When I was in New York City earlier this month, I had what has been the audiobookish time of my life.As I shared on Monday, I loved each and every minute. Understandably, it took a little while to process everything that happened. There is one thing I’ve yet to share with you. It was so special to me that I’ve had a hard time to putting it into words. Looking back on it, I think it’s understandable. If you didn’t know already, you can probably guess what I’m going to say based on the title alone. Please bear with me, this event was years in the making…
October 1971 ~ I am born. Simon Vance, a young man about England, feels a shift in the wind, but is really too busy doing whatever it is that Monty Python and Pink Floyd fans did in the 70s to give it much thought.
January 2007 ~ Literate Housewife is born. Simon Vance is racking up the audiobook nominations and awards. I was too caught up in the “audiobooks don’t count” fallacy that I don’t notice.
April 23, 2008 ~ I join Audible in a fit of frustration with the intolerable bedtime routine in my house. Letting go of my anti-audiobook dogma, I figure at least I can listen to a book or two while I lay down in their room at night. Somewhere not in the too distant future, Simon Vance narrates The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which is released in September of that year.
December 22, 2008 ~ I purchase The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Not knowing what in the world I’m doing with audiobooks. I remember looking at this Simon Vance person’s Audible profile and, thinking he looked like a nice enough guy, took a chance. I was curious about the book anyway. I can’t remember if I bothered to listen to the sample or not. Early days, folks. I had no idea where this would lead.
April 18, 2009 ~ I started listening to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo during Dewey’s Read-A-Thon. I first heard Simon Vance’s voice while cleaning out the minivan, which was no small task. By the time I finished, Mikael Blomkvist’s trial was over, but Lisbeth Salander was not yet in sight. I thought the narrator had a nice voice and appreciated his pronunciation of Swedish street names. I wasn’t really sure that this book was for me. I set my MP3 player down for awhile.
July 2009 ~ I needed to clean out my closet. I had the house to myself. I decided to pick up The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo again. Lisbeth Salander entered the picture. I sit down on my bed to listen. My closet did not get as clean I had hoped. I take the girls to the pool one afternoon. I did not write down the date, but it was while watching the girls play in the kiddie pool that I sat forward in my deck chair. Something changed. I.GOT.IT! Audiobooks were amazing. Never before has reading a book, no matter how beloved, felt like *this.* I checked the display on my MP3 player. Simon Vance. I needed to get more of what he had to offer.
May 2010 ~ I receive an ARC of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. I was anxiously waiting for that book to be released. I help Lisbeth’s fate in my hands, but I was torn. I took to Twitter asking if I should read now or wait for Simon Vance. Now, if my husband has any lingering resentment over my narrator crush, it was born out of my reaction to what happens next. Simon Vance sent me a DM. When I read the email, I screamed. Danny, in the kitchen, thought someone was dying. He never did come to see this as the joyous event I did. The DM? Well, Simon Vance told me to wait for him. How could I not?
June 2010 ~ I gathered up my courage and, figuring that it would be okay to ask since he’d reached out to me, I asked to interview him for what would be my first Audiobook Week. My inner reaction to his “Yes” was no less than the night I read that DM, but I was in the library with my kids, so I had to contain myself.
June 25, 2010 ~ I published my interview with Simon Vance. I felt like the queen of the world.
January 2011 ~ On a decidedly bad day, I began Paul Is Undead, a book I wouldn’t have otherwise read, but it fit into a reading challenge and, well, Simon Vance narrated it. That began one of the best reading experiences of my life. The audiobook is hilarious and I had a great time sharing my joy via Twitter with Simon, Tanya, and the author, Alan Goldsher. I wish with all my heart I had a transcript of all the tweeting that went on while I was listening. Suffice to say that it was an incredible experience that made me happy to be an audiobook lover in the modern world. I’m a lucky duck.
June 2011 ~ During Audiobook Week that year, two significant things happen. 1) I start the Shaken, Not Stirred Challenge and begin the journey of listening to each of Ian Fleming’s James Bond books that Simon Vance narrated. As a result, I had a monthly date with Simon Vance’s narration and, when it could be worked out, he and his wife joined us for the monthly Twitter party. We’ve had a great time. 2) Natalie from Book Line and Sinker posted a phone interview with Scott Brick, her narrator crush. This set into motion my own phone call with Simon.
December 2011 ~ Simon Vance calls my very own cell phone! Let’s forget all about how, in my nervousness, I sent him the wrong number. I eventually got it right. So I had this opportunity to talk to the man who changed my reading life and I jumped immediately in to the interview with barely a Hello. I so wanted to be professional and not let the fangirl in me show. Thankfully my nerves settled down once the conversation got started and I’m happy with the end result. If I had it to do over again, I would worry less about the impression I made and sit back and enjoy the ride.
