In Which I Disagree With The World's Greatest Librarian (Respectfully....And Of Course Quietly)

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Nancy Pearl is the world's greatest librarian. She is the librarian who has an action figure. She is the librarian who has appeared in the Backlisted podcast. If I wasn't an atheist I'd worship in the church of Nancy Pearl.

But she has made me think my view with regard to audiobooks. Ms Pearl mentioned on Twitter that it was a disappointment when a book she loved had a reader she didn't like. Particularly with regard to the way they pronounced particular words.

I queried why she would listen to a book she'd already read.

Ms Pearl responded by saying that she found it was an entirely different experience than reading in print.

Now regular readers to this blog know that I rarely reread books. Simply because there are so many books and so little time. I've also no problem with listening to audiobooks when in the bath or whilst driving (I'm kicking myself for not listening to Stephen Fry's reading A Tale Of Two Cities on my recent three and half hour journey to Essex).

But that being said and understood if you are, as they say, "hands free", then nothing beats those hands reading a book.

I have always believed that when you read a book there is not only a mental picture but a mental voice as well. That voice is your voice. So whilst it cannot do accents what it can do is set the tone and emotion that you feel as you're reading it. Unless the author advises otherwise then your voice is the truest voice the book has.

An actor/actress might have the training. But that's no guarantee that the book is being read correctly. Ms Pearl criticised an audio reader's pronunciation of the word library. What if though there are other undetectable ways through inflection, tone and even accent that the original writer would object to that might mean that you, the listener, are being led up the wrong path in appreciating what you are hearing?

So believe in your mental voice not a trained one.

Until the next time.