Play It Again, Sam Weller: New Digital Audiobooks and Old Ways of Reading

Reading by listening: conceptualising audiobook practices in the age of streaming subscription services

“…Such an understanding will not take into account that reading is, and has been, performed through multiple forms of engagement with different formats, tools and senses. The advancement of the audiobook offers possibility to re-evaluate how we understand and talk about reading (Rubery, 2008). Reassessing what reading is and which sense it can involve means that reading with the ears is possible (Pedersen and Have, 2012).…”

Audiobooks and E-books

“…49 He also makes a connection between today' s audiobooks and the popular pastime of the Victorian era of reading aloud and reflects on attitudes towards reading aloud and listening to audiobooks. Duncan Ross' s survey has implications for audiobooks as he finds that over 40 percent of current library users own an iPod, 30 percent another MP3 player, and almost 70 percent of library patrons already listen to some form of audiobooks.…”

“Join Thy Voice”: Oral Readings of Paradise Lost

“…The difference in duration is a small indication of the large differences among the oral interpretations of audiobooks of Paradise Lost as well as between audiobooks and individuals' silent readings. As Matthew Rubery notes of audiobooks of Oliver Twist , “The recitation of a scene that takes a mere ten minutes to read silently to one's self can take upwards of forty minutes when read aloud before an audience,” especially when pausing to inject suspense (58).…”