I’ve Decided Not to Listen to Audio Books…

…Well, audio books for YA, anyway. I’m about to make a generalization, so bear with me. I listen to a lot of audio books, because it allows me to “read” while working. Usually, your boss frowns upon you reading at your desk when you’re not on break, but as they allow radios in the office, they don’t care what I listen to as long as it doesn’t interfere with my work.

My usually audio books consist of my guilty pleasures, regency romance or some chick-lit. But every so often, I get a YA book in audio form.

The problem I’ve found with most of these audio books—well, at least more times than not—is that the voice is terrible. With the exception of a few, most YA audio books I have read have narrators that make the mc’s sound like babies, or at least far too young for the teens they are supposed to be voicing.

I’ve been listening to The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson. Her characters are spunky and witty with a touch of sarcasm. The narrator makes the mc sound like she’s on the verge of laughing at any moment, so the sarcastic lines don’t have the same conviction. She’s bubbly when she should be displaying dry humor, and the character doesn’t sound as spunky as the words make her. Fortunately, I actually LISTEN to the words and have managed to tune out the most annoying parts of the narrator.

I know I take this chance when listening to a book over reading it, but I find that I have more problems with narrators when it’s a YA novel. It was only when I started listening to this last novel that I realized this was the reason I read most of my YA and listen to Adult fiction. Not to mention, I think I pay much more attention to YA novels than I do to adult ones. Most of my adult novels have been recommended to me and I don’t even really know what they’re about before I pop in the disc. With YA, I’ve read the summary, looked up the author (if I haven’t read or heard of them before) and I check out who represents them.

So now, this is my decision—I’m sure you were all waiting on the edge of your seats—I won’t listen to anymore YA audio books. There, I said it. I’m not going to say I’ll never do it again, because I never say never-lol.

How do you guys feel about audio books? Is there a certain genre you are willing to forgo the page and grab the CD? Or does it even matter to you? If you do listen to audio books like me, do you find a difference between YA and adult? My inquiring mind wants to know.

I Love Books!

Sorry I’ve been MIA for a while. I’ve been doing edits on my manuscript, trying to get it ready for my beta readers (if any of you are interested in reading for me, send me an email at kdrose at g mail dot com and I’ll tell you about the book and we can see if we can swap ms if you want).

I’ve been reading a lot. Sometimes I get into a habit where I read/listen to two books at a time. I just finished listening to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson and reading Kill For Me by Karen Rose. I have to say, I almost fried my brain. The two stories were different enough for me not to confuse plots or characters, but they both had TONS of characters in them.

If any of you out there have read any Karen Rose novels you know she gives you lots of people to play with and some of those people aren’t who they say they are. They have different names, nicknames, secret identities or no identities at all. You have to stay on your toes when you read one of her books, but as this novel was part of a series, I already knew most of the characters so I didn’t have so much trouble keeping track.


The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo…OMG! I don’t know if any of you have read it—I mean, I know I’m late to the game and somebody has to be reading it for as long as it’s been on the bestsellers list—but what a dense novel. Admittedly, I struggled in the beginning. My manager has read all three books and warned me that I might have a hard time getting into the beginning, and that was no lie. I was two discs in and I was like, I don’t know what’s really going on. My manager said, “Karen, promise me you’ll stick with it. It’ll be worth it.” I stuck with it and boy was it worth it. I really loved the book and more over, I loved the way Larsson wrote.

It struck me when I was about halfway through the book that as an unpublished writer, I’d probably have a hard time getting an agent if The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was my first novel. It’s a brilliant story and once someone gave it a chance, they’d see the brilliance, but it’s a story that’s heavily told. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard from agents, editors and authors that you should show and not tell. But somehow Larsson tells about 70% of this story and shows about 30%, but it WORKS!

So if any of you are out there looking for a good thriller I whole-heartedly recommend The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Yeah, all both of you who haven’t read it by now-lol. If any of you like a little more romance with your thrillers then pick up a Karen Rose book. You won’t be disappointed.

This combination worked so well for me that I just got The Girl Who Played With Fire on audio and another Karen Rose book, Silent Scream, so I can read some and listen some. God, I love books!

Everyone have a safe fourth! Don’t eat too much and keep your manikins away from fireworks because every year the news show those poor manikins getting their hands blown off…when will they learn?

The Makings of a Bad Narrator

As most of you know, I listen to a lot of audio books. I’m fortunate enough to have a job that works well with me listening to novels that can sometime have racy language/text and no one will know because I have my own office.

There are some things that annoy the heck out of me with audio books, and I suspect some or all of these things I’m about to list is part of the reason some people don’t like listening to novels.

What makes a bad narrator?

I talk LOUD, I talk low.

This is the fluctuating voice. I’ve listened to audio books that force me to turn the volume down only to turn it way up because the narrator has gone from shouting to whispering in a matter of seconds. Here’s a hint, narrators, if the text calls for you to whisper…DON’T ACTUALLY WHISPER! We can’t hear you! There’s a way to mock whisper so we get the point and still hear important plot points. If you’re a man with a deep voice, talking low will making it virtually impossible to hear you. Has no one told them this?

Angry when I should be Sad.

Actually, you can insert any emotion in those two spots. Whatever it is, the narrator has gotten it wrong. I actually listened to a novel where the narrator was shouting at the love interest, sounding very angry, when he should’ve been scared and shaken. Somewhere toward the end of the monologue the narrator got it and killed the shouting, but the scene was just all messed up by then.