June 3, 2012 ~ I freaking met Simon Vance at the APA Mixer!!
I did my best to act composed at the time, but OMFG! I met Simon Vance!!!! The best part? He is a charming and funny in person as he is on Twitter of in email.
June 4, 2012 ~ I saw Simon again at the Tantor party and even *gasp* had dinner with him later that night. Granted, he was at the other end of the table and I didn’t get much of a chance to talk to him, butI ate a meal at the same table as Simon Vance. I was able, at the end of the evening, to wish him well at the Audie Awards the next night in person.
June 5, 2012 ~ When Simon won his two Audies, I was cheering away in my hotel room. All the while I was thinking, “I freaking met Simon Vance!”Wow! What an experience.
Today’s Audiobook Week topic is about your favorite narrators. I think I pretty adequately answered the question about who my favorite narrator is. LOL!
In all seriousness, Simon Vance is much more than just my narrator crush. He wasn’t the first narrator I listened to, but he was the pivotal one. Through his art, he has opened a whole new world to me. While listening to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, I learned how to be an active, engaged through his pacing and style. In that respect, he’s just as important to me as Mrs. Stone, my lovely First Grade teacher who worked hard to teach me to read, and Dr. Susan Swartzlander, who taught me not only to read critically, but to do so with joy.
This isn’t even just about Simon Vance. It’s possible that without him, there wouldn’t be any audiobook goodness in my life. How sad would my life be without all of the people I’ve met online or in person as a result of my love for audiobooks? Tanya Perez, Xe Sands, Bob Reiss, Jennifer Sullivan, the Audio(aGo)Go girls, Karen White, and Anne Flosnik are just a few of the audiobook people who bring me joy on a daily basis. Simon Vance made that possible because he shares his gift of narration with those who care to listen.
That is why Simon is my favorite narrator. I am proud to consider him my friend.
June 17, 2012 ~ Simon Vance releases a June is Audiobook Month video in which he mentions meeting me. SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Come on, you didn’t really think I could keep the fangirl at bay for long, did you?
Simon Vance Audie Award Giveaway Extravaganza!
Simon won two Audie Awards this year for The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens and The King’s Speech by Mark Logue and and Peter Conradi. In honor of Audiobook Week and this momentous occassion, Tantor Audio is offering a copy of each title to one of my lucky readers! To enter, leave a comment here letting me know who your favorite narrator is and why by 11:59pm EST on Thursday, July 5th. I’ll announce the winner on July 6th.
Oh how I love this post!! I love the relationship you’ve built with Simon Vance and how your fan girl has been rewarded!
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I am still a newbie but I love Joshilyn Jackson narrating her books, and I’m sad I’m almost done with them. A college friend of mine does voice work and is starting to narrate more mainstream books. His name is Bill Quinn, he’s got a deep resonate voice, so look for him.
Gee I hope I win…I haven’t listened to anything by Simon yet.
Thank you!
I’ve got to listen to Joshilyn Jackson. She’s sitting right on my shelf! I definitely will look for Bill Quinn. I’ve got a ready made connection.
Congratulations! You won the contest! I’ve got your address and I’ll forward it to Tantor. I hope you love the audiobooks!
Thank you! I’m all aglow today.
I didn’t dump you per se. I just postponed our BEA time together. LOL!
So great that you were able to connect with Simon! I’d love to meet my favorite Narrator, Stephen Briggs. I had listened to a couple of audio books before, but found the narrators boring or laughable (particularly when the narrator is male and uses a falsetto for a female character). It wasn’t until a friend gave me his copy of Thud! by Terry Pratchett, narrated by Stephen Briggs, that I really fell in love with Audiobooks. Briggs does a fantastic job with all of the characters (even the female ones), and has great pacing. Briggs is definitely my favorite narrator (of course it helps that he reads my favorite author).
Stephen Briggs is going on my list! I’ve also never read Terry Pratchett, so it will be a two for one listen for me.
I’m a sucker for British accents myself.
I’ll have to check out Stockard Channing’s Beverly Cleary audiobooks. Maybe my kids would like them.
I’m so glad that other people are enjoying this as much as I did. It’s been such a great ride – one that I’m glad I don’t have to get off any time soon.
I really thought I should come clean about how I think of you ladies in my head. I love ya!
Thank you so much! I also have enjoyed Katherine Kellgren and Neil Gaiman. They are excellent choices.
Thank you for sharing your favorite. I will have to add the Wheel of Time series to my list of audiobooks to look for. I’d love to expand what I listen to.
Thanks, Beth!
I know what you mean about favorite narrators. I’m very much that way about authors. The good news is that there are so many great narrators and authors out there to love. How lucky are we to be living here and when?
Jim Dale might just be the way that I finally read the Harry Potter books. I’ve heard such great things about his work.
