It's strange that so few people listen to audiobooks. I think people just don't know what a thrill it is!
pros
Good audiobooks create more vivid images in my head and more powerful emotions than a good movie. Perhaps this is because the images in the head are more reliable than the images on the screen. In movies, actors play roles, and I can rarely completely disengage from their performance. And here only good story and an interesting storyteller.
Eyes do not get tired of paper or screen. And so the whole day I look at the luminous dots. An hour without screens is a luxury.
Can be combined with other things that do not require a brain. Walks, trips, household chores, cooking.
Audiobooks are soothing. I stopped getting annoyed with people on the subway and on the roads when I got hooked on audiobooks.
I used to read books on my phone before going to bed. But a glowing screen does not help the brain to relax. The proximity of Facebook also did not contribute to falling asleep. And I put the phone with the audiobook on charge and broadcast on the other side of the room. When I fall asleep, the audiobook soon pauses automatically using the iTired program. It's comfortable.
Minuses
Requires the ability to maintain attention for a long time. It's easy and fun for me, but for some it's torture. Some people are unlucky.)
Information is digested worse. For complex professional literature, this is critical.
Movies and series can be watched together, but this usually does not work with audiobooks. In this they are more like books.
There are books for 6, 8 and even 12 hours. You won’t listen to this at a time, but they don’t beat them for convenient episodes for 40 minutes.
Bad reading kills all the fun. There aren't that many good audiobooks out there. There are very few well-executed audiobooks.
What audiobooks to start with
Max Fry - Echo Labyrinths
Read by Denis Verovoy
Very pleasant tales about friendship, magic and the fight against the dark masters. Performer Denis Verovoy is simply wonderful! "You never know where you'll be lucky" ;-)
Arkady and Boris Strugatsky - It's hard to be a god
Read by Leonid Yarmolnik
3h 48m
Stanislav Lem - Solaris
Performers: Vladislav Vetrov, Armen Dzhigarkhanyan, Alexander Filipenko, Tatyana Shpagina and others
3h 45m
It's not just an audiobook, it's an audio performance. Many performers read a book on roles. There is an effect of complete immersion. A book about space, extraterrestrial intelligence, human and non-human relationships. If you listen in the dark and in silence, it can become very uncomfortable.
Boris Akunin - The Adventures of Erast Fandorin
Performers are different. The correct ones are where the black cover and the Soyuz publishing house are.
The coolest of all are Azazel, State Councilor, Coronation, or the last of the novels, and The Diamond Chariot. It’s better to start with Azazel, and then the order becomes less important.
Victor Pelevin - Chapaev and Emptiness
Reader Alexander Sklyar
The first Zen Buddhist novel. Pelevin's is the best. Great performance.
Yulian Semyonov - Seventeen Moments of Spring
There, at the beginning, they perform a song - do not be alarmed, then there will be only an audiobook.
There is also a legendary Model to build
This is a radio program that has been broadcast at night since 1995 on various radio stations. For tens of thousands of people, it has become a guide to the world of audiobooks and science fiction. I also listened to her with pleasure, sometimes I sat in the car at the entrance for an extra hour - it was interesting how it would all end there. But now it's hard to listen to her. Too specific and loud background music. And many books in abbreviation. The coolest stories, for example, Ray Bradbury. You can find and download from the catalog on the website of the Club models for assembly.
Where to buy, how to download, how to listen
I buy audiobooks from Litres. If it's not there, I download it on Rutracker. Then I search on the internet. Litres still has good mobile applications. When I had an iPhone, I downloaded audiobooks in m4b format, added them to iTunes, and from there to my phone. If necessary, converted mp3 to m4b using Markable . Now android and most often I listen directly from the LitRes application. It's not bad, but the battery eats a lot.
How to start
It is better to listen to the first audiobooks in the same way as watching good movies or series - attentively and without distractions. And then move on to the options “on the road”, “against the background” or “before bedtime”.
Try it!
P.S. Who also listens to audiobooks, advise something good in the comments.
