All Books Aloud

What makes a good audiobook narrator?

• Elizabeth Brookbank & Martha Brookbank • Season 1 • Episode 4

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What makes a good audiobook narrator? Is it enough to have a good voice? To be a good reader? A good actor? Something else? What about on the side of the reader? There are certainly things that make the experience of listening to an audiobook narrator better or worse for people. But are some of these things objective and common to everyone? Or is this a totally subjective preference? Join us as we dive into this topic!

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Books we're reading in this episode: 
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey
Happy Place by Emily Henry
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Crescent City series by Sarah J. Maas
It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey
Blame It On The Brontes by Annie Sereno
Adam Bede by George Eliot
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Sources:  

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Intro and outro music: "The Chase," by Aves.

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Read on!

[All Books Aloud intro and theme music]

Liz: Hi Martha. How are you?

Martha: I'm good. How are you?

Liz: I'm doing great.

Martha: Your background looks familiar 

Liz: Yes. I'm visiting you this time, so we get to do another rare. In person, except we're still in separate rooms because of our podcasting equipment. Yeah, this'll be fun. Tell me about what you're reading right now.

Martha: Well, since we recorded last, I [00:01:00] finished Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld, and I loved it. It was great. I also finished Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey, so that's the second book in the Bellinger Sisters series.

I don't know if you can really call this series if there's only two books, but it's the second book and I just started Happy Place by Emily Henry. It came down to that and Fourth Wing on my TBR, which one I wanted to start and I went with Emily Henry. So that's what I'm reading. Oh, and I'm listening to the second book of the Crescent City series by Sarah J Maas.

I finished the first book and I'm on the second book. What are you reading? 

Liz: As usual, you have a lot going at once. I have a couple going at once, so I actually just finished, It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey on your recommendation and loved it, which was a little bit of a surprise to me [00:02:00] because it's actually more of a conventional romance than I usually gravitate towards, in the sense that you get both point of views and the main narrative is , will they get together or won't they?

 But I think it's a great example of what we, we talked about in the genre episode where the genres just cross all over each other because there also is a great character growth arc for both of the main characters. So I really enjoyed that one. And I just, a couple days ago started Blame It On The Brontes by Annie Sereno or Sereno, I'm not quite sure how to say her last name. Sorry about that. And I am about 50, 70 pages in. So I'm just at the point where I would stop reading if I was gonna, if I was gonna stop reading.

And I've been a little on the fence. But I think I'm gonna keep going with it because I really want to know what happens. So I think that's a good sign that I should keep going. And I am listening to on audiobook, Adam Bede by George Eliot, in [00:03:00] my continuing quest to get acquainted with George Eliot, in a way that I never was able to as an undergrad and really enjoying it.

And actually, we'll talk about that more in this episode because, our topic is what makes a good audiobook narrator, and it's one of the examples that I want to talk about, but you have more info about this than I do being the audiobook sort of power user that you are.

And you did some research into what it takes to be an audiobook narrator, right? So why don't we start out with you just telling me what you learned.

Martha: Yeah. So in my very people-centric career as a real estate agent. Sometimes I'll fantasize about, 'oh, what could I do for my introverted heart that as a career that would feel more aligned with who I am as a person,' right? And so one of my fantasies is to be an audiobook narrator because I [00:04:00] love listening to audio books. I love reading books and I like many other people I'm sure had the thought of how wonderful it would be to stay home and read books all day as your job. So I did, I took the first step to do a little research into what it takes and quickly realized that I don't know if I have the chops for it. Like I said, I'm definitely not the first one who's had this thought, I'm sure, and Audible actually has a blog post about it called How to Become an Audiobook Narrator. They say "many people want to become an audiobook narrator because they love books and audiobooks and they like reading aloud.

Others are inspired to follow this path because they're told they have a unique talent and great voice for narration. While those are both great starting points, it takes a lot more than a pleasant voice and a love of audiobooks to become a successful audiobook narrator." They actually look for a background in acting and an ability to differentiate voices, [00:05:00] accents, and dialects, as well as pretty good stamina because you need really great breath control and stamina because you're doing it for many hours a day and you'll like this one, Liz, good research skills.

