r/audiobooks 18h ago

Discussion What Is Something That Immediately Takes You Out Of The Audiobook?

Picture this.

You're in your own bubble. Your own world. You've got about 30 minutes to immersive yourself in a fantastical universe until you have to return to the real world.

You press play on the first chapter on a title from your TBR.

Sit back, relax...

And then...

BAM!

You're back to the real world, conscious and aware, abruptly interrupted by a sudden, jarring inclusion.

Bubble is now involuntarily popped.

So!

Question being!

What is this inclusion for you?

Upvotes

175 comments sorted by

u/Beret_of_Poodle 18h ago

The little parts where they edited in something recorded at a different time and the tone and volume are totally different

u/Dogdaydinners 17h ago

Ha I just listened to an audio book recorded by the author and you can hear his cell phone going off in the background. It's obvious he set up a mic at his kitchen table and started reading his book.

u/Cryogenicality 13h ago

Ha! Timecode? I’d like to hear that.

u/psychadelicpaperclip 12h ago

I just listened to a book that did this. It was only the male narrator and only whenever he said the character’s dog’s name so I spent the whole book wondering if they changed the dog’s name last minute or something.

u/gemh 6h ago

I was listening to a book that had been released during lockdown. One part of the book had different acoustics - the edited bit was echo-y and had a different mic quality to the bulk of the book. I gave them a pass because I imagine lockdown scuppered a lot of studio recording but still

u/norismomma 18h ago

Mispronounciations. Gets me every time.

u/Specific_Pear_665 17h ago

"The castle was lit with glowing brassieres."

Think you meant brazier champ!

u/IndividualLab6354 18h ago

Oh yes, goodness the mispronounciations. 😩.

u/AdGold205 16h ago

Like when people are prostate on the ground?

This one kills me every time.

u/Rude_Giraffe_9255 14h ago

Not my mildly dyslexic ass staring at this for a solid three minutes wondering how else one would prostrate

u/ucrbuffalo 13h ago

Recently for me it was “gazebo”. GA-zeh-boh

Took me a while to get past that paragraph.

u/drewman77 10h ago

Did they pronounce it "gaze boh"?

u/BayouFunk 17h ago

And improper emphasis on words…

I recently was listening to one and in a section talking about computers the narrator said “Cooling FANS” instead of “COOLING fans” as if the fans were cooling as opposed to doing the cooling. It’s a real person, but that’s the type of mistake an AI narrator would make.

u/CaliLemonEater 12h ago

In the audiobook of the first Murderbot book, the narrator pronounces "hostile one" as if talking about an unfriendly thing vs a friendly one, instead of the way it should be, as it would be in the sentence "Hostile One has breached the perimeter."

u/drewman77 10h ago

I'm confused. Can you elaborate? It seems like something named 'Hostile One" that is breaching a perimeter would not be friendly.

u/MsMulliner 10h ago

It’s an issue of syllabic stress. We say Apollo 1 as “uh-PAHL-o WUN”, not “uh-PAHL-o wun” (as in “I’ll take that Mercury one, not the Apollo one”).

As this commenter notes, it’s the name they’ve given the enemy ship, which is one of several: Hostile One, Hostile Two, Hostile Three, etc.—not just the one out of a group of mostly friendly ships, as in “I’d prefer a friendly one, not a hostile one.”

HAHS-tl ONE
vs.
HAHS-tl one
(that’s the usual US pronunciation of “hostile”)

I used to live in a Minneapolis suburb called New Hope, which had evolved into “NEW hope” for some reason. Every so often a newcomer would say “new HOPE,” as if it were one of several new items: “I’ve got some new hobbies and new favorite foods, and they give me new HOPE for a more positive year!”

u/dontdoxme12 10h ago

Sometimes the Murderbot names enemies “Hostile One” “Hostile Two” “Hostile Three” etc based on how many enemies there are but the commenter above feels like the narrator of the book (Kevin R. Free, excellent narrator) doesn’t emphasize or enunciate enough when saying “hostile one“