Now you can find a huge selection of audiobooks on various topics, whether it's business, biographies or fiction. Audiobooks are a growing industry right now. In an age of fast life, a new way of absorbing literature is needed. This is where audiobooks come in handy. However, not all books stand out for good performance. Let's try to figure out what are, how to choose audiobooks and list the best readers.
A bit of history
The first audiobooks appeared in 1932. Initially, they were offered to the visually impaired and released free of charge. Their timing was only a few minutes. Around the same time, radio dramas began to appear on the radio. On October 30, 1938, a significant event took place - Orson Welles and his colleagues staged The War of the Worlds, and many US residents, not hearing that this was a performance, began to panic because of the arrival of aliens.
The most notorious radio show. Americans have confused the audio performance with the arrival of aliens
In 1952, the first commercial audiobook on LP was released. In the late 1960s, audiobooks began to be released on audio cassettes. Up until the early 21st century, the audiobook business existed, but rather sluggishly. But already in the new century, the industry began to flourish, disks and the Internet began to spread widely. Gradually, amateurs are connected to professional readers. For the last couple of years, books in audio format have been treated with less negativity and that's it. more books released at the same time as the printed version.
Types of audiobooks
So, in essence, we have three options - listen to a professional team that is recorded in studios; an amateur team consisting of an announcer and a sound editor who do everything at home, or some amateur who does everything alone.
More and more audiobooks are being released by publishers as soon as the print edition is released. If you buy an audiobook in official online stores or listen to them in special services, then there will be only high-quality books read by professional announcers or theater and film actors. Among these actors you can meet Khabensky, Smekhov, Vitorgan and others. We have known their voices since childhood and they read perfectly.
Among other professional readers, Vyacheslav Gerasimov, Irina Yerisanova or Artem Karapetyan can be distinguished - these are the announcers of the old, still Soviet school. They speak for a long time and thoroughly. Personally, their work does not attract me much - they mostly voice the classics and the manner of their performance is too slow - purely Subjective opinion. But their contribution to the scoring of audiobooks is invaluable.
There is another interesting audiobook format − audio plays or radio plays. The format when the book is read by several actors - usually for radio broadcasts. They originated in the 30s of the last century. However, it should be understood that often The audio plays are an incomplete version of the book, and adapted and scaled down to invest in timing and radio format. Among my favorites are The Great Gatsby and The Dark Tower (more on that below).
If you download an audiobook from torrents or listen to it on any sites, you can get into completely disgusting readers who do not have the necessary equipment and experience. I will not list them, as I avoid similar ones in every possible way. Download the samples and listen a little to understand if the voice and sound quality suits you.
And the most common option is semi-professional readers, who usually have their own sound editor. Their work on high level and books they choose more interesting to the modern reader. They usually say in the description LI - amateur performance. These readers can also be found in official stores and services. I will list many of them below.
Best Audiobook Readers
Well, now I will list my favorite performers with their advantages and, sometimes, their shortcomings. And, of course, audiobooks that are worth listening to in their performance.
Roman Volkov
Must listen: The Dark Tower by Stephen King
Listen to a sample:
Roman Volkov usually works in a team with other professional and not very professional actors - his Vargtroms Studio has been stubbornly voicing the Dark Tower cycle for many years and has almost come to the end of the story. It is The Dark Tower that they are doing in the form of an audio performance, only full version. This is a very high quality work.
Along the way, Roman voices other, less significant books.
Vlad Kopp
Must listen:"Generation "P"" by Viktor Pelevin
Listen to a sample:
Vlad Kopp is a professional voice-over artist for movies, computer games, videos for YouTube channels. And for a very long time he led the radio program “Model for Assembly”, in which he read mostly fantastic stories. But sometimes whole novels came across. And all this with cool electronic music. "MDS" eventually migrated to the Internet, so it's easy to find old and new works by Kopp.
DrLutz
Must listen:"American Gods" by Neil Gaiman
Listen to a sample:
I have not been able to find out who is hiding under this nickname. All I could find were a couple of photos (I hope they are his). But the stories about Jeeves and Wooster in his performance become even funnier, although it seemed impossible. But his best work is " american gods". Unfortunately, DrLutz has not voiced anything new for a long time.