Liz: Oh, that's kind of surprising.

The actor part, I'm not surprised to hear and. I've talked before on the podcast about how my husband reads aloud to me sometimes and we're reading Lord of the Rings and he's been trained as an actor. Now that I'm hearing you say that, that actually makes sense about why he's so good at reading aloud, because

Martha: Mm-hmm.

Liz: he just reads aloud in a way that when I read aloud it's not like that. I don't read like that. You know? Even though I would say that I'm a good reader. So that makes a lot of sense. 

Martha: Yeah, there's definitely a difference between just reading and acting and embodying the different characters, and that's really what, an outfit like Audible is [00:06:00] looking for, they want you to be able to differentiate between the characters and it is an acting gig. I was not a theater kid.

I don't have a background in acting at all. I guess I shouldn't discount myself because I'm sure if I did some classes, you know, maybe, maybe I could do it. It's yet to be determined. But there's definitely a lot to it. And then, Differentiating between voices, accents, and dialects.

Liz: Well, yeah, because I think that, being an actor is helpful in doing it, but it doesn't necessarily mean you'll be great at it at all, or that you'll be great for every book. Right? Which is something that you found, we've talked about 

Martha: Mm-hmm. 

Liz: Some books that were read by actors that you actually thought that they weren't the best narrator for it, right?

 It's not just like that's the answer. You have to be an actor. There's more to it than that.

Martha: Oh, there's definitely more to it than that. And the best example I can think of off the top of my head is,[00:07:00] I talked about this before, how I listened to Anna Karenina rather than reading it because I felt like there was no way I was gonna sit down and read Anna Karenina. I just doubted that I could do it, in paper book form.

So I listened to it on Audible and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Who I love is the narrator. I think we both share our love of Maggie Gyllenhaal. She's a great actress. I actually love her voice too. It's so unique. But the problem I had with it is that she didn't really differentiate between the characters as much as I preferred. It was sort of like you described she's a great reader. If she was my mom reading me a bedtime story, I would love it. You know what I mean? But from the point of view of listening to an audiobook where you really, especially for that kind of book where you kind of need that depth of character to differentiate and break it up because it is so [00:08:00] heavy, I feel like it could have really. Lightened the experience and made it easier to listen to for an extended amount of time. I think it took me a little longer to get through it than other 30 hour books,

Liz: and there are a lot of different characters. Right. I haven't read Anna Karenina as I confessed in an earlier episode, but

Martha: Yeah.

Liz: yeah, you need the narrator to be able , to differentiate between the characters, to keep them straight in your head.

Martha: Yeah, and, I don't wanna say she didn't change her inflection or her tone at all, but it just wasn't to the same degree as someone like a Jim Dale in Harry Potter.

And Jim is also an actor. But just a very different style.

Liz: And you said that you loved Jim Dale's narration of the Harry Potter books. 

Martha: Yeah. That's my favorite way to consume Harry Potter by far.

Liz: And I feel like I wanna talk more about his narration of Harry Potter, but I feel like we should maybe just do a little [00:09:00] bit of a disclaimer for people who are like really in the book world, to understand that we are also aware of the controversy that surrounds JK Rowling at this point, and actually have a lot to say about it and a lot of thoughts about it.

But that's not the topic of this episode. Right. But I just wanna put out there that like we are aware of that and we actually are planning on doing an episode where we talk about. Separating the art from the artist and, whether you can, and just our thoughts about that whole issue.

 And also, it plays into a lot the fact that. Like you said, that's your favorite way to, take in Harry Potter and so much of that experience for you at this point is the narration, right?

Is Jim Dale, and I know that you have watched videos of him talking about his narration right? 

Martha: Mm-hmm. Yeah, he's so great. And if you haven't listened to Jim Dale's version of Harry Potter yet, I highly suggest it. In my mind a better [00:10:00] experience than the movies because you get all of the detail from the books, but you get the characters as well. And he does all of the voices and he just does such a good job.