I personally disagree with them but I think that was their point

u/ArtyCatz 16h ago

Mispronunciations. And in nonfiction books, errors if fact.

u/ParticularLoose6878 16h ago

I listened to an audiobook that had a character named Niamh and the reader pronounced it like Nee-arm rather than Neve.

u/MsMulliner 9h ago

i’m listening to a fantastic reading of Daphne Du Maurier’s THE SCAPEGOAT. It’s set in France, and the excellent British actor Paul Shelley pronounces a lot of the French really well, but makes a few errors which should’ve been caught in a fancy Naxos production. The most jarring is his pronunciation of “Porte de Ville” as “Porte de Vie.” I wondered for a moment if it could actually be “Vie,” as in ‘gate of life’, but it’s “Ville,” the VERY common word for town, i.e. “Gate of the Town.” He also pronounces the town “St. Gilles” as if it were “Gie”—and I was sure it must be Giles (or Gilles) and pronounced with the L, but had to look that one up.

“Ville” is one of just 3 French words ending in -ille in which the L is pronounced. It took me a long time to realize that myself— when traveling, I would hear the Hôtel de Ville (in lots of French towns) was pronounced as “veel,” then was confused about “fille” and other “-ille” words in which the L turns into more of a ‘yuh.’ That’s because ville, mille and tranquille ALL have the L pronounced, due to their ancient Latin origins.

Gilles SHOULD be pronounced as “zhil”—not for the same reasons as those 3, but more because names are sometimes just pronounced in their own way, which don’t follow the rules!

I keep wondering if Paul Shelley ever found out about those errors. I would be mortified if I’d made that type of pronunciation mistake 50+ times in a classic novel!

u/deluxeok 13h ago

And non-words

u/siddav 13h ago

Especially place names.

u/Stevie-Rae-5 13h ago

I’m listening to a nonfiction book that discusses the Great Lakes region extensively and no one proofed it to be able to tell the narrator that “Mackinac” is pronounced “Mackinaw.”

I’m powering through but my soul dies a little every time.

u/Cryogenicality 13h ago

In Contact Harvest, Holter Graham mispronounces “trebuchet” by saying the T at the end.

u/Icy-Recognition-7453 14h ago

Of a class - really thick accents.

Nothing against anyone's way of speaking. But I listened to Paradise Lost recorded by someone with the thickest Yorkshire accent you've ever heard. It was so funny.

u/darchangel 18h ago

Small people whining. For some reason there are 3 little girls in my house who keep complaining about food or some such nonsense when I listen to my book for a long time. It completely kills the vibe.

u/dr_olfin 18h ago

"End of disc 1" - I'm using Libby! There are no discs! Wtf!

u/InJen- 11h ago

This just proves everyone is different! Whenever I hear this, I get a delicious wave of nostalgia all the way to my toes.
I’ve been listening to audiobooks since record players, cassette tapes, and eight tracks were the options. End of disc 1 was a sign you were using the fancy new technology—oooo, aaah—
Not arguing with you, because it would take all of five minutes to edit out every disc change cue in an entire audiobook. Just reminiscing.

u/littlebutcute 14h ago

I work at a daycare. All day at work I hear is whining, despite me telling the tiny humans I’m allergic to it.

u/ghastlycupcake 8h ago

My kid has started pushing back, insisting that I can’t be allergic to whining.

Four years old and a medical expert!

u/ZoraTheDucky 18h ago edited 17h ago

Pretty much any sort of sound track. I really don't need tense music to tell me that there's something tense going on in the book.

I really, really don't need the sound of car horns or whatever to tell me the main characters are sitting in traffic. Or a recording of a crowded lunch room to tell me they're in a busy place.

