Top Ten Tuesday: Celebrity audiobook narrators

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the them

e is Favorite Audiobook Narrators (or, if you don’t listen to audiobooks, name people—celebrities or otherwise—who might make you reconsider.) I have decided to go with celebrity audiobook narrators, but I am trying to not choose examples where they are reading their own autobiography. Not that there is anything wrong with that, and it might make a good topic another day, but not today.

Richard Armitage - It's no coincidence that I have started with RA. I mean...that voice equals aural bliss. I have listened to a number of books narrated by him. My absolute favourites are his narrations of Georgette Heyers books including Venetia and a couple of others. Might be time to listen to those again.

Emma Thompson - In my Audible library I have the Turn of the Screw. The introduction is narrated by Richard Armitage but the rest of the book is narrated by Emma Thompson.

Joanne Froggatt - Best known for her role in Downton Abbey, Joanna Froggatt narrated The Clockmakers Daughter

Stephen Fry - Fry narrates a lot of his own books, but for the purposes of this post I am interested in his narration of the Harry Potter books.

Dan Stevens - Stevens has narrated a number of books. It was only as I was writing this post that I realised that he has narrated a couple of Carlos Ruiz Zafon's book. I see one of those audiobooks in my future.

Wil Wheaton - Best known for his role on Star Trek, Wheaton narrated both Ready Player One and The Martian which I recently enjoyed.

Kathy Bates - I listened to her narrate an abridged version of A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley years ago. I didn't love it but it does count for the purposes of this post.

Bill Nighy - The last couple of years I have listened to Hogfather by Terry Pratchett. The main narration is by reading Sian Clifford, Death is voiced by Peter Serafinowicz and the footnotes by Bill Nighy.

Tony Robinson - The earlier version of Hogfather was narrated by Tony Robinson. I love watching his TV shows from Time Team to his shows about London, about trains, about anything really.

Phillipa Soo -If we talk about more modern stories, the I am going to mention The Stand In by Philippa Soo. I first heard of Philippa Soo when she starred in Hamilton.

Have you listened to any of these celebrities read audiobooks? Or other?

Six Degrees of Separation: The Turn of the Screw to Ready Player One

Welcome to this month's edition of Six Degrees of Separation, which is a monthly meme hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best.  The idea is to start with a specific book and make a series of links from one book to the next using whatever link you can find and see where you end up after six links.  I am also linking this post up with The Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.






This month's starting point is The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. I haven't read Henry James before, so both that fact, that it is short and also that is a spooky read made it a perfectly ideal time to read it. I could also count it for the RIP XV challenge, and that was going to be my theme for Six Degrees of Separation - books that I have read for RIP  (Readers Imbibing Peril) challenges over the years. It was a solid plan right?

You know that there is a but or a however coming though.

In order to read it, I decided to listen to it on audiobook. Just over 4 hours to listen to is doable. And so I began to listen, and was in for a surprising treat when I realise that the first couple of chapters are narrated by Richard Armitage, and then the meat of the story is narrated by Emma Thompson, who I find very soothing to listen to.  So, instead of the more obvious theme of spooky reads, my theme this month is going to be audiobooks with a celebrity narrator.

Sylvester by Georgette Heyer - This morning I spent some time reading posts from 10 years ago which show just how obsessed I was with Richard Armitage. I mean, it's understandable, but still. One of the reasons I do like to gush fangirl, I mean admire him is as as audiobook narrator. He has now done around 40 or so. I have listened to a couple of other books narrated by him, but it really is the Georgette Heyer books he has narrated that I go back to time and again. And every time I do listen to one of these my review is bound to contain the words aural bliss or something similar. The other Heyer books he has narrated are Venetia and The Convenient Marriage. Venetia is great too.

The Further Tales of Peter Rabbit by Emma Thompson -  It would have been remiss of me to have not included an audiobook narrated by Emma Thompson given that she narrates the vast majority of The Turn of the Screw. I was, however, surprised to see that she has written a couple of Peter Rabbit books that she has then narrated.

Mythos by Stephen Fry - Another example of a celebrity who is an author reading their own audiobooks is Stephen Fry who has narrated many of his own books. He also famously narrated the Harry Potter books when they came out. I have listened to the first of series of short stories that were Audible exclusives and really enjoyed those so I do intend to listen to more by him.

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman - If Stephen Fry is an example of a celebrity who is an author, then Neil Gaiman is pretty close to being an author who is a celebrity, and someone else who likes to narrate his own audiobooks, not to mention the mythology link here. When we went to hear him speak back in February, he did a reading of the new childrens book that is about to be released called Pirate Stew. I think one of the reasons I like hearing authors narrate their own books, if they are good at it, is that you can hear the expression and emphasis as they meant for it to be heard.

One Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley - There are occasions when the celebrity narrator (or any narrator really) doesn't work for a book, and for me that was true of this book. It didn't help that the book was abridged and I didn't realise it but the narration wasn't for me either. Given that I listened to this 15 years ago (on cassette tape no less) it is probably time for me to let it go, but it certainly has turned out to be memorable for all the wrong reasons.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline - I wanted to finish on a positive not though! This is not one I have listened to, but I have heard so many rave reviews about Will Wheaton as the narrator. He is also going to be the narrator on the sequel, Ready Player Two, when it comes out later this year so I think I might listen to it instead of reading it!

So there you have it! The Six Degrees of Separation celebrity audiobook narrator edition.

Next month the starting point is the book that you finished this month with, so I will be starting with Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Goodness only knows where that chain is going to end up.