 Hermione has her own voice, Ron has his own voice, and they're different than Harry's and different than McGonagall's and Snape's, and it's just really amazing how he does it. And it's not in a way where it's overly cartoony, you know, like a man trying to do a woman or a woman trying to do a man.

And you could tell it's a stretch for them, you know? I'm sure we've all listened to books like that where the narrator is, not as adept at doing it as Jim Dale, but he's really fantastic and he even did an interview, where he talked about Doby's voice and how he met a man in an elevator who just had this, this voice and it stuck with him.

And when he read Doby's character, he was like, oh, I have a voice for this character. I know exactly what I'm gonna do. Yeah. Which I just thought was so cool. And just [00:11:00] something so unique and a little bit rare, but. Audible definitely looks for those characteristics as I learned in my research.

Liz: Yeah. It is really interesting to think about because now as I'm thinking about. The books that I've listened to, it is a fine line between, like you said, differentiating enough, which, your example of Maggie Gyllenhaal's narration, like didn't quite differentiate enough, but then not going over the top, because that will also take you out of the story, right? And so the example that I mentioned earlier, the book that I'm listening to on Audible, right now or on audio book, but it is also on Audible, Adam Bede by George Elliot is read by a narrator named Nadia May. And not only does she do the different voices, but the different characters in Adam Bede, have very different accents. If you [00:12:00] know anything about British accents, and especially in the 19th century, there's just a slew of them. There are so many different, very subtly different British accents that as Americans we, might not be able to necessarily pick apart, but are definitely their own distinct accents and dialects and authors in the 19th century.

Were much more likely to write in dialect, but that can be really difficult to read, which is part of the reason that contemporary authors don't usually do it anymore for a host of reasons 

Martha: Mm-hmm. 

Liz: But that being one of them that it's hard to read. If you're not familiar with the dialect, it's hard to understand what a character's saying if it's written in dialect.

So Adam Bede has a lot of dialect and characters from different classes in different parts of the country that have different accents. And if I were reading that on paper 

Martha: Mm-hmm. 

Liz: I wouldn't get all of that. You know, even having gone to England and being familiar with England as I am, I wouldn't even come close to being able, in my mind to recreate all of those different [00:13:00] accents and understanding the dialect.

But the audiobook narrator is great. Not only does she do the different voices, but she know like she is very adept at doing the different accents. She speaks in the dialect, so I can understand what they're saying, but I also hear that dialect. And it's great and it's just 

Martha: Mm-hmm. 

Liz: it a completely different experience from when I was an undergrad and tried to read that book and gave up on it because I was just like, I can't read this in paper.

Right? Which is why the different formats reading in the different formats is so great. 

Martha: Yeah, absolutely. And the same goes for some fantasy books, where the author is creating their own. Words from, made up languages or their own dialects from different made up cultures. It's a lot easier sometimes to, or maybe not easier, but just a different experience to have the narrator who potentially has been vetted by the author, and I'm pretty sure that the author listens to parts of the book [00:14:00] before they okay it many times.

 So, I assume when I'm listening to an audio book, That the narrator is pronouncing the names and everything, right, which can be a little questionable when you're reading something like a fantasy, and it's not always obvious from the spelling what the pronunciation is.

So I appreciate that too. A lot of times when I'm reading those sorts of books, and also going back to what you're talking about with dialect and that sort of thing, this is where some of those researching skills can come in if they're not necessarily a native speaker to that dialect it helps to do a little bit of research into the history, the story, the area. My thoughts are swirling. There's so many things I wanted to touch on after you were talking. If someone who wasn't British read Harry Potter, It would be a totally different feel and it wouldn't be as good, in my opinion, you know, because the characters are all British, right?

They're talking about treacle tart and things that [00:15:00] Americans don't even know what they're talking about. There's a whole, genre of TikToks and Instagram reels and stuff about Americans who thought that they were saying one thing in Harry Potter, but they were really saying something else, you know?

So it just wouldn't feel as authentic if someone like me were to go into the studio and try and read Harry Potter and it wasn't Jim Dale or someone like Jim Dale.