Thank you so much!
I will add Emma Galvin to my list of narrators to look for. I know I’ve seen her name before. Maybe I’ll be lucky and already have something of hers already in my pile.
Thank you so much, Jenn! You’re saying that means so much.
LOL! This story wouldn’t be complete without me taking a little jab at Monty Python and Pink Floyd.
It sounds to me like there has never been a better time to be an audiobook fan or an audiobook narrator. We are all very lucky indeed.
Oh girl. Yes, I remember that DM! And al the chit chat back and forth, and ALL MY ENVY! See, I’ll learn my lesson about not spending enough time on Twitter. As far as my favorite narrators, it is like asking which is my favorite child! I love Simon, I love Robin Sachs, Hope Davis, and Hillary Huber. But if pressed, I could come up with about 20 that I’d listen to any day. This is probably my favorite post ever by the way.
Sandy, you have been with me through it all. You should have been there with me. Send me a head shot and I’ll photoshop you in to my picture with me. LOL!
I love all of the narrators you have listed and I agree, there are so many more I’d listen to any time.
Thank you!
I love Cassandra Campbell and Juliet Stevenson, too. Did you listen to Campbell’s You Know When the Men are Gone? She really was robbed on Audie night for not winning (says the woman who hasn’t listened to any of the other nominees – LOL!) I have Winter King sitting on my phone. I need to get started with that. I will also have to look into China Road. I love backlist finds!
I LOVED You Know When the Men Are Gone and was shocked when she did not receive an Audie. Of course, I didn’t listen to the others in the category either…
I loved this post! I don’t really listen to a lot of audiobooks, but this almost might make me reconsider… Again! I obviously just need it to ‘click’ like it did for you. But, fantastic fun post!
I would say keep trying. I have no doubt that with an open mind you’ll find your ‘click.’ It will be magical.
Lady, you need an a special award for that post! so fun and well done.
OMG, I did not know you had interviewed Simon Vance, fascinating fascinating interview, what a cool, serious and funny guy. I enjoy what he said about foreign languages, which is a point I sometimes have problems with other narrators.
I wonder how many hundreds of hits you got ion that post!
and thanks for the giveaway. guess what? my favorite male narrator is…Simon Vance, no kidding.
“My latest discovery is Simon Vance, that I heard for the first time in Bring Up The Bodies. I enjoyed how he managed to express Cromwell’s cold detachment in his affairs with the Kingdom, in sending his enemies to the Tower, in always calculating to get his own advantage in anything.”
see more about that in my own post today: http://wordsandpeace.com/2012/06/28/what-makes-a-good-narrator-audiobook-week-discussion/
Awww! Thank you so much!
Bring Up the Bodies is a seriously great audiobook. I’m going to be reviewing it tomorrow. I’m glad you had the chance to read it. So darn good!
If there had been a camera on me, I’m sure that it would have taken the America’s Funniest Home Video’s prize that year. Shoot! That would have been a nice chunk of change to use for buying audiobooks.
I’m glad to see that I’m in good company! Simon Vance fans unite!
I for one, am jealous that Simon Vance got to meet you. What a lucky bastard!
It really did shock me how gracious and engaging the majority of audiobook narrators are. I have found my interaction with them even more rewarding then any interaction I have had with the authors whose words they read. The first narrator who ever reached out to me was Phil Gigante, who isn’t on Twitter, but was told of my reviews by the author of some of the books he read. It was great discovering that someone whose work you respect, is also a nice guy. This is way too rare today.
Bob, you have made my day. Thank you very much. For the record, my mom agrees with you. LOL!
I really do have to get my hands on a good Phil Gigante audiobook. If we were to embark on a Bob suggests/Jennifer suggests challenge, you’d have to pick one of his. Well, you wouldn’t really have to because that would defeat the whole purpose of the challenge – your freewill to suggest an audiobook for me – but you get the idea.
I had a similar, pivotal experience with our Mr. Vance. I was starting the ‘Master and Commander’ series and ‘switched narrators’ for book 2 to SV. Well, me-oh-my, that lit me up like a Christmas tree:-). I’ve been a major, seek-his-stuff-out fan ever since. His contribution to the Hitch-Hiker’s Guide may play a small part too:-). I’m even hoping we might be related. My grannie was a Belfast Vance:-).
Interesting – According to family legend my Grandmother was one of the first female graduates of Queen’s University (she became a GP – as was Grandad and Dad)… She was not a Vance, of course, but I think met my Grandfather over there…
The Master and Commander series is on my radar. I’m not really sure if it would be my thing, but if it set you off on a seek-his-stuff-out mission, I should at least give them a try. You never know what you might find when you follow you favorite narrators around.
Good luck on the ancestor connection!