Sergei Chonishvili
Must listen:"Martin Eden" door Jack London
Listen to a sample:
1. Sergei Chonishvili
The most famous books voiced by Sergei Chonishvili: detective stories by Boris Akunin about Erast Fandorin, novels "S.N.U.F.F." and “Love for Three Zuckerbrins” by Viktor Pelevin, “Fishermen and Winegrowers” by Mikhail Kharit.
The voice of the famous actor Sergei Chonishvili voiced most of the audio books in Russian. Such a connoisseur of literature among the actors still look for! And not only literature: in most famous films("Avengers", "Double Furious", "47 Ronin") the characters speak in his voice. The famous “Emmanuil Gedeonovich” from Election Day is also Sergey Chonishvili. Deep sound, intonation control, a “live” voice that allows you to make the text convex and atmospheric - that's all it is. If the novel is well-read by Chonishvili, then this is, firstly, an excellent book, and secondly, you are guaranteed to listen to it to the end. His most recent work is Mikhail Kharit's novel Fishermen and Vineyards, a powerful fantasy about the approaching apocalypse.
2. Igor Knyazev
The most famous books in voice acting by Igor Knyazev:"The House Where..." Mariam Petrosyan, "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Dorr, novels by Haruki Murakami, "Mr. Mercedes" by Stephen King.
Igor Knyazev "entered" audiobooks from the technical side. A professional sound engineer, one day he decided to make a gift to his wife and read her favorite book. It was love at first sight - books to the reader and the reader to the books. Since then, Igor has not only dubbed books, but has also been the founder of the small chamber audio theater "Abuki", whose members turn any book into a full-fledged audio performance with sound and musical special effects. Musical arrangement - main distinguishing feature all books read by Igor Knyazev.
3. Alexander Klyukvin
The most famous books voiced by Alexander Klyukvin: Boris Akunin's novels about Erast Fandorin, JK Rowling's books about Harry Potter, Batman Apollo by Viktor Pelevin.
Theater and film actor Alexander Klyukvin is a master of all voices. Morpheus speaks in his trademark voice in the game Fallout and Forrest Gump in the film of the same name. If Klyukvin takes up any book, then we are waiting for a professional theater of one actor. The ability to speak in different voices, to emphasize the significance of a particular moment in the life of a hero, to create tension makes him indispensable when dubbing adventure literature. No wonder it was Klyukvin who was given the reading of JK Rowling's Harry Potter novels.
4. Alexander Filippenko
The most famous books voiced by Alexander Filippenko:"Planet "Water" by Boris Akunin, "Solaris" by Stanislav Lem, stories by Mikhail Zoshchenko.
There are not many recorded audio works on the account of the famous theater and film actor Alexander Filippenko. His main forte is solo performances, reading fragments of books from the stage. Filippenko works not only with his voice, but also with facial expressions, alone holding the attention of the viewer. His famous solo performances One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Laughter of the Fathers are an evening of Soviet satire by Zoshchenko and Nikolai Erdman, selected prose by Sergei Dovlatov. But even the opportunity to listen to Alexander Filippenko's performances in a recording, in audiobook format, is a great gift.
5. Alexey Borzunov
The most famous books voiced by Alexei Borzunov:"Perfumer. The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind, Dracula by Bram Stoker.
The dubbing king Alexei Borzunov is known by his voice to millions of Soviet housewives. For them, he is Luis Alberto Salvatierra from the TV series The Rich Also Cry. Children remember him as Scrooge McDuck from " duck stories". But in fact, Alexei Borzunov is an actor in the dramatic genre, which is why he is most successful in reciting classics and such dramatic works as Suskind's Perfumer.
6. Alexander Bordukov
The most famous books voiced by Alexander Bordukov: a series of books about Petson and Findus by Sven Nurdqvist, stories about Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle.
The main merit of the theater and film actor Alexander Bordukov is the voice acting of Arthur Conan Doyle's famous stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes. For fans of Vasily Livanov, it was surprising how accurately Bordukov was able to transfer his voice famous hero to audio format. By the way, Bordukov also voiced a lot of classics, his main pearl is Francis Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.
7. Vadim Maximov
The most famous books voiced by Vadim Maksimov: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury fantasy novels Henry Lion Oldie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, The Pit by Alexander Kuprin, Homer's Iliad.