Liz: Yeah, absolutely. And we've all had the experience of, I'm sure it's not just me reading a book to ourselves on paper and thinking that a word is pronounced a certain way or thinking that we understand what something is. And then, you know, decades later, hearing someone say that word and being like "oh." 

Martha: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 

Liz: or, you know, used, pronounce it the wrong way, which is why you should always, when people pronounce words like that, you should always just assume it's 'cause they're a big reader as a kid and 

Martha: Yeah. 

Liz: learn the word and always be kind.

But, you know, you make a good point [00:16:00] that with fantasy worlds that don't actually exist and stuff, the only way that you can know for sure is, is yeah. If you have the author vetting the way that it's pronounced or the way that the accent is, And also I remember that you've said before that you really enjoy it sometimes when the author is actually the narrator of the book, because then you know for sure that they're reading it in the tone of voice and with the inflection that they meant it in.

Right. I think a great example of that is Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic, which we both have 

Martha: Mm-hmm. 

Liz: listened to on audiobook and I've also read on paper. But I enjoyed listening to it much more because I got her voice in my ear with like her inflections and her. Intonations and the emphasis on certain things that made me understand what her point was better than reading it on paper I think 

Martha: definitely. That's a great example of that. And there's others I'm sure. 

Liz: The other thing that I was thinking of when you were just talking, that's really funny. And is a totally [00:17:00] subjective thing, which we've talked about, in the past that so much about reading is subjective, right?

There's some objective things that we've been talking about, but also a lot of it is subjective, which is that I have a bias for British accents. So when you were just talking about, when you were just talking about how weird it would be to have Harry Potter, read by American, that's a great obvious example because those characters are British.

But I even find that. A book that is just read by a person with a British accent, I am more likely to enjoy it. And that is totally my own personal thing, I'm an anglophile. I, I also think that Americans , in my experience, have some internalized self-consciousness or something about, British people, and that we just subconsciously think that people who have British accents are sophisticated and are better

Martha: than Yeah. better than us 

Liz: look up to them in a, in a weird way. And so that might be part of it. But I have found that the audiobooks that I've had to [00:18:00] stop because I didn't like the narrator are by far more commonly American accents than British accents. So that just says something about 

Martha: Yeah. 

Liz: me. I don't think that says anything objective about this conversation, but just to say that, you know, there are parts of this that are objective, like differentiating the voices and doing the right accent, and everything.

But then there also are parts of it that are just completely subjective. 

Martha: Yeah you just might not like it. Yeah. You just might not like a narrator, and it's not because they're bad necessarily, you just don't like them.

Liz: But I do think that there are some things that we haven't totally talked out that are objective about what makes a good narrator. And when you were talking about research, that also made me think about, times that I haven't enjoyed a narrator in an audio book. A lot of times for me it has to do with what seems to be.

To me, I mean, obviously I don't know what's going on in the head of the [00:19:00] narrator when they're deciding how to do the voice, but to me it seems to be a misunderstanding or just ignoring the point of view of the book. The way that the author wrote the point of view 

Martha: Hmm. 

Liz: With a first person point of view, for instance. That whole book would be in that character's voice, right? Because you're saying, I you're talking from that character's in that character's voice the entire time. Where it gets more complicated is when you have a third person point of view that is close.

So that is called third person limited often, and contemporary books are, that is of the most common, I would say narration is third person limited and that the narration is very close. By which I mean, and the book industry means you see the whole world of the book through the eyes of that one person.

So the way that they view the world is all a part of their character development. Even when it's not. [00:20:00] The specific words that they say out loud or even the specific thoughts that they have in their head, just the way that they look at the world is through their point of view.

That's third person limited. And one of the earliest examples of that is Jane Austen, she's sort of the mother of what they call free indirect discourse, which is, her famous line of the first line of Pride and Prejudice, which is, it's universally acknowledged that a single man in, possession of a fortune, must be in want of a wife.

No one is saying that that's not dialogue, but we know as we go through and read the book that that is Elizabeth Bennett's mother's voice filtered through her point of view, because it has that sort of like sarcastic knowing, tongue in cheek tone that Lizzie Bennett has. But also the sort of reality of the fact that that is the world that she's existing in and the reality that she has to deal with.

