Hello. I'm new here
I record Librivox audiobooks, and I was interested to come across this discussion - to do voices, or not to do voices? It's a tricky one, as if badly done it can ruin the experience. But I find that conversational books (and especially children's books) read without any attempt at 'acting' the dialogue tend to send me to sleep. I usually try to voice my characters and I hope I make a good fist of it, although I have occasionally come a cropper when the author flings in a character with an accent I can't do (I have awful problems sounding Scottish
).
I can recommend some great readers: Mil Nicholson does a marvellous job of Dickens novels. Karen Savage is a great reader, and seems to be able to read as effortlessly in an impeccable English accent as she does in a US one (and she even reads in Spanish). Tony Foster has the perfect regional accent for reading D. H. Lawrence authentically, and with great fluency and expression. And Andy Minter has a very endearing, genial vocal style and reads at a good pace and intelligent interpretation. All of these inspired me to read for Librivox myself. Definitely give them a try if you're hunting for good ones.
Helen