Reviewing audio books

I just had an interesting experience. I reviewed Tamora Pierce's Melting Stones, a good book which is also the first title ever to come out in audio format before the printed book (due this Fall from Scholastic). When I was writing up the review, I realized I did not know how to spell certain words, such as Starns Island, where the story takes place. Thank God for the Internet, I found Tamora's blog and got the correct spelling. What made this unique is for other titles, I might have been able to track down a print copy.

As this is probably not going to be the last book that comes out in audio first (and maybe in the future, only in audio), this will be a challenge, especially for reviewers of fantasy works that often have unique names.

Your thoughts?

"(and maybe in the future, only in audio)"

Why in the world would a book come out only in audio?

I could see something like John Cage's "Empty Words" performance piece (which runs several hours of his progressively deconstructing Thoreau's journals, interspersing snippets of text, and eventually just parts of words, with long silences) being exclusive to audio (or video), but why would anything else be relegated to audio?

 

>2 BTRIPP:
I own several novels that are audio only. They weren't 'relegated' to that format; they were purposely created as audio books by the authors.

"they were purposely created as audio books by the authors"

Well, that's a pretty sure fire way of limiting their audience. I can't think of a situation (short of being blinded, or being forced to become a long-haul trucker) where'd I'd even consider "reading" an audio book.

 

>4 BTRIPP:
I do it daily, and I am neither blind, nor a trucker.

That is really really interesting! I have been studying audio for the past 5 years and I love the idea that a book would come out on audio only and the problems that it entails (like you've mentioned with spellings, etc.)

The only thing I can say is what you already have - that save for Wikipedia or a personal website for the author, we might have to guess at the correct spellings of items in a work of fiction that was only published in audio format. I don't know that in the past we would have any book that wasn't published in paper format as well as audio, pre-Internet, that is, so I think it might not be a problem in general.

BTW, I do "read" audio books and prefer them because I can do many things at once like shuttling my kids or knitting, or housework, or exercising while reading. I am not offended by an all-audio version of a book. What I don't like are the online-only books. If I'm going to read a book, I need a hard copy, and don't want to print it all out from my computer.

Interesting subject!

I can imagine that as well - I have bought a couple of Daniel Pinkwater's collections of his commentaries on NPR. In that case, the items were audio to begin with, so it would make more sense to just record them and make an only audio version, rather than converting them to the written word.

That being said, I'm also surprised they wouldn't make every kind of version available these days, just because you can potentially make more money if you have more options available.

Novels being launched first on audiobook isn't a new phenomenon. I remember listening to Tom Wolfe's Ambush at Fort Bragg on tape about 10 years ago before it came out in print.

>4 BTRIPP: I always have a recorded book in my car. When I'm stuck in stop-and-go traffic it keeps me from erupting into a panic attack or bursting into road rage. The downside is the number of times I reach my destination and keep sitting in the car because the story is at a good spot. I like recordings where each character is voiced by a different actor. The Golden Compass trilogy was done this way and I wound up bringing it into the house and listening while I did housework (which I hate more than driving in traffic).

I enjoy audio books for the very reason that I can do other things while I read. Since audio books can be quite expensive, I buy e-books in multi format and let my computer read them to me. There is a variety of reader voices available so voices have a more human sound.