So that line is just put out there as narration, as exposition, but it actually is in [00:21:00] the 

Martha: Mm-hmm. 

Liz: character's point of view. And so that was a long explanation of point of view. But I think it's important because. What happens to me is that when I have an audiobook narrator that reads the exposition, that free and direct discourse or whatever else it is, that's the exposition of the book when it's not dialogue, when it's not specific thoughts in someone's head.

 A lot of times you'll have a narrator that reads that in sort of a narrator voice. And then they'll read the point of view character's thoughts or dialogue in a different voice 

Martha: Yeah. Yeah. 

Liz: And that just takes me out of the story completely because I'm like, if this is supposed to be third point of view limited, then I need to be hearing the whole world through that main point of view, character's voice, or else it doesn't work for me. 

Martha: Hmm. That's interesting.

It Does 

Liz: mean, that's like kind of in depth 

Martha: Yeah. No, it makes sense. And now that you explained it, using, Pride and Prejudice as an example, my head immediately went to the BBC [00:22:00] version , thinking of the opening scene where Lizzie is saying that line and she's just saying it in her normal voice, she's not changing it.

 You don't need to. Right. But I do think that that's something that most readers wouldn't really pick up on. They might not like it, but they probably wouldn't know why. You know? And I think part of that is probably your expertise in this area.

Liz: it's kind of you to say it that way. I was gonna say, not everyone is as big of a dork, as I'm not as huge of a dork 

Martha: No, but you know, it's 

Liz: yes, my expertise 

Martha: it's like when you know how the sausage is made, you're, you're just more aware. Of, what's going on. And, and so you could probably pinpoint why you don't like that. Whereas someone like me, I might listen to that book and be like, oh, I don't know. I just didn't love it.

Maybe that was why, and I just didn't even realize it.

Liz: Yeah, maybe not. And it's not like every book has to be that way 

Martha: Yeah. 

Liz: right? , the example that I have in my head of a book that was that way is this book that [00:23:00] is supposed to be a great book called, Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Sutanto. Where there was this narrator voice that I felt like didn't fit because the whole book is through the point of view of Vera 

Martha: Mm-hmm. 

Liz: And so I wanted her voice to be that voice. Whereas, The Heart's Invisible Furies, which I listened to recently by John Boyne and was narrated by Steven or Stefan Hogan 

Martha: And he's so good. So good. 

Liz: Oh, I know you 

Martha: good. I love it. 

Liz: He did such a good job of not only differentiating the character's, different voices and accents like we were just talking about, right?

 There's a character that's from Amsterdam and he does that accent. Great. And then the main character, Cyril is Irish, and he does his character, his accent. Great. And also the different Irish accents. He does really well, getting back to what I was talking about before with the different dialects.

But all that being said, Cyril's voice is the main voice. He's the [00:24:00] point of view character. Everything that we get, all the exposition of that book is through Cyril's point of view. And that's really important because especially for some of the twists in that book, like you have to be deep in Cyril's point of view.

You have to see the world the way that he sees it, the way that he's making sense of his life and the people around him. You need to be in that with him 

Martha: Mm-hmm. 

Liz: And so that I think is such a great example of when that's done well 

Martha: Mm-hmm. 

Liz: whereas. Adam Bede is, that's not the narration. It's an omniscient third person narrator, and you get in the head of several different characters in that book. Adam Bede is the main character, but George Elliot is a great example of that. Sort of, again, this was more common in the 19th century. 19th century, omniscient narrator where there's a lot of head hopping. We call it. Today, and it's something that authors are warned against doing too much of now because it's just not in fashion anymore.

But in the 19th century it really was. And so when I'm reading, when I'm listening to Adam Bede and the narrator is in the head of lots of different [00:25:00] people, and her voice doesn't change, that doesn't bother me because that's the way the book is written. So it's not just like, I need that all the time, but it has to fit with what the narration is of that book and that maybe that's where 

Martha: Yeah. I was gonna say, I think this goes back to the research portion. Knowing when it's appropriate to, Change your voice or when you're in that certain point of view and you need to keep it consistent. And so it just illustrates further, there's a lot more to being a good narrator than just having a good voice and reading books aloud.

