[sun surfer]

I'm starting reading today. I'm still deciding on how. I wanted to try with the ebook, but with a few no-audio-available books from the lit club I'm still finishing up and with so many others doing audio I think I'm leaning towards the audio, though with the ebook on hand.

If anyone is still deciding on an audiobook, there are only four unabridged recordings for Daniel Deronda at Audible. I've already listened to audiobooks by Juliet Stevenson and Nadia May and know they're both top notch in my own estimation, and even comparing them here they are somewhat similar, perhaps Stevenson's voice a bit lower and slower. May's reading sample has a bit more bright and brassy high notes while Stevenson's has a bit of a deeper, quieter quality.

Jill Tanner is a narrator I don't think I've listened to before, but she sounds really somewhat similar to Stevenson and May as well, perhaps somewhere between the other two with her vocal timbre. To me she also sounds top notch from her sample and that's backed up by those of you here listening to her and liking her. As Bookworm_Girl also discussed, Tanner's version as well as Stevenson's are both six hours longer than May's.

The fourth version I can easily dismiss from my own consideration, though maybe someone else would like it. It's by Philippe Duquenoy. The name sounds somewhat familiar but I don't think I've listened to his narration before. Anyway, I don't think his sample held up to the others for my own listening. It seemed to have an automatic quality, as if he were a computer generated voice like Siri, or maybe better said that his reading seemed very performative or energetic without fitting the book's contents. It's the shortest unabridged version though so there's that.

From trying the samples I think any of Stevenson, May or Tanner would be great choices, and it's making it hard for me to choose! I'll give it a little longer today before deciding on one for myself.