Saturday, April 21, 2018

Audiobooks on Tolkien

So, I just finished up listening to an audiobook of John Garth's TOLKIEN & THE GREAT WAR, read by Garth itself. And it was so good, it sent me looking for more audiobook adaptations of works on (not by) JRRT. Which in turn reminded me of what an erratic lot it is. I haven't done anything like a systematic search, but even a cursory pokeabout shows how random is the pattern of what has and hasn't been made available in audiobook format.



Yes
The Zaleskis: THE INKLINGS 
Glyer: both THE COMPANY THEY KEEP and BANDERSNATCH

No
Shippey: both his seminal books
Flieger: all three of her major books
Fimi
Burns

Raymond Edwards

Some of what is available is as odd as what is not. Thus Carpenter's THE INKLINGS is apparently available, yet his BIOGRAPHY is not. Also, some relatively little-known books Xian audiobooks are out:

Xian audiobooks
Bruner & Ware's FINDING GOD IN THE LORD OF THE RINGS
Ware's FINDING GOD IN THE HOBBIT



I'd like to compile a more complete list than this initial rather random dipping, so if you know of others not mentioned above drop me a line and I'll add them to the list.*

--John R.


P.S. I didn't do a comparable search for CSL and the other Inklings, but I do know McGrath's C. S. LEWIS is available and that I'd recommend it,** while Lindop's THE THIRD INKLING seems not to have an audiobook incarnation.



*and hopefully eventually to listen to them.

**among its other virtues, the audiobook version of McGarth has the surviving bits of Lewis's own voice recordings provided as an audio appendix.




2 comments:

OnTheTrail said...

Hi John,

Carpenter's Bio is available as an audio book and is read by Michael Moody.

The Gospel According to Tolkien by Ralph C. Wood is narrated by Nadia May.

Rings, Swords, and Monsters - Exploring Fantasy Literature by Michael D C Drout, this is part of the Modern Scholar series (TMS) and has great sections on Tolkien.

CliffsNotes: The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings by Gene B Hardy (published in 2012 by Brilliance Audi).


Hope that is a good start.

Phil

John Garth said...

Hello John. I'm delighted you enjoyed my audiobook so much! Thank you for sharing.