws readers in, and her diction is clear and concise- making her easily understandable and able to be followed if a reader, like me, likes to speed up their tracks.

I am still coming around to ebooks- as in, they have their time and place, but I have astigmatism, and so reading on a screen, no matter how good it is, requires glasses, tires out my eyes, and makes me inevitably cranky.  So ebook reading is reserved purely for traveling, and boredom when I am stuck without a physical book somewhere, like a waiting room at the dentist.  (Yes, exactly, terrible situations, I agree.).

But for many, the easy access and portability of ebooks is a huge selling point, and I understand that factor, and can appreciate it, even if it doesn’t work for me.  I feel that reading books is reading books, however it’s done digitally, or with physical copies, and that while libraries have to negotiate with publishers differently depending on the medium, apps like Libby by Overdrive offer a manageable way to give patrons access to digital titles simply by utilizing their library card.

References:

Mediatore, K. (2003). Reading with Your Ears: Readers' Advisory and Audio Books. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 42(4), 318-23. Retrieved from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database