Justine Larbalestier

reading, writing, eating, drinking, sport

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First Chapter of HTDYF, Read Aloud!

I have been remiss in mentioning that the US paperback of How To Ditch Your Fairy also makes its appearance on 29 September.1 That’s right, finally FINALLY, the fabulous new US paperback cover will be out there in the wild, available for all who want it.2 I have waxed lyrical about Danielle Delaney’s design before. It truly is the best cover any book of mine has ever received. It captures the spirit of the book, it’s funny, and I adore the colour scheme. Happiness in my eyes!

To celebrate the new cheaper edition of How To Ditch Your Fairy I’m giving you a preview of yet another edition, the audiobook. Twas produced by Bolinda Audio Australia who even gave me a hand in choosing the narrator, Kate Atkinson, who does a splendid job.

Here is the first chapter:

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Credits:

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I hope you like it as much as I do.

The good news is that the Australian edition is available right now. You can buy the Australian edition here. And the US edition here.

Audiobooks are a whole new thing for me. I’ve never really listened to any before. How many of you listen to them? And when?

  1. It’s already available in paperback in Australia. [↩]
  2. I do know some of you prefer the US hardcover and Oz paperback version. Madness! [↩]

Posted by Justine at 14:01, 14 September 2009 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Listening | 4 Comments »

Comments

  1. Becky J Says:

    Is that the Kate Atkinson who wrote One Good Turn and Human Croquet?

    September 14th, 2009 at 4:07 PM

  2. Alyce Says:

    The previews for your books are the first time in a long time that I have listened to an audiobook. We had them on tape when I was a kid but since I learned to read I’ve never really been able to get into them. I always find that I can see the words that are being spoken and get distracted by the fact that I would read a particular sentence completely differently.

    Listening to the previews I found the first 5-10mins incredibly annoying (at which point I would usually give it up as a crap job) but persevering I realised that the narration sounds different to how I would read it because the POV character is different to me.

    Now that’s not necessarily a bad thing but it puts a degree of seperation into the story that I dont feel when I read. To me audiobooks seem to describe the occurances experienced by a character which I can listen to and think ‘that’s interesting/entertaining/etc (to me)’ or ‘that’s awful/exciting/etc (for the character)’ but not ‘that would suck so much/be so awesome – what would I do if I were in that situation’ like I do when I read. I think listening to someone else portray a character, be it visually or audially (is that even a word?) reinforces the fact that the character is not you. I can observe the characters in a film or audiobook but I can inhabit the characters in books I read no matter how far removed they may be from my experience.

    So I suppose the point is that although I think that the readers did a good job and the audiobooks sound entertaining I will never buy them because even a good audiobook is only a finite representation of the infinite possible interpretations a good book. I’d rather read it myself, with my own emphasis and pace finding the relevence of the story to my life and experience.

    September 14th, 2009 at 10:09 PM

  3. emma Says:

    Justine, it came to my attention whilst shelving in the store today that How To Ditch Your Fairy by You is sitting on the shelf right next to Fairy’s Return by Gail Carson Levine. Very funny. No matter how hard you try to ditch your fairy…it just keeps coming back!

    September 15th, 2009 at 6:56 AM

  4. Becca Says:

    Love. Great voice. Great words. Thanks for the preview!

    September 15th, 2009 at 11:37 AM

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