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The Untold Story of the Talking Book
- Narrated by: Jim Denison
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
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Publisher's summary
Histories of the book often move straight from the codex to the digital screen. Left out of that familiar account is nearly 150 years of audio recordings. Recounting the fascinating history of audio-recorded literature, Matthew Rubery traces the path of innovation from Edison's recitation of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" for his tinfoil phonograph in 1877 to the first novel-length talking books made for blinded World War I veterans to today's billion-dollar audiobook industry.
The Untold Story of the Talking Book focuses on the social impact of audiobooks, not just the technological history, in telling a story of surprising and impassioned conflicts: from controversies over which books the Library of Congress selected to become talking books - yes to Kipling, no to Flaubert - to debates about what defines a reader. Delving into the vexed relationship between spoken and printed texts, Rubery argues that storytelling can be just as engaging with the ears as with the eyes and that audiobooks deserve to be taken seriously. They are not mere derivatives of printed books but their own form of entertainment.
We have come a long way from the era of sound recorded on wax cylinders, when people imagined one day hearing entire novels on mini phonographs tucked inside their hats. Rubery tells the untold story of this incredible evolution and, in doing so, breaks from convention by treating audiobooks as a distinctively modern art form that has profoundly influenced the way we read.
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technology changes, we don't
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By: Tom Standage
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The Glamour of Grammar
- By: Roy Peter Clark
- Narrated by: Roy Peter Clark
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Early in the history of English, glamour and grammar were the same word, linked to enchantment and magical spells. Now grammar brings to mind language bullies and bored-out-of-their-skulls students. Roy Peter Clark, one of America’s most influential writing teachers, wants to change that by putting the glamour back into grammar.
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Wasteful
- By ABID on 12-05-13
By: Roy Peter Clark
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Cultural Amnesia
- Notes in the Margin of My Time
- By: Clive James
- Narrated by: Clive James
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Abridged
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From Anna Akhmatova to Stefan Zweig, via Charles de Gaulle, Hitler, Thomas Mann and Charlie Chaplin, this varied and unfailingly absorbing book is both story and history, both public memoir and personal record - and provides an essential field-guide to the vast movements of taste, intellect, politics and delusion that helped to prepare the times we live in now.
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Very enjoyable and well narrated
- By Larbi on 05-18-08
By: Clive James
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Author in Chief
- The Untold Story of Our Presidents and the Books They Wrote
- By: Craig Fehrman
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 15 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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In Craig Fehrman’s groundbreaking work of history, Author in Chief, the story of America’s presidents and their books opens a rich new window into presidential biography. From volumes lost to history - Calvin Coolidge’s Autobiography, which was one of the most widely discussed titles of 1929 - to ones we know and love - Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father, which was very nearly never published - Fehrman unearths countless insights about the presidents through their literary works.
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Fascinating
- By Jean on 03-12-20
By: Craig Fehrman
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You Say Potato: A Book About Accents
- By: Ben Crystal, David Crystal
- Narrated by: David Crystal, Ben Crystal, Jane Savage, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Some people say 'sconn' while others say 'schown'. He says 'bath' while she says 'bahth'. You say 'potayto'. I say 'potahto'. And - wait a second, no one says 'potahto'. No one's ever said 'potahto'. Have they? From reconstructing Shakespeare's accent to the rise and fall of received pronunciation, actor Ben Crystal and his linguist father, David, travel the world in search of the stories of spoken English.
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Wish there were more native recordings.
- By Matt Dobler on 07-01-16
By: Ben Crystal, and others
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Knowing What We Know
- The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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From the creation of the first encyclopedia to Wikipedia, from ancient museums to modern kindergarten classes—this is Simon Winchester’s brilliant and all-encompassing look at how humans acquire, retain, and pass on information and data, and how technology continues to change our lives and our minds. Throughout this fascinating tour, Winchester forces us to ponder what rational humans are becoming. What good is all this knowledge if it leads to lack of thought? What is information without wisdom?
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Colorful anecdotes but tiring after a while.
