While on my road trip to my vacation spot, I listened to the audio version of Three Willows by Ann Brashares.
Kimberly Farr was the narrator, and I actually really enjoyed the book and it made my drive easier.
I have to admit, if I had a choice between listening to a book and reading a book, I would choose the latter because I like to re-read passages plus I always have a pencil handy to underline phrases, good verbs, and characterization—yes, I actually write in my books!
I’ve also found that sometimes the narrator is so good that a book I wouldn’t normally like really gets me into the story. Vocal delivery really does make a difference.
Here’s an interesting thing: I recently listened to a chapter of Catching Fire narrated by Carolyn McCormick. She did a great job of dramatizing the effect of Katniss and President Snow in Chapter 2.
But then on the Scholastic website, the author Suzanne Collins read a passage from Chapter 2, and her delivery and the way she dramatized the scene between Katniss and President Snow was different.
I thought this was fascinating because with just a few different inflections and inserts of voice irony, you get a different result from the same scene.
So a book could possibly be made better with an audio version? Worse? I doubt it since most of the narrators are dramatic actors. But sometimes I wonder how many ways a book can come across with different narrators.
Anyway, audiobooks are great, but give me the actual book any day.
