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Thoughts of a Reader

Posted on July 28, 2011 by | Posted in about LibriVox, Blog, For Volunteers, News, Uncategorized | Comments: 5 Comments on Thoughts of a Reader

One of our newer readers writes in the forum:

On the nature of audio books and “reading”

I am fairly new to the world of audio books and very new to reading within Librivox. The bother of keeping track of stacks of CDs, which might scratch if not handled with care, and the equipment one might have to tote to listen to them always kept me at a distance from that activity (shudder the thought of cassette tapes!). About a year ago our library started to offer MP3 audio books, downloadable on the Internet, and so began my journey into listening rather than reading. I now have come to appreciate how lucky I am to be a reader/listener and now so many years later, the enjoyment seems to increase while other things…well, they do not.

From my perspective, the experience of listening to an audio book starts with the intimacy. It is as though the author were speaking to me of secret, often personal things, back from countless years ago, on a one to one level; the author is here now with me, just me, to tell the wonderful story of long, long ago. The teller has no thing to be gained except my enjoyment of the eloquence, of what he or she has to tell me, at my beck and call, day or night. There is a solitude in this intimacy, one soul in touch with another. It is a fine thing to read, but the walls of the chamber are echoic and sometimes not so reliable. When I am listening all is made quiet, but the author speaking to me. I mostly walk in the mornings to listen and eventually start to feel my legs grow heavy, only then to notice that I have been out over two hours and begrudge the need to rest and go back. It is so wonderful to escape the cacophony.

Of course, the reader of an audio book is there and, in my view, their sole occupation should be to interpret the work and become the author for the listener. A digital device, saying each word as the electronic signal is received, can easily accomplish the saying of individual words without interpretation. But the interpretation of the words, including what has passed and what is yet to come in the script, is so far beyond any digital talent as to be unworthy of discussion. Most audio devices are used to listen to music, most times a product that comes forth from a sophisticated studio employing multiple people and the breathless world of electronic enhancement. A reader, on the other hand, stands fairly alone, having to interpret difficult text sometimes and then deliver a fairly accurate rendition without additional explanation. The saying of the words needs to be accomplished, but their meaning has to be presented too. I think this is best done through pace, tone and pause, but only after the reader is acquainted with the message of the passage and of the work. The unstated presence of fear, humor, melancholy, joy, love, hate etc all need to accompany the saying of the words. Unlike the musician, there are few (if any) knobs to adjust in doing this and volume can be used so sparingly as to be pretty useless (unlike some musicians apparently).

I should enjoy hearing from others on these points and if this is all old hat, why, I do hope that I will be excused. One last point: all the above is subject to my 80/20 rule; i.e. this is true only about 80% of the time, and otherwise not!

This has stimulated a heartfelt discussion on the topic, which you can read here. We welcome your thoughts too!

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Sorry – the forum is down – and back up!

Posted on July 5, 2011 by | Posted in about LibriVox, For Volunteers, News, on the web, site & admin | Comments: 8 Comments on Sorry – the forum is down – and back up!

From 08:40 GMT July 5th: Regrettably, it appears that the secure server where the forum lives is currently down again.

We will get it functioning again as soon as possible, and apologise for the inconvenience.

The catalogue server and downloads are unaffected.

EDITED TO ADD: Apologies for the latest outage, which was caused by a problem related to changing DNS providers. It is now back up, and the problem should soon resolve for everyone if it hasn’t done so already.

Ruth

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Adventurous July

Posted on June 30, 2011 by | Posted in Blog, Monthly Picks, News | Comments: 1 Comment on Adventurous July

July it is, and summer is at its peak in the Northern hemisphere. Just the right time to present 10 adventurous gems from our catalog.

Let’s begin with one of the oldest adventure stories, about the return of Ulysses from Troy. His Odyssey, described by Homer, took 10 years to complete, but more than 2600 years later, it is still read – even in ancient Greek!

Comparatively short was the journey of Joshua Slocum. However, 3 years of Sailing Alone Around the World on an 11.2 m fishing boat probably felt much longer…

A sea voyage only stands at the beginning of an adventure involving searching for El Dorado in the Andes, and avoiding revolutions and priestly dangers on the way. And on top of that, a woman needs rescuing from the The Web of the Golden Spider. Interested? Check out Frederick O’Barlett’s novel.

A lot of rescuing is needed by Pauline too. And all that just because she wanted to see the world before getting married. Follow The Perils of Pauline – and those of her fiance – in our dramatic reading of Charles Goddard’s novel.

Certainly no damsel in distress was May Kellogg Sullivan, A Woman Who Went to Alaska in 1899. She took two trips of 18 months each, and covered 12.000 miles in steamers and the fledgling railroad. And on the way she was staying with the rough guys in various mining camps…

The ancient King Solomon’s Mines lie supposedly somewhere in Africa. The old fable of enormous riches that can be found there spur Alan Quatermain on a journey through central Africa, in the famous novel by H. Rider Haggard.

The jungles of Bunyip Land need to be crossed by Joe Carstairs, a boy from Australia, in search of his father, a naturalist, whose tracks were lost in New Guinea. Whether he and his small search party will succeed or not, can be discovered in the book by George Manville Fenn.

One of the most famous, most expensive, and most dangerous search–and–rescue expeditions ended after an 8 month’s journey through the heart of Africa with “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”. Let’s hope the rest of the account on How I found Livingstone by Sir Henry M. Stanley is less dry…

Certainly more exciting are the books by Jules Verne, probably the best known writer of adventure stories. Here we present a lesser known novel Michael Strogoff, about a courier of Czar Alexander II, trying to do his duty during a rebellion. This book has also been recorded in Dutch.

In the end, let’s go back in time again, to the 8th – 11th century, when Beowulf was written. Listen to the beautiful poem describing how the young warrior kills the monster Grendel and is made King as a reward.

Enjoy our summer adventures – and your own!

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LibriVox forum and catalog down – and back up

Posted on June 24, 2011 by | Posted in about LibriVox, News | Comments: 14 Comments on LibriVox forum and catalog down – and back up

Sorry folks, the LibriVox forum has gone down due to continuing problems as we try to rebuild/shore up our infrastructure following the hack a while ago.

More news when available.

Sorry again.

EDITED TO ADD: Forums and catalogue are now back up (18:30 GMT)

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