Driver Lifestyles
Listening on the Long Haul
Shocking!
Intriguing!
Compelling!
These and other adjectives could be used to describe the impressive rise in popularity of audiobooks, especially among truckers and other drivers.
Now a multi-billion dollar industry growing at a rate faster than print books, audiobooks combine the appeal of skillful storytelling with the freedom to do other things while listening to bestsellers. Namely, things like driving or relaxing in the bunk.
In any car or truck, there is the terrestrial radio of course, with Top 40 tunes and golden oldies playing endlessly amid all those annoying commercials. Many drivers now have satellite radio with seemingly endless programming choices, but at some point boredom sets in, the mind goes numb, and as the saying goes, that's a terrible thing to waste.
Enter audiobook entertainment. Books on cassette, CD or even online now come in all flavors, for every taste. Adventure, mystery, romance, fantasy, sci-fi, western, biography, self help - take your pick.
With almost a hundred publishers now doing audio productions, the availability of both new and old titles is vast and growing, in both abridged and unabridged formats, and on cassette, CD and downloads.
While the industry is dominated by Random House, Warner, and Simon & Schuster, there are dozens of smaller publishers doing high quality work as well.
Names like Frank Muller, George Guidall, Barbara Rosenblat, and Dick Hill may not be familiar to those who have not yet tried audiobooks, but they are stars in their own right, along with the more famous film actors who also read into a microphone, like Burt Reynolds, Ed Asner, Tony Roberts, Lynn Redgrave, and John Rubenstein.
Keep in mind that, unlike hardcover’s, audiobooks can be rented.
While libraries tend to carry mainly older titles, all the latest bestsellers and new titles are available for sale or rent at many truckstops.
"I've been listening to audiobooks for many years," says straight truck owner-operator Linda Caffee. "I like everything (except murder mysteries) but I find that it depends on the reader."
"I listen to the books on my IPod because it saves my place and I only listen to the unabridged versions; I hate it when they cut out the details!"
Sources
Audio Adventures has 550 locations, with seven-day rental from $3.90 to $13.50. Books in Motion carries unabridged originals at 300-plus locations, with a range of prices and times. And Cracker Barrel Old Country Stores have 423 locations inside their restaurants in 40 states.
In CBs case, you purchase a title at one location, and may return it at another for a refund minus $3 per week the book is kept. The other rental companies allow you to return the audiobook to another location too.
If you prefer to rent unabridged titles instead of abridged, you can also rent online at BooksinMotion.com, BooksonTape.com or RecordedBooks.com. Abridged titles and original-publisher-produced titles can be purchased online as well, at Audiobooksales.com or Audioadventures.com.
In whatever format, most audiobooks are released at the same time as hardcover first releases, and at roughly the same purchase price, unless the publisher of the original hardcover does not have an audio department, in which case an audio-only publisher is licensed to release the title on audio.
Often a publisher like Putnam Berkley will issue only an abridged version of their new book, utilizing their own audio division, and license another company like Books on Tape to do an unabridged version.
In rare instances, both the original publisher and an audio-only publisher release the same title in the same format, although usually with a different reader.
Unabridged versus abridged
Because of people's busy lives and the costs of producing an audio book, most audio books are shortened, or abridged. Some of the book text is removed in the audio version to save time and money.
How does this happen? For a fiction book, oftentimes the back story is cut. Peripheral parts of the plot could also end up on the cutting room floor.
In non-fiction books, content like examples and stories may be lost. Although most books are released in abridged audio book form, some popular titles are released in both abridged and unabridged.
What is an unabridged audio book? An unabridged audio book is an audio book where every word of the original text is read aloud. These books are especially of interest to people who have poor eyesight or are blind.
If a book is released with both versions, the abridged version will be cheaper than the unabridged version. Look at these examples of audio book CDs and notice the difference in reading time:
The 6th Target by James Patterson
Unabridged - 8.25 hours
Abridged - 6 hours 20 minutes
Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson
Unabridged - 21.5 hours
Abridged - 7 hours
So, which is better, an unabridged or abridged audio book? If you want a shorter and cheaper version of the book, get the abridged audio book version. Want to experience the full text of the book the way the author intended? Pick up an unabridged copy.
The voice
Just as books vary in their quality, though, so do readers. A great reader can make a mediocre book sound good, and a bad reader can make a good book sound bad.
The trick is in finding the best readers for the best books, and when the marriage is great, the awards come. These include Audie Awards from the Audio Publishers Association and the Earphones Awards from Audiofile magazine.
Everyone has his or her own favorite authors and narrators. Diane Franklin is an expedited cargo van owner-operator who says, "I listen to everything except political stuff. I like mysteries, romance, Dean Koontz...abridged or unabridged, it doesn't matter."
"I get them from my local library and I can extend the time out to 9 weeks. My library has a pretty good selection and I listen to both cassette and CD."
Whether it's Danielle Steel or Clive Cussler, John Grisham or Tom Clancy, there's something for everyone. All you need is an audiobook to accompany you on those long miles down the road.
Resources