Oct 16, 2023·edited Oct 16, 2023Liked by Lindsay Maitland Hunt
Time-pressed, I recently tried audio format to keep up with my book club's schedule. The audio version of the Covenant of Water totally sold me on the format. Set in Colonial India, the audio version features a narrator speaking with Indian, British and Scottish accents. Best of all, it is the author himself, a top-tier doctor and Stanford Medical School academic. I concur with Maggie's comment. Audio will not replace the sensory pleasure of handling a physical book for me, but a good narrator adds to a good experience (and makes it more practical to take in more.)
So happy to have some new suggestions and wholeheartedly agree that the narrator can make or break an audiobook. Always worth spending a few minutes listening to the sample.
Time-pressed, I recently tried audio format to keep up with my book club's schedule. The audio version of the Covenant of Water totally sold me on the format. Set in Colonial India, the audio version features a narrator speaking with Indian, British and Scottish accents. Best of all, it is the author himself, a top-tier doctor and Stanford Medical School academic. I concur with Maggie's comment. Audio will not replace the sensory pleasure of handling a physical book for me, but a good narrator adds to a good experience (and makes it more practical to take in more.)
So happy to have some new suggestions and wholeheartedly agree that the narrator can make or break an audiobook. Always worth spending a few minutes listening to the sample.
Wonderful advice, Lindsay. With the Libby app, you can download the ebook along with the audiobook, and shift between them.
I too am ruthless about bad narrators. Cut! Love Juliet Stevenson’s reading of Jane Austen and George Eliot: every character coming to life.
Also great by Patrick Radden Keefe: Empire of Pain about the Sacklers and the opioid crisis.