Friday, June 13, 2014

Great Audiobook Narrators

AudiobookMonthLogoA narrator can make or break an audiobook. Tone, inflection, accents, ages, pronunciation, intensity – so many moving parts need to come together to form the perfect narration. A good narrator can bring the words to life and fire up your imagination, all while keeping you engaged and giving you a completely new and unique experience with your favorite book.

In honor of Audiobook Month, I talked to some of my colleagues about their favorite MP3 audiobook narrators…

 

Great Audiobook Narrators

Rebecca Lowman
I love listening to books narrated by Rebecca Lowman. She has such a great conversational tone and gives wonderful distinction between the character voices, so that it feels as if the audiobook is unfolding with the cast of characters right in my car on my commute to work! – Cassie Renner, Marketing Specialist

Neil Gaiman and Campbell Scott
I'm pretty sure I don't need to explain how great Neil Gaiman is to a bunch of librarians. I love authors that narrate their own books and I could listen to Gaiman talk for years. Campbell Scott is also a favorite, even though his narration of The Shining by Stephen King gave me nightmares for weeks. – Rachel Kray, Collection Development Analyst

Emma Galvin
Galvin has great storytelling abilities that really make the books and characters come to life. I would especially recommend her narration of the Divergent series. – Laura Guldeman, Collection Development Analyst

Maxwell Caulfield
I loved listening to Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. Max Caulfield voices the Harry Potter-esque Simon Snow, that appears in excerpts throughout the book with Rebecca Lowman handling the main part of the narration as Cath, a college student that writes Simon Snow fan fiction. He's one of the only narrators that I enjoyed listening to so much that I specifically searched him out to find my next “listen”: The Red House by Mark Haddon. – Melissa Marin, Marketing Specialist

Comedians
Laughter always makes a long car ride go by quicker, so what's better than listening to your favorite comedians for eight hours! Some of my favorites include Bob Saget, Mindy Kaling, and Tina Fey. – Karen Jakubczak, Account Specialist

Kate Winslet
Kate Winslet's cheeky, buoyant reading of Roald Dahl's Matilda breathes new life into this beloved children's novel. Her Oscar-winning talent is clearly on display, especially through her animated and distinctive character voices. – Carrie Smith, Technical Writer

James Marsters and Wil Wheaton
James Marsters does the Dresden Files audiobooks, and he's great—he's got a voice you just want to listen to, and he captures the wry character of Harry Dresden pretty well. Will Wheaton seems to only read books he personally loves, and it comes through in his narration. I think he got his start narrating for John Scalzi (as they are friends), but he's also done several other books like Ready Player One– Quinton Lawman, Technical Writer

 

Do you have any favorite audiobook narrators you'd like to recommend?

*Some titles may have limited regional or platform availability.

 

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