[bookshare-discuss] Re: audio books abridged..

  • From: Karen Lewellen <klewellen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2006 22:17:43 -0500 (EST)

Hi,
Again my understanding has always been that the short editions are marketing tools. I dislike them too and buy print books for this and a number of other reasons.
I actually sought out and bought my very first abridged books this year, but the motivation was rather unique and not likely to be repeated. all the others i have were gifts.
I think only one of these is the whole thing, although I will have to check.
I believe the idea of recording books in their entirety is a rather new commercial concept at least.
I might add though this is off topic that I do not do descriptive video either.

Karen

On Sat, 18 Feb 2006, Cindy wrote:

A lot of audiio books seem to  be abridged. I was
surprised to notice that when selecting audio books
for a friend of mine who hates abridged books. In our
bookstore we have a lot that have been donated, and I
brought home quite a few for her to choose from among
and they were all abridged. After that I looked
carefully at both ones the librarians were discarding
and others that were donated to us, and extermely few
were unabridged. I have no idea why that would be.
Several said "approved by the author."  I admit that I
skip some descriptions in some books and get to the
story, but that should be my choice, not someone
else's.

Cindy

--- Karen Lewellen <klewellen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

That story does not surprise me.
When I met Noah Adams at a Corporation for Public
Broadcasting meeting and
told him of his titles in the NLS program he said
the same thing.  why did
not they ask me to read it?
I agree with those about  the fact NLS is playing
with abridged material,
in theory at least.  i saw someone suggesting that "
sighted people" came
up with the abridged concept etc as if this were
some kind of conspiracy
against the blind, and that is really silly since
the audio
book exists in that format to encourage people to
buy the print ones, or
for those who want to read on the go in a way.
Goodness many who could
use the NLS program do not even know of its
existence.

Still I am going to phone the national  headquarters
next week and ask
them.
The purpose of the library in the first place was to
create  access to
full text  for those who indeed could not take  part
in their public
libraries.
I will have to get the Nixon book too.
Karen

On Sat, 18 Feb 2006, Evan Reese wrote:

Back in the 80s? I think, Larry King - the talk
show host, not the other
author with the same name - wrote an autobiography
which NLS recorded.
Someone called him up one night and mentioned that
it was available as a
talking book, and he was a little miffed that he
wasn't asked to read his own 
book.  He said he would have done it.

If you want to listen to a former president read a
book, RFB&D has a book,
"Real Peace" by Richard Nixon, read by Richard
Nixon. As far as I know, it
is unabridged; he read the whole thing. It's not
a very long book, nothing 
compared to Clinton's monster.

----- Original Message ----- From: "Karen
Lewellen" 
<klewellen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, February 18, 2006 6:13 PM
Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Re: How Many NLS
Members? (was) Re: Bad scan 
Wheel of...


 Oh,
 The first one is as it says not an NLS book, but
they took the random
house audio-book, which are often abridged and
just made a NLS style copy.
That is not recorded by nls as your second entry
illustrates.
Wonder why they just did not ask Bill to read
the book for the service,
unless this would have been against the
randomhouse contract.
Many years ago one could fine even NLS titles
read by the authors
themselves. For example the first copy of "I
know why the caged bird
sings," was read by the author, and the first
copy of Edward alby's play
"who's afraid of Virginia wouf," was actually an
audio recording of the 
 stage production.
 Perhaps an effort to give listener's some
advance idea of how the digital
talking books will sound? I have not followed
it closely, but I hope that
technology will still make use of human
narrators. 
 Karen

 On Sat, 18 Feb 2006, Evan Reese wrote:

 Here's the proof:

 Author:        Clinton, Bill, 1946-
 Title:         My life [sound recording]  /
Bill Clinton. 
 Edition:       Abridged.
 Published:     New York, N.Y. : Random House
Audio, c2004.
(Distributed in special format for the Library
of Congress by 
 Talking Book Publishers)
 Description:   2 sound cassettes (C-90) :
analog, 15/16 ips, 4 
 track, mono.
 Book Number:   RC 58101
 Dewey No.:     973.929092 B ANF
 ISBN:          0739317059
 Notes:         A shared master program book.
The Random House
Audio recording has been adapted by NLS. The
publication has
been changed to 15/16 ips, 4 track format.
Side announcements 
 have been added.
 Digital master.

However they did record the original version
as well: 

 Author:        Clinton, Bill, 1946-
 Title:         My life [sound recording] /
Bill Clinton.
Published: New York, N.Y. : Random House
Audio, c2004.
(Distributed in special format for the Library
of Congress by 
 Talking Book Publishers)
 Description:   9 sound cassettes in two
containers (C-90) : 
 analog, 15/16 ips, 4 track, mono.
 Book Number:   RC 58100
 Dewey No.:     973.929092 B ANF
 ISBN:          0375414576
 Notes:         A shared master program book.
The Random House
Audio recording has been adapted by NLS. The
publication has
been changed to 15/16 ips, 4 track format.
Side announcements 
 have been added.

Actually, they didn't record either one at the
talking book studios the
way they usually make talking books by the
looks of things, which might
explain how they got them out so fast. I
don't know which one came out
first, though they both came out quicker than
usual.

----- Original Message ----- From: "Karen
Lewellen" 
 <klewellen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
 To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
 Sent: Saturday, February 18, 2006 4:59 PM
 Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Re: How Many NLS
Members? (was) Re: Bad 
 scan Wheel of...


  Hi,
  What proof do you have that the clinton
auto biography was abridged? 
 NLS
  never records abridged versions, as this
would serve no one.
Also, on some occasions NLS has an
arrangement with the publisher to 
 have
 access to books either just before or  at
the exact time of printing. 
 Such
 speeds up the time it takes in getting a
book on the library shelves, 
 but
 can also in the case of book to movie
adaptations result in some 
 different
  endings than either the films themselves or
later publications of 
  those
  kinds of books.
  I am an NLS fan always will be.  Bookshare
will not be able to equal 
 the
  NLS reach or quality for a variety of
reasons in my view.
nor should it. there should be a choice
here as with other things. 

  Karen

  On Sat, 18 Feb 2006, Evan Reese wrote:

Was that the abridged version? I thought
they got it out faster
than usual, and I thought that was a
really long book for them to
get done so quickly. That must have been
the reason.

Also, if you can spring for one of those
Handicassettes, you can
change the speed of the narrator's voice
without changing the pitch.
I think they're overpriced, but I use it
all the time to read books 
 and magazines on tape.

   ----- Original Message -----
   From: Gailselfridge@xxxxxxx
   To: bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
   Sent: Friday, February 17, 2006 11:15 AM
   Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Re: How
Many NLS Members? (was) Re: 
   Bad
 scan Wheel of...


I agree with Shannon. I just read a Nora
Roberts series and I'm sure
NLS will have it eventually, but I didn't
have to wait. Also, when I
started with Bookshare, I read Bill
Clinton's biography, the whole
thing. NLS had it at about the same time,
but it was the abridged
version and I wanted to read all of it.
And I find I can read faster
with bookshare books because I use my
screen reader and can increase
the speed to a much faster rate than is
used by NLS narrators. The
only way I can do this with NLS books is
to increase tape speed 
 which distorts the narrator's voice.

Gail
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