The books on CD

[Petra]

Hi OTC!

Katie said:
> [My 3-year-old] loves listening to "stories" in the car 

Petra:
Aww!  How cute is that image?

colebiancardi:
> the brit version is read by
> Stephen Fry, who is a wonderful actor(he played Oscar Wilde) and they
> are much more livelier than the US versions.

Panhandle:
> I prefer Stephen Fry's readings, but find much 
> value in Jim Dale's readings too.

Steve/bboyminn:
> While Jim Dale does have a nice clear voice, I found his inflection
> for the speech of various characters to be off. That is, it either
> didn't match what I though was a natural inflection or it wasn't
> consistent with the stated mood of the character.

Petra:
Agreed and adds Stephen Fry ( http://imdb.com/name/nm0000410 ) was
hilarious in the "Blackadder" TV series.  I do like the US version by Dale
but I *really* like Fry's version.  A bit more to savor but Fry's delicious
snarkiness is definitely pricier.

Katie:
> We just finished listening to the entire Narnia Chronicles on CD, and 
> they were read WONDERFULLY by classic British actors like Patrick 
> Stewart, Jeremy Northam, and Helen Mirren. Why couldn't we have done 
> as well for Harry?

<later>

> [Jim Dale's] voice lacks the resonance and expression of the actors
> who read the Narnia books, which are the only books I have ever
> listened to on CD.

Petra:
You may have started with the creme of the crop!  I love books on tape and
I too find that having a bad narrator pretty much kills the experience. 
The worst one I ever heard is probably "Holes" written by Louis Sachar and
narrated by Kerry Beyer.  To me, Beyer sounded like he was bored.  Oy, what
a waste of my library's money.

I rather suspect Jim Dale had to do his recording more quickly than the 
Narnia Chronicles's cast had to.  He's also a bit hampered by the fact that
he was reading a work in progress.  He's able to do only so much
foreshadowing when he doesn't know how the entire arc will go.

So, are the recordings you enjoyed read by one narrator per book?  Or did
the various actors take on different roles, sort of like a radio play?

I don't know about the rest of you but I'd buy the HP books dramatized as
radio plays.

Petra
a
n  :)

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com