Audiobooks have become my summer obsession. Or maybe it’s a practice, whenever you seek out a performance of the book you want to read. Audio narration comes in a few formats, but the only one that has a good shot at improving a book is a pro narration.
To be clear, a professional here means a human who’s been trained and earns a living performing books. Not an AI voice, even though those might be good. What I’m seeking is that potent blend of powerful book and transformative voice.
Some of the best narrators might perform few books. Meryl Streep, she of the three Oscars and 22 nominations, is a rare book performer. I got lucky this month and discovered her audiobook of Ann Patchett’s novel Tom Lake. How I missed out on that novel’s heartbeat of theatre and acting, I don’t know. I dreamed of and worked toward that life 40 years ago — but its passions are all there in every chapter of the novel.
And there’s nothing better than having an actress of more than 40 years of movies performing a novel about an actress and a summer affair. Tom Lake has been a library borrow for me in Austin. Many times, a library will buy more audio copies of a book than e-book copies.
No, they’re really books
There are readers who still say that audiobooks are not really books. Or that listening to them is not reading. That’s short-sighted, or maybe a little deaf is the right metaphor. See, a book has to be well-written enough for a narrator to perform it well. Without good writing, there’s no audiobook to savor.
And savor them I do this summer, pedaling on the neighborhood streets on my 12-year-old road bike. I used to believe that only a podcast or a nonfiction book could capture my comprehension. They all capture your attention. But following the plot and characters of fiction was beyond my skills for a long while.
I’m not sure where exactly that began to turn for me, but Austin’s library was the delivery vector. My listen of The Lincoln Highway two summers ago and was transformed by the sound of Amor Towles’ great storytelling. Edoardo Ballerini is one of four voices in that cast. He can also take on the full range of a book’s characters on his own in a solo turn.
Lately the credits for audiobooks are “performed by,” which tells you the difference between AI books, automated narrations, and the genuine article. Ballerini is a master in Beautiful Ruins, the Jess Walter novel about the production of Cleopatra in Italy and the little town where an actress falls into and out of love.
Beautiful Ruins is going to become a film in a year or two, directed by the great Sam Mendes, he of the London stage. But for me, it will never come to the same life the way it did in my earbuds on those neighborhood streets. In a stroke of luck, the publisher has put it into a popular monthly reading resource.
Listen by the Month
Audiobooks are so popular now that Amazon has made it possible to listen for a monthly rate. I’m talking Kindle Unlimited, the $12 a month service that keeps my book budget within reason. Whenever an e-book is publishing through Amazon as a Kindle Unlimited read, because the publisher chooses Select status, the publisher can include an audiobook edition as part of the monthly package.
You’ll look over the Kindle Unlimited tab in the app’s Discover button on your phone. You’ll and see that some books have a headphone icon. You borrow those books (Amazon gives you 20 at a time) and the audiobook comes along for the ride. You download the audio to your device with a button press and can listen as your primary way of enjoying the book. At the same time, the app highlights the text.
Audiobooks have brought their print counterparts into my life. After hearing Lincoln Highway on a library borrow, and raving about it, I got a hardback of the book from Abby. Sometimes while I keep close watch on the cars I might miss a passage — or just want to go back and read it like the author put it onto the page.
Amazon has a lot of sins laid at its feet, from putting retailers out of business and turning work into gig tasks, plus whatever all that AI is costing us in energy resources. I still challenge anyone else to deliver so much for $12 a month, leading everybody toward affordable culture with high marks for quality. An author can make comparable money selling a book on consignment at a bookstore, if you don’t have distribution and a publisher who can market you. But a bookstore where people can shop when they can’t drive, one that has everything in stock? That one is probably only online. It’s saving one part of the publishing business that needs help, because profits are so low on paperbacks.
Bookstores will skip buying your book because their profit per book is just $1.89 too low. Amazon will stock anything, including Oscar winners performing fiction and non-fiction right off your phone. Streep’s performance in Tom Lake is must-hear. Much of her book work up to now has been in children’s books, all well under an hour. Lately she’s been performing novels.
As you age in acting, your voice usually holds on longer. Lucky for us, with so many talented actors now taking up the talking out of books. Consider hiring an actor if you plan for an audiobook.