 You really have to be savvy and know what's going on. And being an avid reader is a big part of that. And understanding the different points of view and that's all part of that research element.

Liz: Yeah, that makes sense.

Martha: So going back to traits of a narrator that are more subjective than objective. Something I kind of wanted to mention in this episode is typecasting.

Liz: [00:26:00] Hmm.

Martha: and I don't mean type casting by the industry necessarily, I'm doing the type casting of these narrators.

So the best example I can think of is I listened to an erotica book that was recommended to me by my friend who's into that. And I'm not really into. That kind of romance necessarily. But she said she loved this book and she wanted me to read it, and I have an open mind, so I listened to it. And that narrator was really good for that book, for that genre. She did a really good job. She had, you know, the sensual thing down and I associate her voice with that erotica genre. So when I went to pick out another audio book that I wanted to listen to, and it was her, and it was a different genre, it was just so weird.

I just couldn't separate her. Voice from the erotica [00:27:00] genre type book that I had listened to her as first, and I think if I had maybe started with the other genre that she narrated, maybe I wouldn't have had that same reaction. But for whatever reason it was just so strange to me that it kind of turned me off of the, the other book which is kind of a shame because the good narrators do a lot of different books, so you'll hear the same narrator across multiple genres and many different books.

Liz: that's interesting. I mean, I totally understand your experience, but also I'm like, yeah, how do I keep that from happening, 

Martha: I don't know can 

Liz: happening to me 

Martha: yeah. 

Liz: And I'm also wondering if the audiobook narrators do actually get typecast in the industry, if they read in one genre, are they more likely to get a job in that genre? I wonder how that works 

Martha: Yeah, and, if they tend to audition, or give samples for certain genres that they enjoy, if they gravitate towards [00:28:00] that or how that works. It'd be interesting. I hope one day we can interview a audiobook narrator on the podcast.

Liz: Yeah, that would be really cool. I have a similar example of that. I mean, I guess we're calling it typecasting. 

Martha: Yeah. I don't know 

Liz: is like fits with what. That word really means, but I have an example that sort of goes in the other direction of that now that you mention your example, which is I listened to on audiobook this book called, Their Lost Daughters 

Martha: Hmm. 

Liz: by Joy Ellis, and it is a, Police procedural murder mystery type of book.

That is not, I love watching those TV shows, but they're not usually a genre that I 

Martha: Oh, you recommended this book to me. I listened to it too. Yeah, I remember. It was really good. 

Liz: the reason,

Martha: Mm-hmm.

Liz: so the reason that I wanted to listen to it in the first place is because I saw on social media [00:29:00] someone say that the narrator of the audiobook is Richard Armitage.

Who is an actor who has been in a lot of things, but most meaningfully for me, played Mr. Thornton in the BBC version of North and South, and has this very sexy, deep voice that I basically would listen to, read 

Martha: Yeah. 

Liz: the phone book.. I mean, I just really love his voice and I just love his character in that,  Miniseries. And so I was like, oh, I wanna listen to this book because 

Richard Armitage reads it, but it's a murder mystery. It's not even the same genre. But, so I listened to the book and I did really enjoy the book, beyond just listening to his voice. 

Martha: It was good. 

Liz: I actually got into the book and enjoyed it. And so I never would've listened to that book if it wasn't for the fact 

Martha: Mm-hmm. 

Liz: he was reading it. And so that's sort of the other direction, you know? I actually did read a book because of the narrator as opposed to like, 

Martha: Well, and it's also such a great example of. The power of the different [00:30:00] formats, because like we were talking about in the genre episode, we both kind of decided by the end that we wanted to challenge ourselves to read different genres that we don't normally gravitate to. And that's such a good example right there that you shared where this is not a book that you normally would've picked up and read off the shelf, but you knew you wanted to listen to it because of who the narrator was.

And it , Ended up being a great book that both of us enjoyed. So I think that's just such a great illustration of the theme of our whole podcast. I love that.

