Best audio book narration website7/24/2023 This ensures that I almost never listen to an audiobook I don’t like.īoth Audible and Libro allow you to listen to short samples of books even if you aren’t a subscriber. I usually combine listening to a sample with reading a review (if I can find one). The best way to determine if you’re going to like an audiobook is to listen to a sample. Of course, in the end, a review can only tell you so much about a book. If you’re looking for thoughtful audiobook reviews that center the narration, Audible is not your best bet, but if you just want a snapshot of how listeners react to a narrator’s performance, it’s a good resource. These Truths by Jill Lepore, for example, only has a 3.8 star performance rating, and many listeners comment that they found the narration difficult. It is also interesting to note that when reviewers don’t like the narration, they’re more likely to mention it. As an example, Becoming by Michelle Obama has a 4.9 star performance rating. If you want a quick sense of how much people like an audiobook, glancing at the “performance” rating can be useful. The only reason I mention it here is because listeners can give books star ratings, which are broken down into “overall,” “performance,” and “story”. Most reviewers will simply say something along the lines of “great narration!” rather than commenting on the particular strengths or weakness of the narrator. While Audible users can post reviews after listening to an audiobook (and anyone can view these, even if you aren’t a subscriber), reviews rarely mention the narration. You’d think Audible would be a great place to go for audiobook reviews, but you’d be wrong. Booklist also puts out a free audiobooks newsletter, which features audiobook reviews. They do sometimes feature audio reviews free on their website, but because they are so few and constantly changing, it’s hit-and-miss whether you’ll find a review that’s useful to you. If you’re a librarian or work for an organization that subscribes, this is a great way to find audiobook reviews, as you can search their extensive database. They do publish audio-specific reviews, but because it’s a subscription service, it’s not the best resource for individual readers (an annual subscription, which includes 22 issues and access to their online reviews, is $169.50). It’s a recommendation-only journal, which means that they recommend all the titles they review for purchase at public and school libraries. Booklistīooklist is a publication of the American Library Association. The newsletter also collects great audiobook content from Book Riot and around the internet. Vanessa not only highlights new releases, always with some notes about the narrator(s), but always includes a favorite recent listen, complete with a review of the performance. If you’re looking for recommendations for stellar narrators, full-cast audiobooks, audiobooks read by authors, short audiobooks, romance audiobooks, or practically anything else, we’ve got you covered.īook Riot also puts out a fantastic weekly audiobooks newsletter, which I highly recommend. While we don’t publish straight-up reviews, we do have a lot of great audiobook content. The Audiobooks Group is quite active, as is the Romance Audiobook Group. There are also some Goodreads groups focused on audiobooks, where you can find recommendations, ask for recommendations, and discuss all things audio. I shelve all my audiobooks on Goodreads and always try to include at least a short note about the narration in my reviews. You can also check to see if your Goodreads friends or reviewers you follow have an audiobooks shelf. You sometimes have to skim through the review to find the parts that address the narration, but if you’re already reading reviews on Goodreads, it can be useful. I’ve found that using terms like “audiobook,” “narration,” and “audio” will generally give you reviews that specifically mention the audiobook. Right above the reviews for a book, you’ll see a small search bar that looks like this: The easiest way is to search the review text for terms relating to audiobooks. While Goodreads isn’t exactly set up for audiobook reviews, there are some tricks you can use to seek them out. If you’re trying to determine whether or not to read a book on audio, AudioFile should definitely be your first stop.
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