Just let me listen to the words in the book.

u/RogueThneed 18h ago

Especially sounds that might be important in my world. Phone ringer? Car horn? Don't make me guess if it's the book or not!

u/hapgoodnew 10h ago

I put on a new book in the car a couple months ago, less than 10 minutes in, there was a siren sound. I had to turn down the volume to make sure it was the book and not an emergency vehicle and then thought “you know what?” And turned the whole thing off. I hate sound effects in books.

u/No_Dragonfly_6975 17h ago

Omg yes—so much this! I was listening to a book recently where the main character was jogging. Sounds included were: feet meeting the pavement (slap, slap, slap…fast at first, then they slowed down when the character was approaching her front door), heavy breathing/panting, and then the jingle of keys when she reached her door. Ugh! Talk about distracting! I had to rewind a few times to concentrate on the narration. Then I returned the book because I don’t have time for that foolishness.

u/ZoraTheDucky 17h ago

I used to listen to creepypastas to relax and go to sleep. There's one narrated by RomNex called Beware the Tick Tock Man (I think that's the one anyway). Oh my god the clocks.. Especially around the climax.. I finished it out of sheer determination. If it was just ticking it would have been annoying but there was an overwhelming number of old timey ringing alarms going off.

u/No_Dragonfly_6975 17h ago

That would be awful, especially when you’re trying to zone out and fall asleep!!

u/BaselineUnknown 16h ago

I really enjoy the audio books of Dungeon Crawler Carl. The audio immersion tunnels are straight garbage though.

u/Faithful_jewel 1h ago

One of the narrators for the Immersion Tunnel is a dick so I haven't bothered listening to them (although I think he's only in season 2 onwards) because of him. I'm petty like that

u/TurtleZenn 3h ago

Absolutely. Unless I am listening on purpose to something billed as like an audio drama or something, I only want the book. I like when the narrator chuckles as a character or meows when a character talks to a cat that meows back, that kind of thing. But no music, and definitely no sound effects outside of the narrator.

u/Vrassk 17h ago

AI narrator

u/pingus3233 18h ago

Talking about a narrated paper book and not e.g. a radio play:

  • Sound effects
  • Non-story-related music
  • Any other kind of sound that's not narration like mouth noises or clicking/popping of the narrator's jaw, etc.

u/No_Dragonfly_6975 17h ago

Oh jeez, I recently heard a book where the narrator sounded like they just finished eating a mayonnaise-based sandwich. So gross.

u/babylonglegs91 17h ago

This gave me a visceral reaction lol, so descriptive 😂

u/LurkHartog 17h ago

A bad accent.

u/knight-under-stars 18h ago

Inconsistent pronunciations.

u/Chemical-Mix-6206 17h ago

Mispronounced words when the context of the sentence made it obvious what was meant. The character just survived an explosion, of course their clothing was shredded with little tears all over it. They havent had time to react by crying and soaking it with tears. Ugh.

Or when the reader uses a different intonation than I expected. Character does something terrible. Other characters have appropriately horrified reactions. "What?" she asked. In context, the character was clearly not understanding the horrified reactions, but it was read like an interrogative, as if they'd not heard something and were asking someone to repeat themselves. Context matters. You may be saying the right word, but if you say it wrong, it rips me right out of the story.

u/Araragi 18h ago

"Audible hopes you have enjoyed this program."

u/catgatuso 17h ago

That, and automatically starting a preview for a different book that I have no interest in.

u/floweryfriend 17h ago

I figured out how to turn that function off!

u/dontdoxme12 10h ago

Share with the class please

u/floweryfriend 1h ago

I wish I remembered! I just know I had to do it from a computer. But it’s possible!

u/TurtleZenn 3h ago

Really? I actually love it. It feels like a full conclusion for me. I like how it sounds like old timey radio. And I often answer "yes, I did." I know it's silly, but it makes me feel good.

u/Araragi 2h ago

No criticism intended on the message or delivery. I think I like it also. This was just me thinking of an amusing answer to the question at hand, lol.

u/Practical_Yam_7515 11h ago

Haha yes! I listen at night and often fall asleep. When that dude comes on it’s super loud and wakes me up annoyed.