I Put the EmphAsis on the wrong SyllAble.

Mispronouncing words. Man, this gets me steamed. I don’t know what goes into being a narrator for an audio book, but I’d imagine it’s more than just walking into a studio, cracking open the book, clearing your throat and reading. Is there a run through? Do they get a chance to look over the text to get a feel for the characters, decide what voices to use? Figure out that you don’t pronounce short-lived with a long i. Hint, lived—long i—isn’t even a word. Hard to say names are one thing, but to mess up on everyday words just kills me and pulls me right out of the story cause I’m thinking, “Did you seriously just pronounce that word like that?”

Listening to the Paint Dry.

This is the dull voice that will even put someone hopped up on no-doze, red bull and espresso to sleep. I’ve never been able to listen to one of James Patterson’s novels because the narrator was like listening to the man from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. “Bueller, Bueller, Bueller….” Man, I’m falling asleep just thinking about it.


Oh No You Di’int.

This is where the narrator makes all black people sound like they just got off the plantation or out of the ghetto. I want to scream when I hear this. Maybe this annoys me most because I’m black. I kinda understand what they’re trying to do, inject soul into the voice, but if you can’t do it, then don’t try it. If the author has told us that the character is black or African American and doesn’t go out of their way to mention how this person speaks, doesn’t show it in their dialogue then DON’T DO IT! It’s offensive and just wrong. The novel I’m listening to now has a woman who is a dean at a private school for crying out loud, she would not speak like some chick out of the hood! I almost took the CD out, but the story is really good, and I’m hoping this character won’t reappear.

Okay, so now that I’m done with my rant. Any of you have these issues with audio books? Are any of these the reasons why you don’t listen to novels?

The Great Audio Book Debate

I’ve spoken of my fondness of audio books before, but I find myself defending my stories on cd once again. A co-worker told me I was cheating listening to audio books. Cheating…moi? Surely you jest. Am I not actively engaged? Is the story not embedded into my mind? Do I not fall in love, or out of love, or get bored, or get excited listening to a book? Of course.

I won’t be as simplistic as to say that listening to a book is the same as reading one, but some people can’t read books. Should they be denied fantastic fiction, informative non-fiction because they are blind or illiterate?

Okay, so maybe she wasn’t speaking of the visually impaired or the functionally illiterate so we can strike that from the argument. But speaking as a writer, I LISTEN to the books I choose on audio. I pay attention to the sentences, to the dialogue and to pretty much the same things I would pay attention to if I had the book open before me. No, I can’t see the punctuation and can’t really tell if the author is using sentence fragments or if it’s the way the narrator is reading, but that doesn’t matter when I’m listening. I still get pulled out of the story when I hear a sentence that is crafted well, or one that’s poorly worded just as I do when reading.

Don’t get me wrong, if it wasn’t for my job, I probably wouldn’t be able to listen to audio books other than on road trips.

Also, if the narrator sucks it’ll ruin the book! Prime example: My mother loves James Patterson and has been after me to read his books for some time now. Well, I was at a bargain bookstore and saw James Patterson’s, 1ST TO DIE in audio format and bought it. I couldn’t get twenty minutes into the story because the narrator droned on in a monotone that put me to sleep—not something you want to do whilst at work.

Another example: Nora Roberts book, BLOOD BROTHERS. The narrator—a man with a naturally deep voice—went up to a creepy falsetto when doing the female characters. I can’t believe someone didn’t stop him and say, “Um…what the hell is that voice? Just talk normal, dude!” Note: I love Nora Robert’s books and that particular one is the only one I’ve ever had a serious problem with the narrator. They find good ones for her novels.

So as much as I love audio books, I still read a lot too because I love the feel of a book in my hands and turning a page. Just because I listen to some books, doesn’t mean I’ve somehow cheated myself, or the author, or the story.

And as a writer, if someone came up to me at a book signing with an audio version of my book, I wouldn’t tell them that they haven’t REALLY read my book because it’s on CD. I’d be delighted that they took their hard earned money and purchased my work when they had hundreds/thousands to choose from. And I guess that’s all that matters.

So tell me…cheat or no cheat?

Book, Book, and More Books

So far this year I’ve read/listened to 32 books. Last year, my total was 60, which I’m trying to beat this year. Looks like I’m well on my way! I know some don’t count audio books as actually reading, but I do. I listen to books only at work. My job lends itself to sitting in my office and going completely nutters if I don’t have something like the radio or audio books to keep me sane. This way, it’s better than the commercials on the radio and simple silence. If given the choice I’d read the actual book, but as I can’t do that and do my job, audio books have saved my life.

I especially love J. D. Robb’s In Death series. The woman who reads them, Susan Erickson, is awesome. And THAT can really make or break a book. There are some books that I suspect are really awesome, but the reader sucks the life out of the story so it’s impossible for me to listen to it.

Right now, I have no audio books left to listen to, so I’ve taken to re-listening to some of J. D. Robb’s. As for the actual books I have waiting…there are about six in my bedroom and about twenty on my wish list. I just finished the third in the Night Huntress series (At Grave’s End by Jeaniene Frost) and now I’m reading Pretties by Scott Westerfeld…I know I’m late, but there’s no expiration date on good reads!