BOOKS
How to Give Audiobook Listeners a Memorable Experience
A Visit with Award-Winning Audiobook Narrator Grover Gardner
One of the essential ingredients to having an enjoyable audiobook experience is having a good reader. What a difference it makes. Some readers you just put up with because you want to read the book. Others, on the other hand, are very good, like icing on the cake. Grover Gardner is one of these.
I’ve listened to his voice narrating so many books that he’s almost like an old friend. His style is a perfect balance of restraint and, where suitable, empathy.
The first Elmore Leonard audiobook I ever listened to was Mr. Majestyk. I liked it so much I’ve listened to it several times over the years, along with many of Mr. Leonard’s books including Out of Sight, Get Shorty and others. Little did I know that half the reason I enjoyed these books so much was due to the reader. Now I understand this and whenever an audiobook begins with this voice, which has become so familiar, I know it will be a better experience because he’s accompanying me through the story.
Over the years I’ve listened to many books narrated by Grover Gardner, most recently the deeply moving Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee. But his repertoire includes C.S. Lewis, Ernest Hemingway…