Welp, guess I missed the ending.

u/bubblesthecat41 17h ago

I recently listened to an audiobook where, almost every time the narrator said a word with an s in it, she made a whistling sound. Very distracting

u/karo_scene 17h ago

[narrator here]

That's called sibilance. We try to avoid it. There are some plug ins designed to stop it. I can feel when it's happening and I adjust to stop it happening again.

u/EveryPartyHasAPooper 18h ago

Grown people trying to make toddler voices. Ugh.

u/teeirons04 16h ago

I was not a fan of Incidents around the house for this exact reason.

u/Rude_Giraffe_9255 14h ago

I just listened to a sample of that, yikes

u/AdGold205 16h ago

Sometimes I wonder if the author/narrator ever actually interacted with a child.

It’s either a 6yo discussing Faust and Astrophysics or a 10 yo asking mama for a cup of milk and a cookie. 🙄

u/TurtleZenn 3h ago

I mean, those examples are usually the problem of the author, not the narrator. I have often wondered if an author has ever met a child of any age.

u/sluttytarot 18h ago

One book I read recently, set in 14th century China, had characters saying "for real." Lmao

u/sorcha1977 12h ago

💀

u/sluttytarot 12h ago

Exactly you get it

u/daphodil3000 16h ago

Obvious splice - one minute the narrator is moving along seamlessly, next minute a louder voice chimes in for a phrase.

u/Dino_Spaceman 18h ago

An obvious ADR where they don’t even try to match the prior recording.

u/wicked-writer 17h ago

I can ignore just about anything, even mispronunciation. Vocal fry combined with an upward inflection on every single sentence has me closing an audiobook as fast as possible. I just can't.

u/TurtleZenn 3h ago

I just figured out that was my absolute no as well! I am usually ok with most things and I can deal with lots of little annoyances. But that upward inflection drives me bonkers. I did manage to finish the book that had it, but I will physically read the rest of the series instead.

u/IntoTheStupidDanger 18h ago

Sound effects. Footsteps as someone's walking. Doors opening and closing. Things being set on tables. I find the sounds so jarring it sets me on edge and I'm just mentally preparing for the next interruption. For me it turns the experience from something enjoyable into something stressful.

u/karo_scene 17h ago

That's interesting because that's called immersive audio. There's a lot of debate about whether immersive [with sound effects] is better than non-immersive [no sound effects]. Production has gone back and forth; early radio plays were immersive.

u/IntoTheStupidDanger 16h ago

I think better is purely subjective. Some people love an immersive experience, others don't. Each has its merits and it's great when both a single narrator and graphic audio version exist so listeners can choose their preferred option.

u/tittytasters 16h ago

It should be pretty easy to make it this way to, make the straight narration and then you have that I've to release, then add in the sound effects where needed. It shouldn't need to be narrated twice so yeah, if they do the full immersive then they would also release a normal version too

u/ResolveLeather 17h ago

Narrators performing even if they are sick.

u/tittytasters 16h ago

In my first book I could feel it starting so I quickly recorded all the audio going I could edit while I was actually sick.

Nope, by the time you start to feel it it's already very obvious in your voice after mastering the audio, and so many random noises your nose and thrust make that you don't hear when you are recording.

I scraped the whole book and recorded it a second time once I was better

u/OtherTypeOfPrinter 13h ago

Particularly common in M/F romance audiobooks is dual POV with two narrators, but they only use 1 voice actor per chapter no matter what.

For example, let's say you've got character A, a woman, being voiced by voice actor A, also a woman. And you've got character B (a man) voiced by voice actor B (a man). Chapter 1 is from character A's POV. But character B shows up with dialogue in the chapter. But instead of using both VAs, they just have voice actor A deepen their voice to try and sound "more male" for B's dialogue. And vice versa, VA-B goes into a higher register to sound more "womanly" while they read character A's dialogue.

