Audiobooks really have redefined reading. While books on tape have been a thing for some time, the creation of such digital apps like Audible has made listening to your favorite books easier. Now, with well-known actors becoming involved, the allure is grander. It’s like when you hear an upcoming movie has some of your favorite artists in it, you want to see it for that very reason. Industries are not blind, nor deaf. They know what sells and what will bring in crowds. If you can’t get people to take time out of their busy schedule to sit down and read, make the book accessible through audio. We reported that Natalie Dormer will narrate a new Harry Potter book and with the two interests combined, I have no doubt about the audible version’s success.
Right now, I’m listening to American Psycho, narrated by Pablo Schreiber. Let me shamelessly admit that I in part, started listening for the actor. That is not to say that the book didn’t interest me as well. Christian Bale’s performance in the 2000’s movie rendition remains one of Bale’s best roles. So, it’s just an upside to have an actor I like dictating a book I enjoy. American Psycho won’t be the only book Schreiber brings to life, as he recently did Jack London’s The Call of the Wild, which you can find on Audible.
In a recent phone conversation with Brad Wheeler of The Globe and Mail, Schreiber went into detail about recording audiobooks and what goes into bringing these novels to life.
“Creatively, the book has different characters, which means different voices and determining how you want to interpret those characters. I haven’t done much vocal recording in film. I don’t do cartoons. So, I’m not that experienced in creating wildly different voices. I try to give an essence of character, without being too deeply characteristic in changing each one up.”
I haven’t gotten a hold of The Call of The Wild, but listening to American Psycho is super interesting. Schreiber has a lot of range. From his time as serial killer William Lewis on Law & Order: SVU, a corporate corrections officer Pornstache on Orange is the New Black, and the unlucky unusually tall leprechaun Mad Sweeney on American Gods, Schreiber has proven he can get into different types of characters and not feel like the same person. But, it’s another thing entirely for him to be sure to afflict his voice in ranges of different men and women, in order to bring a book to life.
You can listen to both of his books on Audible and look forward to him in the upcoming film First Man, as well as watch Skyscraper, and American Gods.
A girl with too many fandoms to count.
