Now I believe that audiobooks constitute an art on its own. The listener is given ample room for picturing her personal “film” and in a more vivid way than under her own reading. Because one is conducted by the suggestive interpretation of the reader, listening to an audiobook cannot, of course, substitute the magic of the interior voice reading. Anyway, it certainly finds a place between reading a book and watching a movie, overlapping with none of the two. Let us imagine that artistic creations can be ranked in terms of the personal input needed to enjoy them. Considering how much the audience should put of themselves, the gradation could be oversimplified like this (starting with the largest input requirements): music, visual art, books, audiobooks, story telling, theater or films. An audiobook cannot even be considered close to story telling, where the teller has both roles, being half-creator and audiovisual interpreter. A book reader must rigorously stick to a stranger’s text but still turn it into hers and make all the characters alive and distinguishable. In my opinion, the good reader is subtle and does not need to change her voice to the extreme for this purpose, like a ventriloquist. The different characters in the novel are recognizable because their different personalities lead to specific tones, melodies or rhythms, even when speaking the same sentence. This is why I liked so much Ilyana Kadushin and deeply missed her reading for a long time once I had finished the Twilight saga.
Audiobooks are really a discovery in my life. Not only because, as I said, I found a new art to explore, but also because it is perfect for learning languages and improving the accent. There are many web sites providing free audiobooks of the classics (like Books should be free or Librivox). And last, but not least, a good audiobook is the only efficient trick I could find to go jogging every morning!
Tags: audiobooks, Ilyana Kadushin