I have more tolerance for the vocal stereotyping when it's one narrator/VA. But it drives me crazy in duets! Y'all hired two voice actors! Use them both when appropriate!

u/BairnONessie 10h ago

While I get your point, isn't your example supposed to be like two different people telling their sides of a story? If you're having a cuppa with your friend and she says "then my ex said 'blah blah blah'", the ex's voice isn't gonna pop up out of nowhere...

Kinda related gripe though, the Tiffany Aching Pratchett storyline is a little annoying cause it's one voice for the Feegles, one voice for the footnotes then all the rest are Indira. They all do a fantastic job, but come on... I wanna hear more Bill Nighy &D

u/Obvious_Sea_7074 8h ago

I get mad when the voice actor doesn't change voices or inflection even a little bit for different characters. Especially in YA romance/ fantasy where multiple characters have lots of dialogue and the voice actor just ploughs through it all in the same voice, its easy to get confused who said what. 

u/TurtleZenn 3h ago

Oh, I didn't think about that. MM and FF have it easier, haha. I listen to a lot of dual narration and they are always done this way, but it isn't that jarring to me. Might be why.

u/rosydingo 18h ago

Music, special sound effects, multiple voice actors, fake accents.

u/pinkycatcher 17h ago

Wil Wheaton

u/zopea 17h ago

Narrators who end every sentence on an up tone, like it’s a question. I hate it so much.

u/dorght2 12h ago

I loathe most sound effects in audiobooks, but the worse are:

The sound effect of a ringing cellphone I'm looking for my phone, then narrator says "then their cellphone rang."

Or sirens used a sound effect. JFC, I'm looking all around because I usually listen while driving or riding my bike.

u/arglebargle_IV 18h ago

Usually mispronounciations, but the most recent was two characters in 1791 London using the metric system.

u/AdGold205 16h ago

That’s bad writing/research.

I was reading a book a while back and while I could over look high tea in 950AD Scotland, I couldn’t get over the description of the MMC. His shoulders were as “wide as a longbow.” (So either 2inches or 6ft.)

u/sorcha1977 12h ago

In a book I just finished, the main character told someone she was working on her Ph.D. and then moving onto her Masters.

Um, no.

The rest of the book was terrible, so at that point, I was pretty much over it anyway.

u/Nikki_Sue_Trott 3h ago

I just finished one set in Australia using imperial measurements and American terminology. So jarring.

u/keloyd 17h ago edited 14h ago

An avoidable bad thing - sitting too close to the mic so that we hear clicking spittle sounds. If the first 2 minutes does this, that's a NOPE and frantic clicking RETURN on the library app. Publishers are mostly good about avoiding this, but I've run into a few stinkers (that I cannot name, not having read the book to remember it months/years later.) NPR people had a reputation that the Family Guy show ripped on more than once for its people sitting too close to the mic and talking too softly creating the affectation of thoughtfulness. NPR really doesn't sound that way to me now, so maybe they made more effort to sort that out...or my speaker and ears are not so good.

Honorable Mention - Bus Ride To Justice by attorney Fred Gray is brilliant. HOWEVER, as an audio book, the forward is read by the man himself, aged ~90. The extraordinary civil rights attorney by this time had very ordinary vocal chords for 90 year old man. Fortunately, he handed the reading duties off to someone else after the forward - good stuff.

u/Zealousideal-Rip4582 16h ago

Changes in volume drives me crazy!

u/WookieMonster6 14h ago

Mouth noises from the narrator.

u/slightlydramatic 12h ago

Nothing will cause me to stop listening to a book faster than if I can hear mouth noises.

u/nomnomsquirrel 9h ago

When the pronunciation of a character's name changes throughout the story, which seems to happen a fair bit in fantasy/sci-fi.

u/TurtleZenn 3h ago

I have ran into this across a series and I was very confused for a minute thinking there were different characters.

u/nomnomsquirrel 2h ago

I think it was the audiobooks of The Kingkiller Chronicles where between books one and two somehow the pronunciation of Denna of all names changed randomly.

u/Galliagamer 8h ago

Male narrators using a high pitched falsetto voice for female characters. I cannot convey how much I hate it.

u/lmfb666 18h ago

This reads like a bot post.

u/jennye951 17h ago

There are a few phrases, I particularly hate references to “his bald pate”, no one ever refers to a pate except as a bald pate, it’s a cliché and some perfectly good writers still use it.
I also hate English people using the American “gotten” or pronouncing “ harassment “ or “lieutenant ” in the American way.

u/Specific_Pear_665 17h ago

Having something allegedly take place while I was alive and having the people make jokes that do not fit how the world was.

