DERYN OLIVER
British Female Voice Over Artist
The Hidden Gems of Audiobooks – Unveiling The Benefits Beyond Words
An enjoyment of reading brings so much to peoples lives. As well as sharing and expanding knowledge, reading develops emotional intelligence, connects mankind, shares ideas and opens up the mind to possibilities.
But there is a slight snobbery around listening rather than reading. If you listen to an audio book, have you read it? Technically no you haven’t as ‘to read’ involves looking at text and understanding it but you have still absorbed the contents listening to an audiobook and that can be just as beneficial and enjoyable.
And in some ways more so.
Audiobooks bring stories to life
A narrator’s job is to engage the listener with the text in order to either tell a story or impart knowledge. They do this through the emotion in their words, the tone, the pacing, the variety in character voices and their skill to keep the listener interested.
Listening to a good narrator can be more entertaining than reading alone and audiobooks can be enjoyed by families together.
But what is it about a voice that raises the hairs on the back of the neck and sends a shudder through the bravest? And how to master it?
Audiobooks are accessible to all levels of readers
Picking up a physical book or downloading it can be off putting to some people for a number of reasons – the language may be too difficult to understand, they imagine it will be too difficult to get into the story, they feel their reading skills are not good enough, or they tell themselves they won’t enjoy it enough for the effort required.
On the other hand if they listen to a skilled narrator in an audiobook saying unfamiliar words they will be spoken with the correct pronunciation and intonation expanding the listeners vocabulary and word recognition.
The voice will be engaging and add interest to the story to carry them along and they can feel empowered by knowledge that was previously unavailable to them due to their level of reading skills.
Multitasking
In a world that moves at an ever increasing pace, finding the time to sit down and read a book can be a challenge. Audio books bring the freedom to enjoy books while driving, decorating, cleaning the bathroom, ironing, dusting, gardening…
Audiobooks can be read long with the physical book
Listening to the story along with looking at the words on a page or screen can help with reading skills just as being read to by someone. In fact having the ability to stop, rewind and listen again if desired is empowering and can improve the rate of learning.
Audiobooks can be perceived as ‘cooler’ than reading
Boys are less likely to read for enjoyment than girls but studies have shown that they perceive listening to a device as a cooler activity and therefore audiobooks could be a good pathway to reading for some reluctant readers.
Fantastic for sight impaired
1932 hailed the arrival of the first audiobook recording by The American Foundation for The Blind which created recordings of books on vinyl records.
The huge explosion in the availability of audiobooks has been an enormous benefit to sight impaired all over the world.
In a world where time is increasingly becoming a precious commodity, audiobooks are a fantastic way to access knowledge and enjoyment beyond the traditional realms of reading.
If you would like to learn more about the benefits of audio books and literacy go to The National Literacy Trust.
Or go here if you would like to listen to the wide variety of audiobooks narrated by Deryn Oliver.
If you think my now award winning voice may be able to help you and you’d like a FREE sample read please contact me or email info@derynvoiceover.com.
Deryn Oliver
Listen Now!
Check out my variety of vocal styles in the demo page or for a quick idea of my voice click on the audio link below.