Liz: Yeah, absolutely. I think you're right. 'cause that is the case that, that joy of having different formats to read books in, it's only a good thing, right? Because it brought us to that book that we wouldn't have read otherwise. It has allowed me to enjoy Adam Bede in a way , that I haven't been able to enjoy it before.

You know? Like you were saying, you probably wouldn't have been able to get through Anna Karenina even though, maybe that narrator would've been better with an ensemble cast or a different narrator or something like that. And [00:31:00] I definitely wanna try to read the Vera Wong book in print because I've heard that it's a great book and just, the narrator just didn't work for me 

Martha: Mm-hmm. 

Liz: me, so I'm gonna give that a try and print. So, yeah, it does wrap up really nicely with our whole, the whole theme of our podcast, which is just more reading is better and more formats better 

Martha: You mentioned very quickly, and I just wanted to highlight this too before we wrap up, that ensemble casts are kind of something that is becoming, more normal now in audio books. For example, the most recent production of Emma, Jane Austen's, Emma on Audible, that is an Audible exclusive, has an ensemble cast.

So each character, maybe not every character, but there's a few actors doing all of the characters, maybe they've recognized that there's that fine line between narrators who are able to do different voices very well, and who are kind of overdoing it, and they have started going in that direction, which is interesting.

[00:32:00] It's almost like a full circle moment, going back to people gathered around the radio, listening to different shows, you know?

Liz: Right. Yeah, I thought that too. I was like, oh my gosh. It is like a radio drama almost 

Martha: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 

Liz: And also, I'm so excited for that. Like I can't wait to listen to Emma 

Martha: Oh, it's, 

Liz: even though I've read 

Martha: Emma so many times yeah, it's the best. I mean, it's like what I was talking about with Jim Dale and Harry Potter. In my opinion, it's just the best way to consume these stories because you get the full detail of the book. You don't lose anything like you do in a movie, but you have it come to life by these amazing actors and narrators, so,

Liz: Yeah, and you get things out of it that you might not have gotten. If you read it on paper, like you might not understand, how to pronounce a word or what the dialect or the accent sounded like, 

Martha: Mm-hmm. 

Liz: actually augmented from what you get in print 

Martha: You know, but it's never gonna replace reading entirely because reading is so important for us to be able to read the written word and use [00:33:00] our imaginations and develop that empathy that we discussed in another episode. And. All of those things. There really is a place for both formats and all formats of reading.

Liz: absolutely. And I think that the bottom line with the narrators is just, there are objective things, but. A lot of it is subjective and, just because you love a person in a movie doesn't necessarily mean you'll love them as an audiobook narrator, but it might mean that.

So just give things a try, right? if you start reading it and you don't like it, stop reading again. Hearkening back to another episode. Don't finish reading a book if you're not enjoying it. That's my take 

Martha: Yep. Or try a different format. Just try a different format and then if you still don't like it, I'll get behind Liz and say, just don't finish it.

Liz: Yeah. Yeah. And there might be a different version of the audio book that you might like better. There might be, certain people's voices that you just do or don't like, and that might change over 

time as well, right? Depending on your mood or the time in your life, you [00:34:00] know, as Nancy Pearl says, who's playing the drinking game at home?

I didn't mention Nancy Pearl until the very end, I did mention her 

Martha: We got her. in there. 

Liz: You know, no two readers read the same book, and that goes for like different times in your life as well. And so, yeah, it all comes back to we have so many options, these days with books that if one way doesn't work for you, just try another. 

Martha: Mm-hmm. 

Liz: And yeah, I love the idea of us interviewing a professional narrator on this show. So let's try to make that happen. Email us at allbookslaoudpod@gmail.com. And tell us about your favorite audiobook, narrator or audiobook narrators that we should check out.

If you've heard them be interviewed by other podcasts, if you know that they like to talk about this, we'd love to to do that. And if you want to hear that episode when it happens, make sure to like us on social media. @ allbooksaloudpod on Instagram. Leave us a review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Martha: And read on my friends.

[All Books Aloud theme music]