This is such a wonderful post, Jennifer. And it really couldn’t be about two nicer, more gracious people. So glad you were finally able to connect in person and share that mutual appreciation.
Thanks so much for sharing this journey with us all.
Thank you so much, Xe!!!
This might just be my favorite post ever. I absolutely love your enthusiasm, and as I’ve mentioned before, I listened to audiobooks, but it had been years until you pulled me back on the bandwagon.
Even though I’ve slacked off with Shaken Not Stirred, I’m still slowly making my way through the books, and I must say that SV is the only one I could listen to tell me about Bond and his stories.
I’m so incredibly glad that you got to meet him and truly find your niche with audiobooks. It’s a lovely thing. And again, this post is SO FUN.
Thank you so much, Jenn! Audiobooks certainly have become my passion and I’m glad to have gotten you back on the bandwagon. I’ve really enjoyed listening to all of the Bond books. No matter what you’re schedule is, we’ll always have Bond.
I would certainly suggest going with Vance for Dragon Tattoo. You can see where it brought me.
Your other narrators I haven’t had a chance to listen to next. My narrator TBL pile keeps growing. And I’m not saying that like it’s a bad thing.
Loved your post! I was a Pink Floyd and Monty Python fan, so Simon Vance and I have a lot in common. I hope that doesn’t make you too jealous.
I don’t have one narrator that I can name as my favorite, but Lenny Henry was maybe the narrator that first made me sit up and take notice of the narrator’s name. The way he read Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman just floored me; it sounded so much better than it would have sounded in my head.
you are positively glowing in that photo with simey-poo. i love your post–especially the way you started it off with the dates.
lately i’ve been thinking more and more about meeting scottie and have come to the conclusion that maybe it’s for the best if we remain on-line buddies. i’d never be able to post any photos of meeting him (the foam frothing from my mouth would not be a good look), and i’d probably be rendered utterly speechless.
you once posted on my blog that i was living the dream (after interviewing scott), but i must pass the baton to you now–you truly are an audiobook groupie par excellence!
My favorite audiobook narrator is definitely Jim Dale with the Harry Potter books. I have listened to those audiobooks probably a dozen times, and have gotten to where I actually hear his voice narrating when I read the books. The only voice that he does in the HP series that seems off to me is Luna Lovegood’s, but it’s not enough to turn me off from the books. I think what I like so much about his reading is that he becomes the characters, so much so that he gets out of the way and you only hear/see the story in your mind.
Great post, great vlog, how very fun!
I don’t have a favorite yet – I haven’t yet listened to Vance (nor Brick) but enjoyed Campbell Scott reading poetry to me.
I’m just getting started in audiobooks so next year, perhaps I will have a favorite.
This is such a great surprise, no?! He mentions you. I would be giddy!
I especially enjoyed your post because I am going to get a chance to meet Simon Vance at Booktopia Santa Cruz in October. Nice to know he is such a nice guy.
Loved your post!!!! You know – I hesitate to say a favorite narrator because I am so new (but learning fast!) to watching who the narrators are, but I do want to enter this awesome giveaway because I want to listen to Simon Vance!
So right now I have been enjoying Mark Bramhall. Thanks – this is so awesome and I sqqquuuueeedddd with you when you talked about meeting Simon Vance!
I don’t think I can choose ONE favorite audiobook narrator. I’ve been listening to audiobooks since 1997 and cannot imagine life (or household chores) without them. Here are some of my all-time favorites, in addition to Simon Vance, who is wonderful: George Guidall, Barbara Rosenblatt, Barbara Caruso, Ron McLarty, Craig Wasson, and many more. The late, great Flo Gibson was amazing. I listen to her recording of Pride and Prejudice every year. Congrats to you on meeting Simon Vance!!!
[...] most fascinating post I read this week: in which Literate Housewife tells us about her “life” and meeting with Simon Vance the great! Great post, with [...]
I completely agree with you – Simon Vance is the best. I first fell in love with his narrations of the classics. There is no one better to read Dickens or Trollope. But recently I’ve been listening to his mystery and sci fi performances, loving his Temeraire series. Right now I’m in the Netherlands and I’ve loaded my ipod with The Good Thief’s Guide to Amsterdam. Fantastic. i’m going to have to get the whole series.
Great post!
Julie
I loved this post! I don’t really listen to a lot of audiobooks, but this almost might make me reconsider… Again! I obviously just need it to ‘click’ like it did for you. But, fantastic fun post!
[...] is narrated by Simon Vance, who I have wanted to listen to ever since Jennifer (Literate Housewife) gushed about him during Audio Book Week. It’s a weak reason, I guess, but I’m excited. I also picked up a paperback copy at [...]
[...] Brick, I have finally listened to you! Besides Simon Vance, Scott Brick is the only audiobook narrator I know who has his very own superfan. Audible has close [...]