If you want well-read science fiction, look for books voiced by Vadim Maksimov. The main strong point of this reader is the ability to tell a story with intonation, making it so that each character’s remark resonates in you with a personal experience.
What unites a businessman driving a car, a student in the morning subway and a housewife cleaning? The answer is simple - the ability to read a book. Today, even for the busiest person, it is accessible and simple: listen to your favorite work in audio format. In addition to a headset or speakers, you will, of course, need the book itself. The rating of the best audiobooks presented in the article will help you understand all their diversity. It describes the genres, titles and names of those who bring the work to life.
Best Audiobooks: Fantastic Ranking
Fantastic works are perhaps the most popular among readers of books in audio format. The plot has no long artistic descriptions The storytelling is fast paced and intriguing. Therefore, the effect of listening to such a book can be compared with watching an action movie. But it depends, of course, on the quality of the presentation. The following works can boast of this:
- The works of the Strugatsky brothers "Inhabited Island", "Monday Starts on Saturday", "It's Hard to Be God" and others occupy a leading position in the list of "Best Audiobooks: Fantastic" rating. They were voiced by L. Yarmolnik, A. Rezalin or M. Chernyak. But each of them is a separate fascinating story about a fictional, but so familiar to everyone world.
- Audiobooks by Max Fry rightfully deserved the second position: "Debut in Echo", "The Outsider", "Nests of Chimeras". The voice acting of D. Verovoy perfectly conveys the atmosphere of a detective story, science fiction, illusions, unusual irony or harsh humor.
- The works of S. Lukyanenko "Clean" and "Nedotep" voiced by A. Andrienok are light, fascinating prose about a fictional world and a lonely hero who fights in it and writes his own story.
- The fantasy world described in the work of D. Glukhovsky "Metro 2033" combines the best traditions of the genre - fictional monster characters, saving the world and modern hero. The voice acting belongs to E. Kamenetsky.
Audiobooks: modern prose
- "Flowers for Algernon" by D. Keyes is a heartfelt story that combines elements of psychology, fantasy and romanticism. It is read in one breath, and in the voice acting of S. Yanishevsky, it rightfully becomes the leader of the rating.
- The rating of the best audiobooks continues "Bury me behind the plinth" by P. Sanaev in his own voice acting. Who, if not the author, will better convey what is described - the atmosphere Soviet childhood through the eyes of a child, love, betrayal and the world in general?
- "Fight Club" by C. Palahniuk is a cult work that acquires a special coloring in the performance of D. Zemtsov. Read or listen, but don't tell anyone about fight club!
- "The house in which ..." M. Petrosyan is a magically real, artistic, but from the real world, fascinating book voiced by I. Knyazev.
- "Game of Thrones" by J. Martin shocked the world not only with a literary presentation, but also with a high-quality film adaptation. It's time to evaluate the work in the audio version performed by Dmitry and Elena Polonetsky.
Classics: Audiobook Ranking
- "The Master and Margarita" - the ageless book of M. Bulgakov received new life thanks to the work of A. Klyukvin, M. Sukhanov and D. Moroz.
- The dubbing of the works of father and son Dumas "The Three Musketeers" and "The Count of Monte Cristo" by V. Gerasimov brings them an honorable 2nd place.
- "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka" by Gogol came to life with the voice of A. Klyukvin and continues to delight lovers of life-affirming and kind works.
- The performer of the book "Three Comrades" Remarque V. Antonik will plunge into the world of true friendship, love and humanity.
- Melville's "Moby Dick" has become even more charming and captivating thanks to the voice of V. Gemasimov.
- "Crime and Punishment" by Dostoevsky is rightfully included in the list of all best books. No exception - and audio, which also belongs to V. Gerasimov.
Educational and scientific literature: rating
Popular literature also has the best audiobooks. The rating of readers in this genre can be represented as follows:
- "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by R. Kiyosaki and S. Lecter - an original guide to the relationship between the material condition of the family and the upbringing of children.
- A. Carr, "An easy way to quit smoking" - a book with a title that speaks for itself. Feedback from readers indicates that the method proposed by the author really works.
