Formats of Audio Books
The most common query my website receives is: “What does unabridged audio book mean?” So I thought that it would be useful in this article to outline the different formats of audio books currently available.
Unabridged audio book. An unabridged audio book is one read / performed as the author wrote it – the whole book read from cover to cover.
Abridged audio book. An abridged audio book is one where sections have been cut out so that the focus is much more on the action. A “reader’s digest if you like.
Which is best? Now that is a tricky one to answer. For me, it is unabridged every time, but in an audio book forum recently there was one of many discussions on this that made some valid points for both. My argument is that often in the UK audio books are so heavily abridged that the book is ruined. Typical examples are Colin Dexter audios & Peter Robinson audios. They will go from 12 hours unabridged to 3 hours abridged. When driving & listening, 5 seconds of lost concentration on the audio whilst changing lanes & the plot can be lost totally.
The other point for me is that great works of literature should not be destroyed to produce a commercially viable audio book. Wuthering Heights in 5 hours? Where are the moorland descriptions? Where is the complexity of character?
There is of course a counter argument. One was from a Sunday Times journalist that was slightly tongue in cheek and ran along the lines of – “if you had to listen to the junk I have to, you would praise abridgers for the pain they save me”.
One customer of ours asked, “have ever listened to an unabridged Tom Clancy?”.
The other argument put forward was that some readers of the abridged versions are so good that they would choose the abridged version every time. The example quoted was Tony Robinson reading Terry Pratchett. I’m not persuaded by that one, because if Tony Robinson read the unabridged version, the listener would prefer the unabridged version.
About the Author
Audio Books from Audio Book Bargains
Audiobook: Good Omens by Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett
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From the Discworld $4.82 … |
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Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal [Blu-ray] $25.09 Studio: Acorn Media Release Date: 09/20/2011 Run time: 185 minutes Rating: Nr… |
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4 Classic Wyrd Sisters Old Time Radio Broadcasts on DVD (over 5 Hours 53 Minutes running time) $11.99 This unique old time radio DVD collectible features 4 digitized reels of classic Wyrd Sisters radio broadcasts and over 5 Hours 53 Minutes of total running time on 1 DVD. Take a journey back through radio broadcasting history with this large audio library of OTR memorabilia. The golden age of old time radio has been rescued, digitized, and packaged into a gift set that any classic radio lover can … |
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Snuff: A Novel of Discworld (Discworld Novels) $10.99 For nearly three decades, Terry Pratchett has enthralled millions of fans worldwide with his irreverent, wonderfully funny satires set in the fabulously imaginative Discworld, a universe remarkably similar to our own. From sports to religion, politics to education, science to capitalism, and everything in between, Pratchett has skewered sacred cows with both laughter and wisdom, and exposed our w… |
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Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch $7.46 Pratchett (of Discworld fame) and Gaiman (of Sandman fame) may seem an unlikely combination, but the topic (Armageddon) of this fast-paced novel is old hat to both. Pratchett’s wackiness collaborates with Gaiman’s morbid humor; the result is a humanist delight to be savored and reread again and again. You see, there was a bit of a mixup when the Antichrist was born, due in part to the mac… |
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The Wee Free Men (Discworld) $3.55 A nightmarish danger threatens from the other side of reality . . . Armed with only a frying pan and her common sense, young witch-to-be Tiffany Aching must defend her home against the monsters of Fairyland. Luckily she has some very unusual help: the local Nac Mac Feegle—aka the Wee Free Men—a clan of fierce, sheep-stealing, sword-wielding, six-inch-high blue men. Together they mus… |
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Good Omens (Compact Disc) $30.93 This goofy apocalyptic fantasy is a collaboration from the author of AMERICAN GODS and the author of the comic Discworld series. The Antichrist has been born, and the End of Days approaches on Earth. Crowley, a demon, and his angel friend, Aziraphale, … |