Galt's Gulch

the audible Atlas: your opinion, please

Posted by $ winterwind 11 years ago to Education
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I'm looking for information on the best audio version of Atlas to recommend to someone important to me. If you have listened to it [or couldn't listen to it], let me know what you think.
I haven't listened to it [except in pieces], but I think that listening to the whole book would be better than watching the movies. True?

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  • Posted by Lucky 11 years ago
    I am a big listener of audio books while driving. It is calming and puts time to enjoyable and sometimes productive use.
    Books I have listened to and found really entrancing have been Orwell's "1984" and Card's "Ender's Game". Both were read very well, low key, cool, clear and measured without sounding slow. There are some with poor reading, usually trying too hard to get the emotion or getting pronunciation wrong.
    The best readers can get accents right, have different voices to distinguish the characters, and even the correct tone to represent the opposite sex. What I have not liked on audio are the dramatizations eg the BBC versions of Jane Austen or of Tolstoy tho' I probably would like to see them in a theater.

    I have not come across an Atlas on cassette yet (older vehicle does not have cd). On Amazon several reviewers recommend Christopher Hurt (51 hours) over Scott Brick (62 hours) as reader tho' this is a personal matter. Yes it is a lengthy book to read or for listening and you have to know the person well to judge if that is what they would enjoy.

    kh says AR's writing style is hard for the voice. Yes, 'Anthem' being more straightforward and shorter would be easier perhaps.
    winterwind- your last question- choosing an audio book or a movie - for me this is a false dichotomy (thanks MikeM). ( I would buy Atlas With Zombies and Atlas for The Carbon Conscious when they come out. )
    If you have to choose one for a present, a movie is a safe choice, but well you know the person.
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    • Posted by $ winterwind 11 years ago
      The choice is a false dichotomy for me as well, but I am not choosing for myself; I am choosing for a person who spends 4 hours a day commuting and has ruefully admitted "I'm not going to spend time to read it at this point in my life."
      I'm pleased to know that my indie short "Atlas and the Zombies" will have at least one viewer!
      SPOILER ALERT:
      Zombies go splat when the world is dropped on them.
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    • Posted by Hiraghm 11 years ago
      What I did (til I tried getting out of the car still attached and messed up my cassette deck), was get one of those cassette converters. You can plug your phone, or your mp3 player, or your portable cd player to it via the headphone jack, and and play the audio through the car's speakers. For a bit more money, of course, you can get a wireless radio transmitter attachment which will "broadcast" your phone/mp3 player output through the car radio.
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  • Posted by khalling 11 years ago
    I do not have the audio version. I think it would depend on the person. If they aren't a big reader then they might be less likely to stick with it. If there's a big trip on their horizon, well then...
    If their eyes are open, I think the movies or just ASI would be a great gift. Thousands have watched the movie and then come to the book since it first came out. As much grousing as there is about the movies-no one can change that fact. Hiraghm listened to the book.
    Personally, I think the voice talent would have a difficult time considering AR's writing style.
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