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Originally Posted by Ninjalawyer
Interesting. I wonder how the Authors Guild will react; some might recall that the Guild freaked out when the Kindle 2 came with text-to-speech features. |
Well, to be honest, there are some audiobooks that are shockingly bad. Jim Dale is brilliant, Simon Vance is also great, and the books they gave out when Whispersync for Voice was first introduced are great listens. However, the guy who narrated Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson was awful. There are a few audiobooks and textbooks I had to listen to in school where the narration was just as poor, if not worse.
I like the version of Jane Eyre I got with the Whispersync promo. I wish that it had come out a year earlier so I could have it for my senior year in high school when I had to read it. The audiobook I got then went slow, REALLY slow. I even had to speed it up just so I wouldn't fall asleep listening to it.
So in the case of bad audiobooks, you should have the option of using text-to-speech. Otherwise you're just wasting your money. You're not paying $9.99+ for just a plain readout, you're paying for the experience, from someone who knows the book front front to back, and who is enjoying it as much as you are.