What a thrill it was to chat with Robin Whitten, founder and editor of AudioFile Magazine. I rely on their reviews for all of the audiobooks I check out at my library (yes! You can check out audiobooks at your library). Today, Robin and I chatted about how a narrator can bring you deeper into a story or drag you further out of it, how a good narrator can redeem an average book (and vice versa) and why the movie version of The Golden Compass didn’t work. If you have never read The Golden Compass, I highly recommend you take Robin’s advice and experience it on audio. It’s a full cast production and it is truly something special. Support the Best Book Ever Podcast on Patreon Follow the Best Book Ever Podcast on Instagram or on the Best Book Ever Website Host: Julie Strauss Website/Instagram Guest: Robin Whitten Website/Twitter/Behind the Mic with AudioFile Podcast/Audiobook Break Podcast Discussed in this episode: The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman His Dark Materials Series by Phillip Pullman Call for the Dead: A George Smiley Novel by John LeCarré Kate Winslet narrated audiobooks: The Twits, The Minpins, and The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl Matilda by Roald Dahl You’re a Bad Man, Mr. Gum by Andy Stanton Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen The Golden Compass movie His Dark Materials television series Other audiobooks narrated by Sean Barrett (voice of lorick Byrnison) Neil Gaiman self-narrated audiobooks Always by Morris Gleitzman Always is the final book in the story of Felix, the hero of Morris Gleitzman’s Once, Then, Now, After, Soon, and Maybe The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny The Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie, read by Alfred Molina and a Full Cast The Iliad, narrated by Anton Lesser David Copperfield by Charles Dickens Discussed in our Patreon Segment The AudioFile Magazine Golden Voices Simon Jones George Guidall Gerard Doyle Laura Lippman Linda Emond Robert Bathurst Jason Culp (Note: Some of the above links are affiliate links, meaning I get a few bucks off your purchase at no extra expense to you. Anytime you shop for books, you can use my affiliate link on Bookshop, which also supports Indie Bookstores around the country. If you’re shopping for everything else – clothes, office supplies, gluten-free pasta, couches – you can use my affiliate link for Amazon. Thank you for helping to keep the Best Book Ever Podcast in business!) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bestbookeverpodcast.substack.com

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