The total length of the audio book versions of the immensely popular ?Harry Potter? series, for instance, is 117 hours and four minutes. According to officials at Listening Library, the Random House division that publishes the audio books, it would take five days to listen straight to all seven books. The final audio book in the series, ?Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,? alone, s 21 hours, 38 minutes long and consists of 17 CDs or 12 audio cassettes.
The narrator for all seven ?Harry Potter? audio books is English actor Jim Dale, who has won Grammy awards for his performances of more than 200 characters in the fiction series. He holds the record for creating the most voices in an audio book in the Guinness Book of World Records. Recording audio books is tricky, says Dale, who only saw his material two or three days before his recording was to begin. And he never knew where the story was going as he never got the chance to read the entire book before he started. On a good day, Dale read the audio books at a rate of 18 to 20 pages an hour, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with several breaks to protect his voice. It usually took ten days to complete the audio book recordings. The published print version of ?Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? is 784 pages, and it required almost two and a half weeks to record the audio book.
The publishers kept digital files of all the voices Dale used so that he could recreate them for each audio book. But he had to take into the account the aging of the main characters Harry, Ron and Hermione, who started out as 10 and 11 in ?Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone? and who are now 17 and 18 in ?Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.? For new characters, Dale used a tape recorder to record one or two sentences in a new voice and noted the place in the text. At the studio he would rewind until he found the right voice and play it back to refresh his memory before recording the audio book.
The producers were great sticklers to being absolutely verbatim to the text of the audio books, and Dale admits there were many mistakes, especially when he stumbled on words not on the author's list. He would have to record it in context in several ways to account for every possible pronunciation. ?If she says ?someone laughs, ha, ha, ha, and I do four ha's,? I am stopped and told, ?Just do three,? says Dale.
Left Behind Audio Books
How many times have you been driving and had to turn your radio off or at least right down so you would not have to listen to a song you hate? Other times you just want something different. Listening to a new novel by your favorite author is will make sitting in traffic much easier to bear.
For those of you who use public transport, reading could be difficult sometimes. I know myself that reading whilst in motion often made be dizzy and this is a common complaint or trying to hold a book whilst be jostled by other commuters, poor lighting and jerking motions of bus or train also made concentration an almost impossible task. Listening to an audio book on a plane is a wonderful way to relax, just put your headphones on, recline your seat, close your eyes and listen whilst the speaker takes you on another journey.
Maybe you are one of those people who want to read but can't find the time, when asked by a friend have you read a certain book have you heard yourself replying 'When would I have time to read?' or have you sat down to read only to find yourself looking at the windows which badly needed cleaning or remembering you have to pick up the dry cleaning. Imagine listen to those books whilst you cooked the dinner, exercised on the treadmill, vacuumed the living room, etc.
These audios are also a great way of encouraging the children to open their minds with books to suit all age groups in many fiction genres including animal, adventure, mystery and comedy etc. There are also educational books on history, geography, etc., which can stimulate the inquiring mind.
Adults can enjoy novels of all genres, nonfiction on a multitude of topics and adult educational themes including interesting topics for today such as our changing environment, news items, politic, basically anything that takes your interest or full tutorials on selected topics. All of these books can be obtained in many different languages. Audio books can be borrowed from your local library, bought at large book stores and some music shops. A search of the internet will give you unlimited suppliers of these books and links to sites where you can download instantly. Audio books can be used in your car CD player, mp3s or downloaded from the internet to your iPod.
Whether you listen to general nonfiction, educational material or a fiction novel of your choice you will have found a wonderful way of using your time not only efficiently but also turning the boring parts of your day into a more enjoyable times. Audio books are becoming more widely used so when you see the person sitting next to you smiling it could be they enjoying a great story.