- "The Subconscious Can Do Anything" by J. Kehoe is a popular book about activating the brain and self-programming for a happy life.
- "The Psychology of Influence" by R. Cialdini is a work not only for specialists. A collection of effective practices that will help you influence people and protect yourself from unwanted attention.
- "How to Make Anyone Fall in Love with You" by L. Landes is another witty guide with a flashy title. Talks about 6 components of romantic love.
Audiobooks for children
- "The Little Prince" Exupery is deservedly considered a textbook of goodness and universal values. The book is required reading not only for children, but also for adults who are mired in pressing problems. The voice acting is presented by K. Khabensky and M. Efremov.
- The cycle of stories about Harry Potter is a whole culture today. Joanne Rowling and her brainchild are voiced for the audio book format by the talented performer A. Klyukvin.
- Children's literature is impossible to imagine without Tom Sawyer and his avid friend Huck Finn. The performer of the book A. Kotov can let the heroes of Mark Twain into the world of boyish adventures.
- A whole audio performance is dedicated to the adventures of the girl Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass - fairy-tale worlds created by L. Carroll. The actions of the book were voiced by V. Abdulov and G. Ivanova, as well as by V. Bondarev, M. Khvorostova and O. Dolonina.
Top Audiobook Artists: Ranking
The quality of an audiobook depends not so much on its genre, but on the quality of performance. After all, the first means exclusively the personal literary preferences of a person, and there will be as many opinions here as there are people. The audio format involves the transformation of visual information into auditory. The same book will be perceived in completely different ways if it is read aloud. different people. Therefore, there are those who manage it better than others. The timbre of their voice, intonation, emotional involvement and make it possible to create a rating of the best audiobooks.
Often this kind of activity is carried out by theater and film actors. In addition to dubbing foreign films, they are also trusted to read the plot of books. But these are quite rare cases. There are those people who do this more often and are professionals in their field. about them and will be discussed further.
- Alexey Borzunov - the voice of such famous works, like "Perfume", "The Picture of Dorian Gray", "The White Guard", "The Humiliated and Insulted" and other books in which it is important to convey the tragedy and realism of life.
- Alexander Klyukvin. He owns the voice acting of fundamental classical works, such as "War and Peace", "The Inspector General", "The Master and Margarita", as well as more modern ones - stories about Harry Potter. The voice of this man is also familiar to fans of the cult series about Alpha. A distinctive feature is the ability to convey the character and mood of very different, dissimilar characters.
- Vyacheslav Gerasimov - an announcer with 30 years of experience, a master of intonation and the author of voice acting for many cult works of classical and modern prose: " Dead Souls", "Idiot", "Black Stones", "Wheel of Happiness" and many others.
- Maxim Pinsker is the owner of a charming low timbre of voice, which gave readers the opportunity to hear such classical works as "The Captain's Daughter", "Three Comrades", "Lolita" and many others.
- Alexander Kotov is the voice of tragicomic works, who managed to dub stories about Tom Sawyer, "Ivanhoe", "Notre Dame Cathedral", "Red and Black".
- Alexander Bordukov, who owns the voice of characters from stories about Sherlock Holmes, Madame Bovary, The Great Gatsby.
- Ivan Litvinov, a talent for a very accurate transfer of the characters' characters and the atmosphere of the work. The works of Bulgakov, Orwell, King, Dostoevsky and many others, beloved by many, have been read in his voice.
- Alexander Khorlin is a true master in the verbal depiction of exciting journeys, adventures and heroes with out-of-the-box thinking. These are "Gulliver's Adventures", and "Crime and Punishment", and "Lord of the Flies", and "Collector".
- Oleg Buldakov is a diverse personality who has tried himself in many professions, his main instrument is his voice. He went from a radio DJ to a TV presenter and, of course, a performer of audio versions of books. Many of King's works, "Wasp Factory", "Truth" are his best audio books.
The rating of the works and the people who voiced them can be supplemented. It can change every year. One thing is constant - even with the development of technology, the number of readers does not change. On the contrary, progress makes it possible to read favorite works in conditions that are not intended for this. And this trend can not but rejoice.
