• Café Life is the Colony's main hangout, watering hole and meeting point.

    This is a place where you'll meet and make writing friends, and indulge in stratospherically-elevated wit or barometrically low humour.

    Some Colonists pop in religiously every day before or after work. Others we see here less regularly, but all are equally welcome. Two important grounds rules…

    • Don't give offence
    • Don't take offence

    We now allow political discussion, but strongly suggest it takes place in the Steam Room, which is a private sub-forum within Café Life. It’s only accessible to Full Members.

    You can dismiss this notice by clicking the "x" box

Audiobook: 45 hours and 34 minutes long.

Invest in You. Get Full Membership now.
Status
Not open for further replies.

Paul Whybrow

Full Member
Joined
Jun 20, 2015
Location
Cornwall, UK
LitBits
0
For those audiobook narrators on the Colony, how does the prospect of recording for 45 hours and 34 minutes strike you? Lucy Ellmann's stream of consciousness novel Ducks, Newburyport is 1,003 pages long!

‘Surreal immediacy’: how a 1,000-page novel became a 45-hour audiobook

iu
 
They’re impossible to follow, in my experience. One of the first audiobooks I bought was War and Peace, unabridged. Something like 30+ hours, and it seemed good value-per-hour since it cost the same as shorter books. But I just couldn’t keep my place in the narrative.

I have discussed this with audiobook directors in publishing companies, and there’s a general feeling that a well-abridged audiobook can actually be a better experience for the reader than the full monty.
 
One of the first audiobooks I bought was War and Peace, unabridged. Something like 30+ hours, and it seemed good value-per-hour since it cost the same as shorter books. But I just couldn’t keep my place in the narrative.
The thousand or so pages of War and Peace are hard to keep your place in the narrative even in the written version. At least there, I could go back to previous chapters to make sure I understood. The first few hours of it would be daunting. A very serious book to put into an audiobook.
 
Last edited:
There are kids I know who speed up the audio books they read, getting through War and Peace (as one example) in ten hours (as reported, and I do believe). As long as the voice is strong enough, it apparently doesn't affect the enjoyment.
 
Invest in You. Get Full Membership now.
The audiobook I recorded was approximately nine hours (and for every hour there was at least 6-7 hours editing - probably more like ten!! - but I expect I shall be quicker with the next one). Even the mere thoughts of recording 45 hours makes me feel light headed. And sore-throat-ed.
I think as a narrator I'd lose interest and get very bored very quickly with something that length if it didn't fully engage me. I can't remember what I was reading to my kids once; but I was bored witless. After the first sentence I'd be off in my own head, oblivious to the words I was reading. Still don't have a clue what the story was about. Or what the book was for that matter. It must have been The Most Boring Narration In History (and they still came back for more!!!)
 
After the first sentence I'd be off in my own head, oblivious to the words I was reading. Still don't have a clue what the story was about. Or what the book was for that matter. It must have been The Most Boring Narration In History (and they still came back for more!!!)
That's kids for you. They like the sound of mum's voice is all. They were probably off in their own heads too :)
 
I bought Ulysses on Audible's daily deal for £1.99 a while back which is unabridged and weighs in at 27 hours plus.

"Bargain!" I thought but I'm struggling. Got as far as Bloom's story kicking off and the narrator, Jim Norton (Bishop Brennan from Fr. Ted) is excellent making it pretty accessible but I just keep thinking Meh... and switching to other titles in my library.

Perhaps when The Martians and Space Outlaws show up it might grip me a little more.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest Articles By Litopians

  • Advertising and Social Media
    There has been much discussion in writing circles about how much a writer has to self-promote these ...
  • Future Abstract: Fights at Night
    SATIRE ALERT: The following abstract is entirely fictional and does not represent actual events or s ...
  • Great Novel Openings Quiz
    As writers, we all know how important it is to grip the reader from the very start. Intriguing, surp ...
  • In The Summertime
    In the early seventies, I had a semi-Afro hairstyle and a shaggy beard. . I thought I looked like th ...
  • Working with a Literary Agent
    The Querying In a previous post I mentioned that I was back in the query trenches. To recap, my earl ...
  • Danger! Danger!
    What is perhaps the most feared creature of the Borneo rainforest, I hear you ask? Who is the King o ...
  • The World Has Missed You
         May 2021… COVID lockdown restrictions had eased, so Mrs Treaclechops and I headed to the I ...
Back
Top