You don't have people making random, "I'm gonna self check out," style over exaggerated references until more recently in our human history.

Also sometimes when the narrator says a word I do not pronounce the same way, it's a ping or a twinge and I mentally correct the pronunciation every time.

Buoy

I grew up by a lake.

u/Faithful_jewel 52m ago

Boo-ee?

In the UK it's pronounced Boy - always takes me a second when I'm listening to US narrators

u/Specific_Pear_665 44m ago

Yeah there's a Boy floating in the water to mark something is like, "why is there a random man out there?"

u/Faithful_jewel 41m ago

Inversely I'm very much going "what the hell is a boo-ee?" until I get full context 😂

u/Specific_Pear_665 40m ago

Glowing brassieres on a castle got me though 😂

u/Faithful_jewel 35m ago

Yeah I can't blame cultural differences on that one. Unless it's a castle sponsored by Victoria's Secret or something 🤣

u/Specific_Pear_665 23m ago

It was a Sci-fi setting so for a bit I was like, "when are they going to mention the man already in the water marking the spot?"

Then I was like, oh, boo-ee.... Guess I'll hoover and go buy washing up liquid 🫧

u/Faithful_jewel 21m ago

"when are they going to mention the man already in the water marking the spot?"

Is he called Bob?

... I'll see myself out

u/BairnONessie 10h ago

Music and sound effects. I can handle a short "end of section" interlude, but if I want the full experience, I'll watch a movie.

u/betazoid_simp 10h ago

sound effects :(

u/Merivel1 18h ago

Mispronouncing words. Libarry, HERth, FEERal

u/IndividualLab6354 18h ago

HERTH! We're out here adding new words to the English Dictionary now.

u/Wot106 11h ago

Tre-BUH-chet, with the "t"

u/VolumniaDedlock 17h ago

Narrators that over-sell the story. I just dropped one where the narrator all but says "get it? get it?" after every mildly amusing line. Sometimes it serves the story better to just read and let the listener react.

u/dshsys 17h ago

Listening to Pierce Brown’s Dark Age audiobook (Red Rising series) and I heard in Part 1, chapter 1 “Mischief” the narrator says “Lines 129 through 134”. I assume it is a queue for editor to be removed later… but just got missed. That took me out of the story!

u/trying_times_eggs 16h ago

Someone next to me at the gym talking on their Bluetooth 

u/AdGold205 16h ago
  1. ⁠Unrealistic voices. Nobody in real life sounds like Batman, unless they have throat cancer. I don’t care how tough they are. (This goes for ScoobyDoo voices or racist/sexist stereotypes too.)

  2. ⁠The character fluent in another language but the narrator completely butchers it.

  3. ⁠Is the narrator eating a PB&J? Weird mouth noises bother me in person, let alone in an audiobook.

u/juggled_geese 16h ago

Recently I couldn't get over a book saying someone had "coriander blue" eyes. It's days later and I'm still wondering wtf they meant.

u/sorcha1977 13h ago

Lol... the author probably meant cornflower and royally screwed up.

u/juggled_geese 13h ago

Yeah, all I could come up with was cornflower or cadmium. I'm like coriander can cover the other two main eye colors but def not blue.

u/iamthefirebird 15h ago

Mispronouncing a word. Especially a pretty common one, like brooch.

Like, I know the spelling implies that it rhymes with mooch, and it doesn't come up in conversation much, but come on! It's said the same as broach!

