NOW HEAR THIS
LISTENINGBY JACQUI KENNEDY
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I
HAVE BEEN a complete convert
to audiobooks ever since I broke
the arm off my glasses trying
to read in bed. With speakers built
into my helmet, audiobooks have
entertained me for most of my three
year postie bike journey around
Australia at 60km/h.
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journeys on audiobook was Two
For The Road by Shirley Hardy-Rix
and Brian Rix. The way Shirley had
described being a pillion on Mad
Sunday at the TT Races on the Isle of
Man had me on the edge of my seat.
It is pure delight to be able to escape
vicariously into another land, another
culture, another time - requiring no
money, no effort, no planning, no
packing, no jetlag.
I do prefer my stories to be non-
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heroic exploits or life-changing feats
of endurance. Everyday people
doing everyday things can be just
as engaging as the swashbuckling
explorer as long as the language isn’t
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Most motorcycling or adventure
travel books have just simply been
adapted from a diary or blog and what
made a good daily tale or magazine
article rarely translates into an engaging
10 hour tome.
I am an avid blog reader and enjoy
the excitement of following riders
in “real time” but when adapted
as a book or audiobook, it usually
ends up as a “we went here, we did
that, we saw this” saga. There are
hundreds of them available; mostly
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a professional editor.
The added element of audiobooks is,
of course, the voice.
The incongruous Scottish voice
replacing Ewan McGregor in the
Long Way Round was off-putting.
On the other hand, Paul Carter
reading his own words in Don’t Tell
Mum I Work on the Rigs and Is That
Thing Diesel had me snorting coffee
out of my nose.I also thoroughly enjoyed The Art
of Free Travel by Patrick Jones and
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year-long bicycle journey to Cape
York with two children and a dog,
foraging for bush food along the
roadside - the familiar Aussie accents
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the history and the culture.
“Read by the author” is usually the
best hook to reel me in to listening.
The author knows how and when to
emphasise nuance when telling their
story – just like the best stand-up
comedians or reciters of pub poetry.
They also know how to properly
pronounce place names – unlike
the narrator of Bill Bryson’s Down
Under who set my teeth on edge
with his continual butchering of
Narrandera and Uluru. [Incidentally, I
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culture to be sanctimonious and
self-indulgent and wonder if a lesser
known author would be able to get
away with such lazy prose.]
As online platforms and smartphone
apps become more accessible,
publishers realise that audiobooks are
now an essential element in the “sales
strategy”. The quality and quantityTRAVEL
There’s more than one
way of motorcycling