- By reader on 05-03-23
By: Simon Winchester
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The Nineties
- A Book
- By: Chuck Klosterman
- Narrated by: Chuck Klosterman, Dion Graham
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
It was long ago, but not as long as it seems: The Berlin Wall fell and the Twin Towers collapsed. In between, one presidential election was allegedly decided by Ross Perot while another was plausibly decided by Ralph Nader. Landlines fell to cell phones, the internet exploded, and pop culture accelerated without the aid of technology that remembered everything. It was the last era with a real mainstream to either identify with or oppose. The ’90s brought about a revolution in the human condition, and a shift in consciousness, that we’re still struggling to understand.
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A Very White Middle-class Take On The Nineties
- By Umar Lee on 02-10-22
By: Chuck Klosterman
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Metamorphoses
- Penguin Classics
- By: Ovid, David Raeburn - translator, Denis Feeney
- Narrated by: Martin Jarvis, John Sackville, Maya Saroya, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Ovid's sensuous and witty poetry brings together a dazzling array of mythological tales, ingeniously linked by the idea of transformation - often as a result of love or lust - where men and women find themselves magically changed into new and sometimes extraordinary beings. Beginning with the creation of the world and ending with the deification of Augustus, Ovid interweaves many of the best-known myths and legends of Ancient Greece and Rome, including Daedalus and Icarus, Pyramus and Thisbe, Pygmalion, Perseus and Andromeda, and the fall of Troy.
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A revelation
- By Michael Cain on 05-24-20
By: Ovid, and others
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World Without Mind
- The Existential Threat of Big Tech
- By: Franklin Foer
- Narrated by: Marc Cashman
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Story
Franklin Foer reveals the existential threat posed by big tech, and in his brilliant polemic gives us the toolkit to fight their pervasive influence. Over the past few decades there has been a revolution in terms of who controls knowledge and information. This rapid change has imperiled the way we think. Without pausing to consider the cost, the world has rushed to embrace the products and services of four titanic corporations. We shop with Amazon, socialize on Facebook, turn to Apple for entertainment, and rely on Google for information.
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5-Star Book with a 1-Star Title
- By David Larson on 09-18-17
By: Franklin Foer
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Semicolon
- The Past, Present, and Future of a Misunderstood Mark
- By: Cecelia Watson
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 3 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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A pause-resisting, existential romp through the life and times of the world’s most polarizing punctuation mark. Through her rollicking biography of the semicolon, Watson writes a guide to grammar that explains why we don’t need guides at all and refocuses our attention on the deepest, most primary value of language: true communication.
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Silly me; I thought it was about semicolons
- By Jeffrey D on 08-15-19
By: Cecelia Watson
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Jewish Comedy
- A Serious History
- By: Jeremy Dauber
- Narrated by: Jeremy Dauber
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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In a major work of scholarship both erudite and very funny, Jeremy Dauber traces the origins of Jewish comedy and its development from Biblical times to the age of Twitter. Organizing his book thematically into what he calls the seven strands of Jewish comedy - including the satirical, the witty, and the vulgar - Dauber explores the ways Jewish comedy has dealt with persecution, assimilation, and diaspora through the ages. He explains the rise and fall of popular comic archetypes such as the Jewish mother, the JAP, and the schlemiel and schlimazel.
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Not funny
- By supermantwo on 08-31-20
By: Jeremy Dauber
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Before and After the Book Deal
- A Writer’s Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book
- By: Courtney Maum
- Narrated by: Courtney Maum
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Everything you've ever wanted to know about publishing but were too afraid to ask is right here in this funny, candid guide by acclaimed author Courtney Maum. Before and After the Book Deal: A Writer's Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book has over 150 contributors from all walks of the industry, including internationally best-selling authors Anthony Doerr, Roxane Gay, Garth Greenwell, Lisa Ko, R. O. Kwon, Rebecca Makkai, and Ottessa Moshfegh, alongside cult favorites Sarah Gerard, Melissa Febos, Mitchell S. Jackson, and Mira Jacob.
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A gem for early-stage writers
- By Ludmil Mitrev on 03-20-21
By: Courtney Maum
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Beethoven
- A Life in Nine Pieces
- By: Laura Tunbridge
- Narrated by: Laura Tunbridge
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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The iconic image of Beethoven is of him as a lone genius: hair wild, fists clenched, and brow furrowed. Beethoven may well have shaped the music of the future, but he was also a product of his time, influenced by the people, politics, and culture around him. Oxford scholar Laura Tunbridge offers an alternative history of Beethoven's career, placing his music in contexts that shed light on why particular pieces are valued more than others, and what this tells us about his larger-than-life reputation.
