The Best and Worst of Audio Books

I’m a big fan of audio books and listen to them in the car to make the commute less of a chore. It also gives me the opportunity to experience more books than I have time to actually read, and to experience books that I otherwise probably wouldn’t read because they’re ‘not my cup of tea’. Listening to them often makes them easier to digest.

The most recent audio books I have listened to pretty much represent the best and the worst things about audio books.

The best: Deep Waters by Ann Cliff, read by Anne Dover.

Set in the 1890s, a Yorkshire farming valley is slated to be flooded and dammed to provide water to the city of Leeds. Rachel is determined to fight for the land and the future of the community she loves.

The book is beautifully and subtly read by Anne Dover. There are no over-the-top character voices to pull you out of the story, and her accents hit the mark. A generous sprinkling of romance infuses the story without getting in the way of the main themes of progress, class, choices for women and how one person’s actions can make a difference.

The worst: Angel Catbird by Margaret Atwood, read by a full cast.

Part cat, part owl, part genetic engineer: I think he’s meant to be some sort of super hero, but he doesn’t really do much. The rest of the half-animals seem more proactive in fighting the half-rat boss-man and his army of evil rats. 

I have always wanted to read something by Margaret Atwood. I fear this was the worst possible introduction I could have had.

The atrocity starts with the fact that this is adapted from a graphic novel. How many times have you read a graphic novel and thought, Hmmm, this would make a great audio book? 

What’s that? 

Never? 

Me neither. 

Because graphic novels are all about the visual. I’m sure comics like Batman and Superman were presented as radio plays back in the day, and that’s the format used here. But the over-the-top voices, the ridiculous dialogue, the pointless, meandering plot all conspire to make this book unlistenable. I really tried, but by the third and final CD my brain started tuning it all out and I lost track of who was who and what was what. So, in one of those life-is-too-short moments, I gave up and turned on the radio.

Most audio books fall somewhere between these two extremes – some reading voices you could listen to forever, some pull you out of the story with character voices that don’t work, some books have strong storylines that make for riveting listening and some plots are just too convoluted to follow audibly. But the fact that I’m less invested in listening to a book than I am in reading one, makes an audio book easy to switch off if it’s a shocker, and an absolute joy to hear if it transports me beyond peak-hour traffic.