June is Audiobook Month

Libraries for the blind and physically handicapped across the country often promote the slogan, “There’s More Than One Way to Read a Book.” This is especially true in June -- when we celebrate Audiobook Month.

This annual observance, sponsored by The Audiobook Publishers' Association, helps to spread the word about audiobooks through as many channels and to as many people as possible. The Tennessee Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (TLBPH) has a huge collection of audiobooks, which are available to any Tennessean who has a physical disability which prevents them from reading standard print.

An image of an audiobook player.
Courtesy of the Tennessee Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.

The narrators of audiobooks can often enhance the experience of reading a book. In fact, The New Yorker ran a piece by John Colapinto called “The Pleasures of Being Read To”, in which he says, about listening to the audio version of The Sun Also Rises, “after repeated, delighted listenings, it best accentuates the deadpan hilarity that is too little commented upon in Hemingway. I’d failed to understand, until I listened to Hurt’s performance, just how funny and touching the book is.” A patron of the TLBPH recently reported that he “got so much more out of” listening to TLBPH’s audio version of Tolstoy’s War and Peace than he did when he could read it in print.

If you know someone who can’t see well enough to read standard print; someone who might be able to see just fine, but cannot hold a book and/or turn pages, or who cannot tilt their head down to read; or someone who has a reading disability that prevents them from reading print, call the TLBPH, toll-free at (800) 342-3308 for an application for service.

TLBPH is a section of the Tennessee State Library & Archives, a division of Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett’s office. For more information, go to the library’s website at: http://sos.tn.gov/tsla/lbph.

The Tennessee State Library and Archives is a division of the Tennessee Department of State and Tre Hargett, Secretary of State

June is National Audio Book Month!

June is National Audio Book Month! Here at the Tennessee Library for the Blind & Physically Handicapped (TLBPH), a section of the Tennessee State Library & Archives, our focus is on providing audio books to people who have physical disabilities that prevent them from reading standard print - and these people are the only ones who can borrow books from us.

However, almost anyone can "read" an audio book. In fact, there are annual “Audie Awards” given each year since 1996 by the Audio Publishers Association for commercial audio books.

Reading an audio book can pull you into the story, and a good narrator can really “make or break” a book. For example, the “Harry Potter” audio books narrated by commercial narrator Jim Dale have won many audio book awards, including a couple of Grammys and a record 10 Audies. But, the audio narrator of the TLBPH’s books, Erik Sandvold, is equally popular among blind and physically handicapped patrons nationwide. In fact, he is so popular that he has recorded more than 700 titles for the federal government’s studios, plus many for commercial audio book publishers. Sandvold is a two-time winner of the prestigious “Alexander Scourby Narrator of the Year Award,” given by the American Foundation for the Blind.

Summer is a great time for reading, so why not try reading an audio book? Some new titles available to eligible registered TLBPH patrons that may also be available as commercial audio books from your public library include:

• You Can, You Will: 8 Undeniable Qualities of a Winner, by Joel Osteen
• The Double Fudge Brownie Murder, by Joanne Fluke
• Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story, by Rick Bragg
• The Last Dickens, by Matthew Pearl

All of these are also available as commercial audio books, either on CD or from audible.com. Your public library may have or be able to obtain these audio titles for you.

The State Library and Archives is a division of the Tennessee Department of State and Tre Hargett, Secretary of State.