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Engaging, interesting, nice format
- By George on 07-04-22
By: Laura Tunbridge
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Infonomics
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A practical guide for evil people
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Deeper Than Money
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In Deeper Than Money, Elise demystifies finance for anyone who feels stuck in cycles of guilt around spending. Part practical guide to finance and part motivational kick in the butt to set yourself up for success, this book is all about showing how to live your life, love your finances, and make money matter less. It’ll have you ready to talk about money at brunch with your friends, and finally allow you to get ahead with money—without skipping the mimosa.
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Finally! Reliable money advice made fun
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Authentic Gravitas
- Who Stands Out and Why
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Organizational psychologist and executive coach Rebecca Newton has found that even her most successful clients still want more of one quality: gravitas. They want their words to carry weight, to have a positive, lasting impact on those around them. Gravitas can seem like an elusive, intangible quality, but it isn't about adopting the style of another or being someone you're not. Newton draws on extensive research and experience coaching business leaders to show what underpins authentic gravitas and how anyone can develop it.
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Very useful
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What listeners say about The Untold Story of the Talking Book
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Story
- Alednam A Uonopk
- 09-15-22
Saw this at my library then seen it on audible
Definitely worth listening to....
Once.... twice... even thrice....
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How Europe Underdeveloped Africa - Walter Rodney
The Crowd - Gustave Le Bon
The Condemnation of Blackness - Khalil Gibran Muhammad
The Empire of Necessity - Greg Grandin
They Came Before Columbus - Ivan Van Sertima
Germany's Black Holocaust - Firpo W Carr Ph.D
The Isis Papers - Dr Frances Cress Welsing
African Origin of Civilization - Cheikh Anta Diop
The Color of Compromise - Jemar Tisby
Christopher Columbus and the Afrikan Holocaust - John Henrik Clarke
Christianity Before Christ - John G Jackson
Our African Unconscious - Edward Bruce Bynum
Blacked Out Through Whitewash - Dr Suzar Epps
War Against All Puerto Ricans - Nelson A Denis
War Is A Racket - Gen Smedley D Butler
The Delectable Negro - Vincent Woodard
Inhuman Bondage - David Brion Davis
Why Darkness Matters - Edward Bruce Bynum
The Iceman Inheritance - Michael Bradley
Unsettling Truths - Matt Charles & Soong-Chan Rah
Soul On Ice - Eldridge Cleaver
Black Like Me - John Howard Griffin
The Culture of Terrorism - Noam Chomsky
Silencing The Past - Michel-Rolph Trouillot
Faces At The Bottom Of The Well - Derrick Bell
Polaria - W H Muller
A Narco History - Carmen Boullosa & Mike Wallace
Dumbing Us Down - John Taylor Gatto
Across The Tracks - Alverne Bell & Stacey Robinson
The Burning - Tim Madigan
The Age ot Surveillance Capitalism , Shoshana Zuboff
Dirt - Terence P McLaughlin
Wilmington's Lie - David Zucchino
White Malice - Susan Williams
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- Becca
- 09-12-22
Interesting, but the NARRATION!!
In the spirit of transparency, I was an audiobook technical editor in the early 2000s for a small audiobook publishing company. It took me quite a while to make the move to audiobooks myself because of that; sometimes the recordings were difficult for me to listen to when there were areas that should have had better editing, for example.
Now, I'm an avid listener. I still read traditional books (my preference) and e-books, however. I thought this was an interesting angle on the audiobook's history, and indeed it was. How ironic, then, that the narration was less than stellar here!
The reading in general was adequate. Not riveting, not bland, but adequate. However, I came very close to having to turn it off multiple times when Mr. Dennison frequently misspoke the name of Charles Dickens to Charles "Dickenson" - all the more irritating to me because the last book I tech edited before moving to a different job was Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities."
