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From: Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written,rec.arts.comics.strips
Subject: Re: Pearls Before Swine: Books On Tape
Date: Thu, 03 Oct 2024 09:52:55 -0700
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On 2 Oct 2024 20:16:51 GMT, ted@loft.tnolan.com (Ted Nolan <tednolan>)
wrote:

>In article <vdk72q$3bulb$2@dont-email.me>,
>Lynn McGuire  <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
>>Pearls Before Swine: Books On Tape
>>    https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2024/10/02
>>
>>Books on tape count as real books.  I do not know where this tempest in=
=20
>>a teapot is coming from.
>>
>>Lynn
>>
>
>I'm ambivalent.  I let my kindle read to me on long drives and it's
>mostly fine, but then I see the reviews on Amazon where it seems
>like the people listening to the audio book editions are getting
>some kind of radio drama with the narrators doing different voices
>instead of just a recitation of the text.
>
>I don't think people getting their books that way have the same
>experience as "readers".

My first job was at a Library for the Blind. They had some Braille
books for the kids when they visited, but the bulk of their clients
used "talking books", which were converting from 33 1/3=20
RPM LPs to 16 RPM discs, which were smaller and lighter. Toward the
end of my employment there (I moved on, as young people do) a
conversion to tape (cassette, I think, but reel-to-reel is possible)
was being tested.

Those I would count as "readers". Of course, those were
straightforward readings by professional readers. And, AFAIK, every
word of every book was read and so heard.

This was (and may still be) funded by the Federal Government, although
the building and staff were provided (paid for) by the Public Library.

Commercial audio books can be dramatic presentations. One reason Bilbo
in PJs LOTR went to Ian Holm was, IIRC, because he had read Bilbo in
an audio book that was very dramatic, including (IIRC how those who
had heard it correctly) music and sound effects.=20

But it omitted Tom Bombadil. It was not, IOW, an audio book that
contained every single word of the paper edition. It was, indeed, a
performance piece. I very good one, apparently, but not the entire
book.

So I would not count those whose only experience with the book /LOTR/
is the audio book: they have /not/ read it because what they heard was
/not/ a reading of it.

Goat's reaction is, however, a bit over-the-top. And Pig is both right
and wrong, depending on whether what was listened was, in fact, the
book (every word) and not an entertainment based on the book.

Semantic goo is everywhere.
--=20
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"