It was one of my favourite narrators, too. He's still great! I just have to laugh.

Also, duet narration. I can more-or-less get used to it, but those first few minutes after I press play are always rough. Every time.

u/Walzmyn 14h ago

Random sound effects.

The graphic audio ones are one thing. But when it's just an audio book and suddenly there's a random gun shot or door sqeek when there's been nothing else.

What the heck?

u/her_name_is_cherry 14h ago

Well I'm listening to Catch and Kill at the moment. And I love Ronan Farrow. But he is... trying to do different accents and voices for different people and they are so comically bad. Ronan, I adore you but you cannot do an Australian or Russian accent, please stop.

u/Cloud-KH 14h ago

Mispronounced words are a big one for me, and it always seems to be a word that gets said alot during certain sequences. For example my latest audiobook used the word fiefdom maybe half a dozen times in one chapter and they kept pronouncing it like "fyfdom". In the same book they used the word epoch and they kept pronouncing it like "eh-pock", except once when they pronounced it with a hard "EE".

u/FindjeanniePDX 13h ago

Musical interludes. OMG just… no.

u/deluxeok 13h ago

Every time Agatha Christie uses an eyebrow-raising word like “ejaculated” instead of “said”

u/sorcha1977 13h ago

Oh lord. Some of the later Sherlock Holmes stories use the word "n*ggardly". Even though it is not a racial slur, I do a double take every time. It just feels so wrong.

u/Bap818 12h ago

Over dramatizing non dramatic parts

u/Final_Letterhead_496 12h ago

A monotone voice.

u/mollyfy 10h ago

If I can hear the tongue, I’m done.

u/zebbiehedges 8h ago

When I notice the he says she says. Takes me a while to forget it again.

It would be nice if audiobooks could be treated with some respect and properly formatted for the medium.

u/JJchris 3h ago

John Scalzi’s Redshirts almost killed me with the “said”s. I enjoyed the story but hearing “he said” “she said” over and over and over again was awful

u/NoBoysenberry7186 4h ago

My own intrusive thoughts.

u/Jaynezen 2h ago

The little bits of music some people feel needs to be between each chapter.

u/[deleted] 18h ago

[deleted]

u/arglebargle_IV 17h ago

I think "mar-kwiss" is the standard British pronunciation. "Mar-key" is American.

u/MsMulliner 9h ago

I was startled years ago to learn that what I thought was a British narrator’s startling mispronunciation of “lichen” as “lih-chn” was actually the way they like their lichen pronounced over there! In the US, it’s “like-un.”

u/tharealmb 18h ago

The car crashing. That's usually a deal breaker for me and I can't keep listening.

u/pbghikes 14h ago

When the narrator stumbles over a word so they reread the entire sentence, clearly intending to edit after. But the edit never came...

u/Best_Banana_63 17h ago

Bad narrator.

u/GoldBarGirl 17h ago

The eAudioBooks copied so precisely from the original CDs that the music used to indicate the imminent end of the CD still plays.

u/Various_Candidate499 17h ago

Yelling, just chill bro, the book literally says so and so yelled, you don't need to "act" so hard

u/MattScoot 17h ago

I can’t remember the proper term for it, but when the author repeats the subject in consecutive sentences. It’s really jarring when you listen to it in audio form

u/imakemyclothes 17h ago

Teddy hamilton’s voice?

u/mangoatcow 16h ago

When the narrator lets a big wet fart rip

u/LuwandaAdkins79 16h ago

Narrator talking so fast they’re slurring the words!

u/sneakysoap 14h ago

Now I want a bubble to lay in that shows themed "live" scenes as I read so I can be immersed into it more.

u/KiKiBeeKi 13h ago

There is a book series I love that is fine in episodes. Each part has 15 episodes so, I believe it was after the first 15 episodes, some where in part 2 the author started having his characters "opine" and, they "opine" A LOT! it jerks me out of the books when I hear it.

