#Moby dick books on tape full
#Moby dick books on tape series

#Moby dick books on tape series

Thus it excluded the BBC’s Book at Bedtime, a still-running radio series that serializes books, often read by prominent actors. The Talking Book Selection Committee for the Talking Book Library, the British service for soldiers who had become visually impaired during battle, refused in the 1930s to include abridged books. As Recorded Books founder Trentman has opined: “An abridged version-unless it’s a horrible book-is never as good as the original…really, you’re taking all the meat and just ending up with the skeleton when you’re doing abridged.” The continuing snobbishness over print books has been especially fierce where abridged audiobooks are concerned. It wasn’t a book store item.” Audiobook pioneer Caedmon, which was founded in 1952 and saw success with a Dylan Thomas recording even before it was published, saw the commercial viability of its condensed audiobooks as a virtue.

In an entertainingly unfiltered interview for the Audiobook History blog, Henry Trentman, who founded Recorded Books Inc in 1978, says: “The major publishers were concerned about time because they had to sell these things and to sell two tapes for 14 bucks was a lot easier than selling 14 tapes for $100. And of course it’s cheaper to produce abridged audiobooks compared to their full-length counterparts. In a pre–podcast marathon era, some producers believed that people had limited patience to sit through double-digit hours of audio. Over the decades, abridged versions have had several advantages. “The original audiobooks recorded in the ’30s were actually abridged-excerpts from the Bible, Helen Keller, etc.,” said Michele Cobb, the head of the Audio Publishers Association. Notice is often provided if the author approves of an abridgment. In nonfiction, editors often nix references and technical details. In fiction, this is usually backstory, long descriptions, or world-building elements that don’t add to the main narrative. Typically, an editor will go through the text, removing elements, references, and scenes that seem superfluous or redundant.

#Moby dick books on tape full

Conversely, unabridged audiobooks consist of the full literary text, kept intact as originally published.Ībridged audiobooks can be shortened between 35% and 75%. If done right, the themes, tones, and mood should all line up with the original text. Simply put, an abridged audiobook is a shortened version of the full text. Let’s start with defining the difference between unabridged and abridged audiobooks. She occasionally writes about other topics, because someone once told her (although it seemed implausible) that there’s life outside of books. Christine writes about books for Literary Hub, VICE, and the Ploughshares blog.