I had already read the first 5 HP books when I discovered audiobooks (and got a job that involved commuting) so I've only listened to the last 2 books. I am planning a marathon soon where I listen to all of them in order. Unfortunately, they are not available for download (legally, anyway) so I'll be slogging through many MANY discs to make this marathon happen. Maybe the new Pottermore site, where ebooks will finally be available, with have an audio component as well. That would be convenient!
Since you'd pretty much need to be living under a rock to not know about HP, I won't bore you with the plots. Boy wizard – Voldemort - Hogwarts – J.K. Rowling – enough said.
The HP audiobooks are ready by the lovely Jim Dale in Canada and the US, and Stephen Fry in the UK. I haven't listened to the Fry versions so I can't comment on them. I've heard they're good and he's very funny so I imagine they're good. Jim Dale, however, is considered to be the voice of Harry Potter audiobooks and I think he's fantastic. I've listened to other things he's read and they're all excellent - I'll be profiling him in a later post as well. He is also the voice you often hear at the end of other audiobooks talking about the literacy and family benefits of listening to stories together.
I did dig up some interesting info about Dale's version of the books:
- There is no Canadian audio version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone – only Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I guess the UK version must be correct. That little switch up drives me nuts – they're all sorcerers so why would a sorcerer's stone be special? And there is a big difference between a philosopher and a sorcerer! Don't get me started!
- Random House Audio has a 'guess the voice' quiz where you can listen to Dale speaking and you have to guess which character it is – it's very ominous (scary thunder) if you get it wrong, but it's ominous (more scary thunder) if you get it right, too, so I guess it doesn't matter.
- Dale created over 200 voices for the entire series, and is in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most voices created for a single book – 146 for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
- According to an ezine article, he never read the entire text of a book before he started narrating. He was only given the manuscript 2 or 3 days before he would start recording, and only ever read about 100 pages ahead of where he was in the narration.
- The shipping weight (from Amazon.com) for the entire HP Audiobook set is 8.2 lbs!
There is an excellent interview with Dale in the NY Times about how he does the recordings.
I listened to Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince on the way home from Saskatchewan one summer with my mom. Both of us had read the previous books so we were on the same page with the story. The drive home is about 14 hours and that particular audiobook is 19 hours. We never really did the math ahead of time and if it was just me, it wouldn't have been a problem. I have long drives to work so I'd have finished it the week after. The problem is – we still had 5 hours to finish when we got home. We actually had to schedule an hour of Potter time each evening to finish it off. We do the math better now and choose books that will fit the trip length more accurately! Good thing I wasn't driving for that last bit too because we were both bawling at the end. That's a bad thing about listening to audiobooks – it's pretty much impossible skim the text and jump ahead at the sad parts.
Download audio samples for this series through Random House Audio.
Listen Up!
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, (8 hrs), Listening Library, (1999)Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, (9 hrs), Listening Library, (1999)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, (12 hrs), Listening Library, (2000)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, (20 hrs), Listening Library, (2000)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, (26 hrs, 30 mins), Listening Library, (2003)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, (19 hrs), Listening Library, (2005)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, (21 hrs), Listening Library, (2007)
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