Audiobook readers

WhitePawn · Jul 28, 2014

Where does one go to review these guys?

I've Googled away an hour and can't find anything substantial.

I thought I'd reward myself with a new read today but ended up returning two Overdrive selections because the readers were, in a word, terrible. Monotones, random inflection applied to every sentence on repeat, dialogue read like narrative...I could go on, but I won't.

I can review an author but there doesn't seem to be a place to review a reader for either great work or work akin to reading a phonebook aloud.

A reader makes or breaks a book for those who only read audiobooks. A bad reader means the book may be an excellent work, but will lose potential "read"ers due to the inability of the actor to perform the voice of the author.

Sage · Jul 28, 2014

Review them where you review books and note up front that it's the audiobook version and why that was a problem. Goodreads and Amazon will let you specify your format when you review, too.

benbenberi · Jul 28, 2014

I agree, reviews of the readers would be very useful information. Sometimes the preview snippet is enough to judge a reader's quality, but often it isn't, and a good or bad reader makes such a huge difference.

A good reader creates a movie in my mind and populates it with many different and distinguishable actors, so the story comes to life and I am not consciously reminded that I'm listening to one voice and no other. Monotones are bad. Weird inflections are bad. So are those strange indeterminate "reader voices" that just kind of hang there in mid-air, akin to the insufferable "poet voice" that poets affect at readings and makes me want to grab them by the throat and shake some immediacy into them. NO, DON'T DO THAT, READERS! That's a sure way to drain the life from any reading.

On the other hand, when I find a good reader I'll gladly listen to them even in texts I might not otherwise choose. (For instance, Simon Vance could read the phone book to me. Or David Tennant.)

BradCarsten · Aug 4, 2014

Audible perhaps?

EMaree · Aug 5, 2014

Audible is my go-to for audiobook reviews (and audiobooks in general, I like their system).

WhitePawn · Aug 7, 2014

I have an account but here's the problem. I buy a book from Audible, then I can review it on Audible. I get it on Overdrive and then go to Audible to make my review (usually why I sent it back unread) and there's no option.

You can only review what you buy with Audible. I find this "you can only criticize/compliment after you buy the option to criticize/compliment" to be utter crap.

Sage · Aug 7, 2014

Can you review on iTunes if you didn't buy it from iTunes? That's where I get my audiobooks.

And you can always review on Goodreads and Amazon.

But to be fair, I don't think it's unreasonable from a seller's POV to only allow reviews from people who bought the book from them. And this is from someone who reviews books on Amazon that she got from the library or B&N or iTunes all the time. But from some place like Audible, where there's only a few good sources of audiobooks other than them, it'd be like, "Why would you want to review a book on our site that you didn't get from us?" It also could cover their ass by avoiding people who are writing reviews without listening to the book. They are not a review site. They're a seller. The reviews are secondary to them. From their POV, why should they allow you to criticize/compliment their merchandise on their vendor site when you didn't buy the product from them?

Audiobook readers

WhitePawn

Sage

Supreme Guessinator

benbenberi

practical experience, FTW

BradCarsten

practical experience, FTW

EMaree

a demon for tea

WhitePawn

Sage

Supreme Guessinator