u/hobbesbagger 13h ago

constant breathing in

u/Funny-Bass2607 11h ago

Vocal fry

u/doobersthetitan 11h ago

Wet mouth

u/mrmaaagicSHUSHU 11h ago

Breathing in strongly

u/hapgoodnew 10h ago

Laughter. It always feels so forced and the timing is never right. There’s always a delay before the laugh. Plus you know the author didn’t write “ha,ha,ha…” in the text. The book had to say something like “so and so laughed.” Even worse is grunts or sex gasps. It’s so awkward! Please just read what is written on the page.I almost rage-quit listening to Butcher and Blackbird because not only did they use laughs and gasps but they used the same laugh and gasp over and over like a sound effects button. The laughing in the interview scenes in August Lane almost ruined an otherwise decent multinarrator book (which, I’m rarely a fan of anyway).

u/Wide_Indicaton_7852 10h ago

Police sirens

u/PFazu 8h ago

The way the narrator pronounces the Mjoulnir armor in the halo books. Every time

u/PastelDictator 8h ago

Male narrators putting on fake ‘girl voice’.

u/theskymoves 8h ago

Anything military/naval and they mispronounce ship parts "forecastle" for example.

I usually only notice after watching a different video explaining the history behind the pronunciation of these words though.

u/blahblahgingerblahbl 7h ago

- mispronunciation

  • weird emphasis/cadence - eg turning a question into a statement, out of place pauses, etc
  • mouth sounds

u/gemh 6h ago

Accents. Even if the character has one that's different from our main character, please don't.

Mispronunciation of words. I recently was listening to a book where the narrator pronounced sachet to rhyme with hatchet. It wasn't an indie either so I assume had the time and money to edit it.

Extraneous sound. If I wanted to listen to an audio play or drama, I'd go listen to that, I just want someone to read me a story.

u/whoohoo22 4h ago

If a male narrator sound’s too old for the character in the book or really bothers me.

u/DaveMC12 4h ago

An earthquake.

u/invisiblelemur88 2h ago

Someone slamming the brakes hard in front of me

u/sblinn Moderator-Blogger 2h ago

When the text has obviously been changed from something like “dear reader” to “dear listener”

u/XDoomedXoneX 1h ago

"battery low". "Battery low". "Battery low". "Power off". - my headphones

u/dunesummer 1h ago

A bad accent.

u/Alfrasco 1h ago

The pronoun thing. They is plural, not a singular person. I don’t need to be re-educated by my entertainment.

u/Pandafknmonium 1h ago

No voice inflection whatsoever

u/TwoTurtlesToo 1h ago

“He said” or “she said“ at the end of every sentence. Use a couple to keep the dialogue flowing but don’t double the book length.

u/Wuthering_depths 1h ago

Mispronouncing something, in particular a character's name. In the case of the 3rd Takeshi Kovacs series (the first being Altered Carbon), the main character's name.

After the main character makes a point in the first story about how everyone messes up his name. Only to have the 3rd book reader do exactly that, in the same way the character was noting. It's not "Ko-vacks" and that's what the guy said, oh about 1000 times during the book. Drove me nuts.

u/davidolson22 18h ago

Just getting something fundamentally wrong.

I was listening to the long Earth and the American characters were calling the "July the Fourth". WTF. Totally lost any immersion.

u/IndividualLab6354 18h ago

Oh my. Not July the Fourth! 🤣. But thank you for sharing, this is a highlight haha!

u/BurnoutSociety 18h ago

I can’t stand voice acting…

u/Asleep-Major-7963 17h ago

Like when narrators do different voices for each character? I love that!

u/BurnoutSociety 16h ago

I can’t stand it.. i prefer normal voice and tone..

u/flipper080162 3h ago

as soon as a book goes woke, i´ll trash it.

u/ExchangeStandard6957 15h ago

I entirely triggered my a certain accent - when I hear the narrator say the word BAG with more an A sound instead ahhh it drives me nuts- it’s like a Minnesota accent but I don’t know why - takes me right out of the story wondering why they chose that!