Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Bad Audio Book Experience



Recently, I have been listening to audio books more because I have been on the road driving a lot. It is a great way to pass the time. A week ago I checked out Diana Gabaldon's A Breath of Snow and Ashes. I started listening to it and I thought it was weird how all of a sudden one scene would jump to the next. It turns out that after reading the cd cover, I realized that I had gotten the abridged version of the book.

I was already more than a quarter of the way into the book and I thought it would best just to continue listening to it. I did end up finishing it and I enjoyed listening to it. But it just really irked me that I was missing parts of the book. Over and over, in my mind, I kept wondering which scenes I was missing and just exactly how much was I missing. This was really messing with my head.

I went online to find out if there was an unabridged version of the book. Yep, sure enough there is. You will not believe how much was cut out of the book. I was just shocked. SHOCKED, I tell you! The version I listened to was 13 cds and 15 hours long. The unabridged version is 47 cds and 56 hours long. That means that the version I listened to was less than a quarter of the whole book. That's crazy!!!

Needless to say, I feel gypped! I am going to have to go back and read the book. Lesson learned. Pay attention to abridged/unabridged books. Sheesh!

5 comments:

nath said...

I don't know, why would anyone want to listen to the abridged version? I mean, yes, I understand that it's shorter... but if you're not going to have the complete story...?

Mollie said...

Did you get it from your library? Ours had some abridged versions but thankfully they started weeding them out. That's insane!

Jill D. said...

I know Nath... I didn't even know they had such a thing until I accidently stumbled upon it.

Mollie - I did get it from my library. I now will pay very close attention to details such as abridged and unabridged!

Hilcia said...

Oh Jill, that book is massive! There's so much detail in it too. I don't know if I would settle for the abridged version of a Gabaldon book. I don't blame you for being upset!

Unknown said...

Sorry to hear that, this is one of the two books out of the series that is not available on audible(unabridged version), I hope this didn't ruin you audiobook experience, Davina Porter does such a wonderful job with the rest of the books.
I'm curious about your thoughts on Match Me if You Can, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
I listened on audio, I love the narrator " Anna Fields"