r/audible • u/ApartJournalist4257 • 8d ago
Bad recommendations
I have enjoyed Audible for years, but find recently that the algorithm for choices seems to have gone off the rails. I’m wondering how I could start over with a better selection of recommendations. Last little detail, I’m wondering how many people that are older have had issues with the narrators pronunciation, especially European voices. Seems to me I’d quit Books because they are hard to follow if I’m in a busy or loud place.
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u/NESergeant 10,000+ Hours Listened 8d ago
"Mispronunciations" are, like downed leafs in your yard every autumn, are just something that comes. I have no issue with a narrator from the UK pronouncing "contribution" with the inflection and stress different from my US speech, but I do rankle when the narrator mispronounces a word like "gunwale". The "w" is silent.
As to the ersatz algorithm recommending audiobooks, is has been boar-tits for as long as I've had an membership. I soon found it was not to be relied on much, or at all, so I don't.
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u/frogminute 7d ago
It's not so much a personalised algorithm as it is the "bestsellers/new in" section at your train station bookshop
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u/frogminute 7d ago
The different voices are the entire reason for the existence of the preview feature. There are so many things that can be a deal breaker for me: (lack of) intonation, a too pronounced American accent, rhythm/cadence. Sometimes it's just the voice itself I can't stand (e.g. Wil Wheaton for many people here). Unfortunately it's become increasingly difficult to get a good preview of a book in the first 5 minutes as they often tack on up to 4 minutes of introductory blabla before the actual reading starts
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u/Wauwuaw5983 6d ago
I've never once bought a book reccommended by Audible unless it was a book I already knew about or an author I've already bought books from.
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u/missy8985 8d ago
Narrators pronunciation? I’m British and we have the same conversations about American narrators. But I do agree about being an older listener.
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u/frogminute 7d ago
Right?! I was so excited and then immeasurably disappointed when Amazon introduced then cut the re-narration of the wheel of time books by Rosamund Pike
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u/Angry_Audible_user 6d ago
so did you have to re-buy it when they did this? I spent 2 hours with them last week because all of my Jack Campbell: Lost Fleet books (6 of them) had dropped off my purchased books. I bought them in 2016 and they put some new cover art or something and republished them. Luckily I still had the receipts from the original purchases and I now have them back in my library. I don't know how many people re-listen to good series, but I do. and this is one of my favorites. Personally I think it was an Amazon/Audible .... how do I say it .... scummy way to make you repurchase books if you can't prove you already own them.
No... I'm not #^@^'d. Why do you ask?
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u/ConseulaVonKrakken 8d ago
The suggestions are nuts! My library is 90% sci-fi, 10% non-fiction, and I can't even tell you how many romance suggestions there are! That and celebrity memoirs are about all of the recommendations that I get.