Brief transcendental ditty; amateurish narration

Would you try another book from Henry David Thoreau and/or Deaver Brown?

This is a great little work by Thoreau, and I’d recommend it to anyone who is interested in his catalog, be they a fan of his more popular books (Walden, Civil Disobedience, etc.) or new to the author’s unique and influential prose. The lecture is full of quotable and transcendental nuggets, and Thoreau manages to pull together many diverse topics into a very concise and flowing text; he moves seamlessly from observations about 19th century New England life to transcendental analysis of ancient Rome’s attitudes of nature to commentary on the human anatomy. A brief, insightful listen!

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The lecture is full of quotable and transcendental nuggets, and Thoreau manages to pull together many diverse topics into a very concise and flowing text; he moves seamlessly from observations about 19th century New England life to transcendental analysis of ancient Rome’s attitudes of nature to commentary on the human anatomy. A brief, insightful listen!

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Deaver Brown?

Content aside, my biggest complaint is with the awful and amateurish quality of the narration. The sound file was never professionally recorded or edited; it is full of constant static, noise interruptions, and clicking sounds every time the narrator pauses or restarts his tape deck. The sound is not balanced, and it is obvious that the narrator did not use professional grade microphones or soundproofing; every time he moves close to or further away from the microphone, the noise level jumps.

Was Walking worth the listening time?

Worst of all, the narrator is just plain bad at reading. He speaks with a thick accent and struggles over simple words and sentence structure; what was, I’m sure, originally a flowing and smoothly-given lecture by Thoreau has been turned into a choppy, befuddled listen.

Any additional comments?

How this ever got approved to sell on this website, I will never know. Now please excuse me while I find some public domain titles to record through my iphone and license to audible.

13 people found this helpful

Terrible Audio

If you could sum up Walking in three words, what would they be?

The sound is very bad with a loud hissing in the background. Not recorded in a studio.

Would you be willing to try another one of Deaver Brown’s performances?

Probably not

3 people found this helpful

Clumsy performance

The content is beautiful and thought provoking. The performance, however, with numerous stumbles and mispronunciations, detracted from the work. Happily, it made me put this book on my list of those to read myself.

2 people found this helpful

Terrible narration!

It is not my intention to be mean but the narrator is terrible. This narration destroys the quality of a wonderful essay and makes it almost impossible to listen to. Please don't purchase this audio book.

1 person found this helpful

poetic

I probably would do better to read this prose in order to better appreciate the individual gems hidden in the Victorian language.

1 person found this helpful

Narrator does not enunciate the words clearly

I would avoid this version of Walking if I were you, particularly if English is not your first language. The narrator doesn't enunciate the words clearly, emphasizes phrases strangely, and has a pronounced regional accent. He sounds a bit as if he's eating his lunch while he's reading.

It's cheap, so no complaints there.

1 person found this helpful

Great story, poor narrator

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Like a miniature Walden. Pearls of wisdom.

How could the performance have been better?

Different narrator. It was like listening to a brick-layer reading Shakespeare -- butchering it.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, but I only listen to it while walking...and I don't walk quite as much as Thoreau.

1 person found this helpful

Fire this narrator!

Would you try another book from Henry David Thoreau and/or Deaver Brown?

Thoreau--yes!, Deaver Brown -- never! Brown is the worst narrator due to poor pronunciation of words and poor phrasing. The worst ever.

What did you like best about this story?

Thoreau to classic. Find a real story teller to narrate this beautiful material.

What didn’t you like about Deaver Brown’s performance?

He has a "lazy mouth" in which words are incorrectly or incompletely pronounced. Poor phrasing breaks up thoughts which should be whole. He reads worse than a non-native English speaking person.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

I would like to hear it again with a real story teller. The poor narration makes me feel that I missed or misunderstood many parts of the story.

Any additional comments?

Fire Deaver Brown!

1 person found this helpful

Walking

The written work is awesome. The performance by the reader was pedestrian bordering on horrible. Would not have him do my more readings for Audible.

Too bad

Couldn’t get past the narrator - Will have to read this one! … I’ll give the story the benefit of the doubt, as IT has good recommendations.