That audiobook I bought was 10 hours of a guy breathing into the mic

Last month I dropped $22 on an audiobook for my book club's monthly pick. It was some self-published thriller that got recommended in our group. The narrator sounded like he recorded it in a closet with a fan running. Every chapter had this heavy breathing and lip smacking sound. I made it 3 hours before I gave up and bought the paperback for $14. Then I had to finish it in 3 days to make the meeting. Has anyone else been burned by a bad audiobook narrator that ruined the whole experience?

3 comments

3 Comments

ellioth371mo ago

24 narrators for 16 books in a series I listened to last year, and only 3 of them bothered to keep character voices consistent between books. I get that pronunciation can slip some, @avery_flores17, but is it really that big of a deal? Maybe I'm just not that picky, but a bad narrator has never made me drop a book entirely. I just tune out the breathing and focus on the story.

kim.jake1mo ago

24 narrators though, that's rough @avery_flores17.

avery_flores171mo ago

Picked up on something nobody's talking about yet - audiobook narrators who clearly never read the book before recording it. Had one where the guy kept pronouncing a character's name differently in every chapter. Like he'd say "Marina" one time, then "Muh-reena" the next, then back again. It's not just bad mic quality, it's lazy preparation. Why pay someone to narrate if they haven't even skimmed the material first?