If it had been consistent, I might have still had something to say about it, but consistency would have been nice. As it was, there are clear recording breaks and even within the same paragraph at times, the name is spoken as Dickens and then Dickenson. This was particularly troublesome for me when it was placed within a discussion of poetry and Emily Dickenson was mentioned. As that was early on, I thought it just a mental/verbal "hiccup" but this mispronounced name occurred all throughout the book.
For me, a smoother voice and delivery would have been preferable. That's just my opinion though. More importantly, my advice to our own narrators to review their work and put in the homework for proper pronunciation stands. Case in point: Mr. Dennison reads a passage where it is noted that an actor had not done their pronunciation homework to vocalize the Spanish word "jefe" correctly - while proceeding to mispronounce it himself. (It's "HEH-fey" not "hay-fee.")
Overall an interesting work, and one I might go back and read in print. My attention to details due to my background in the field sometimes makes me a bit more picky than the average listener, so consider my review in the context of your own enjoyment and tolerance levels. Your mileage may vary. 😊
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- FinalFrontier
- 05-10-17
Makes you Think about Audio Books
This is one of those books that makes you think. If you like audio books, as I do, it's stunning to learn the history of this art form.
As a member of the blind community, I am a user of the Library of Congress talking book program. But I also enjoy finding books on Audible that the Library of Congress program does not record.
I have also read books that have been recorded through both Audible and the Library of Congress. I often find that each version has its strengths and weaknesses.
The portion of this book that really stunned me was the chapters devoted to the origin of the audio books. The dreamers who predicted such technologies as the whispering machine could not have guessed that a portable media player along with a headset is fairly close to what was imagined.
The idea of professional actors narrating audio books seems to have been a common thread from the beginning of audio books until now. Many well known actors can be found narrating audio books, and others are narrated by voice talents that may not be as well known, but are very competent and capable.
The book often refers to Dickens in that section, and this prompted me to do a search for Great Expectations. That book couldn't be recorded in the early days of audio books, but today, it's possible to enjoy this book in full. I noticed several narrations of this book on Audible. Any of them would fit on a smart phone or media player with enough memory.
The rest of the book is indeed insightful. It sheds light on the issue of listening versus reading, and it does so in a way that encourages you to think about it.
If you like audio books, it's wonderful to learn about their history and think about where audio books have gone and what they can become.
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- Jean
- 07-20-17
A Historical Review of Audiobooks
I have been listening to audiobooks since the 1940s. But since about 2007 I have listened to audiobooks as my primary reading method due to vision problems. I know that audiobooks are becoming very popular so I was excited to read this book about “The Untold Story of the Talking Books”.
The book is well written and researched but is a little dry here and there as it bogged down in esoteric detail and repetition, but overall it was an interesting book. The author spends sometime on a discussion whether listening to an audiobook is really reading. He also went into what part of the brain is used if it is tactile (Braille) audio or visual reading. Rubery discusses books in various formats but spends some time on the relationship of the suburban sprawl and the rise of audiobooks with commuters. Rubery briefly reviews the history of talking books all the way back to Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell. The author also covered the books for the blind both audio and Braille. Rubery spends sometime on how critical the narrator choice for the book is. He also states as the books become more popular well-known actors as well as voice- over artists have been recruited to narrate the books. At the end of the book, Rubery attempted to look into what the future of audiobooks and reading habits will be. Generally, I found the book quite interesting.
The book was eleven and a half hours long. Jim Denison does a good job narrating the book. Denison is a voice- over artist and audiobook narrator.
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- Leo Saumure
- 01-19-17
This book could have used some editing.
I found the content of this book to be quite repetitive. For example, the sections which discuss how the US and the UK tackled audio books could have easily been merged into a single chapter as they both experienced similar issue.
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- Blake
- 04-16-17
An In-Depth History of Audiobooks
Would you consider the audio edition of The Untold Story of the Talking Book to be better than the print version?
I can't read the print version.
What other book might you compare The Untold Story of the Talking Book to and why?
No other book is comparable in my opinion.
What does Jim Denison bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
Jim's narration enables me to focus on content more than would be possible by a non-audio format.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
Appealing to the ear.
Any additional comments?
I agree with the author that it is important for audiobook publishers and listeners to learn about audiobook history. That goal can be accomplished by reading this book. Reading includes listening.
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