Horror Aficionados discussion

Just read this article in one of our papers and wanted to see what the reaction was on here,

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetec...

It seems that one Ebook firm is adding sound effects to books , so while your reading them at point you can hear rain and other effects , why?

God, more noise in public from inconsiderate people from their little techie devices. I wouldn't be interested in sound effects while I'm reading a book.

I am not a fan of this at all. If I suddenly hear rain or teacups clinking, I'm going to be pulled right out of the story wondering where that noise is coming from. If I want music, I'm perfectly capable of turning on the radio or slapping a CD in a player. I really hope this turns out to be an epic fail.

Can people just appreciate silence any more?

I don't mind if they do this as long as there's a way to turn this feature off if don't want to hear teacups clinking and the sound of rain...LOL. If people want to hear all that, why wouldn't they just listen to an audio book version of the book ?

Oh this would not be for me. I can't even do audiobooks. I'm way too ADD for that.

Plus I like the quiet silence while I read. If I want noise I will go sit in the living room while my hubby plays MW2.

I think I am capable of imagining the sounds myself, thank you very much.

Gator, you know imagination is on the wane in human beings. They're just trying to fill a market niche.

Sadly true, Tressa, sadly true.

This would make me not purchase the book. I'm easily distracted and this would pull me right out of the story. A very bad idea, IMO.

It is weird how everything has to be super technicized these days, isn't it? People seem to completely forget that simply because something is possible doesn't mean they should do it.

So, if I'm a slow reader the gunshot sound effect will play three paragraphs before I even read about the murder? After all, the book has no idea, exactly which line I am reading at any given time…

Yeah, I didn't think of that, Guido. How do they know where your eyes are on the page?

Good point.

Supposedly it can calculate how fast you read by how often you turn the pages. But even if that were spot on it doesn't take into consideration distractions like the phone ringing, misreading something & having to go back and read a sentence or two again. If you stop reading in the middle of a page, how is it going to know where you left off?

From the little bit I've seen out there, the reading community is not happy with this so maybe it'll die a quiet death.

It can't do calculations - unless the book is an app and not a traditional e-book. Current e-books do not support things like Java scripts, which could be used to determine reading speed or even find out which page the reader is currently on.

e-books are pretty dumb. They are plain HTML pages with absolutely no coded intelligence. All you can do is embed a sound object in the text where it may seem appropriate and once the book displays that passage of the text, the effect will be played. That sound effect could be on the first or on the last line of that page, the book would never know and could not even delay the playback to accommodate reading speed.

So, in essence, it could really only be used for something like ambient effects, that tend to go on for longer stretches, like rain in a scene or traffic noise or a generic thunderstorm sound, but honestly, how long will that be cool, particularly because it has to be looped, which tends to get very annoying after the second repeat?

To me it is really just a useless gimmick and any publisher going for it is really doing it only for the novelty's sake so they can add a bullet point to their sell sheet that says "The only ebook with real-life sound effects" or some crap like that.

I think that this is a pretty stupid idea, too. Although I have listened to Audiobooks where there were sound effects, and if done right, it can really add to the listening experience!

I doubt it would work for an ebook though. As Guido said, you'd hear the gunshot three paragraphs before it actually happens.

What I think they should do, and this is more for fantasy and sci fi, is if any book comes with appendixes and glossaries of their own to match the book's made up world, the reader can highlight the unknown, made up word and immediately see what it means, just like the dictionary function does for the Kindle.

It means everyone around you would know what you're reading. You settle back on a train to enjoy an erotic novella, and the sex noises start.

Ooh, I hope they add sound effects to Nancy Friday's My Secret Garden!

As long as you had the option to turn the sound on or off, I wouldn't have a problem. I'd probably leave mine off, but it might be interesting to hear sound effects at some points.

I also would never pay extra for the sound, and would feel ripped off if an e-book publisher was adding a hidden fee.

I always get aggravated at audiobooks that play music at the start/end of each CD. I can imagine these e-sound effects could be as annoying.

MountainShelby, I don't mind the music so much in audiobooks, as they act as a cue that it's time to change the CD. On the other hand, I think the sound might be enough to take me out of the book.

I bet soon we'll have to listen to commercials on our e-readers.

Tressa, I can see that one coming all to well. :(

I get ticked when I just want to watch a video on the Internet and have to sit through a 10 second commercial. I just turn the sound off and look away; not going to give them the satisfaction, lol.

I hate those friggin things, too! Seems everything is advertising. Grrrr

Yes, these things are getting worse and worse. Anything for a buck, I guess, is the mentality.

At the movies; on the Internet; on the radio; on the TV; on Pandora. Augh!

Tressa wrote: "I bet soon we'll have to listen to commercials on our e-readers."

That is definitely coming! Where do commercials not end up being?

In a way, the commercial thing has already started for the kindle. You can buy a kindle really cheap, I forget how much, and it has advertising in it.

I have hated commercials for as long as I can remember. I hate them so much that even if one will be shown I mute the TV so I don't have to listen to the blather and watch a product being misrepresented by all it can claim to do.

Tressa wrote: "I have hated commercials for as long as I can remember. I hate them so much that even if one will be shown I mute the TV so I don't have to listen to the blather and watch a product being misrepres..."

I hate commercials, too, Tressa. On the rare occasion that I actually have to sit through one, I use the time to do some reading.

I don't think such a thing as sound in books should be even though of.
When you are reading you are imagining everything, the scenery, the characters, the ambience.
Putting sound in a book would not only be anoying to the reader and people around him but also redundant.
What next. Moving pictures and sound in books.
Oh wait, isn't that called A MOVIE?!?!?

Thank goodness for recorded TV. Now I just FF through crap I don't care to see or hear. I will even mute the sound for one of those annoying 10-second commercials before an online news clip or music video.

I think one can purchase the audiobook with/without sound, so at least (so far) they're not forcing it on us.

Commercials do suck! They all make the human race look stupid.

Not all commercials suck. Some actually let you know about products you could really use. Like the one for the Turbo Snake. That little sucker really works like they say!

But Dannon Light Yogurt will NOT make me look like supermodel. That sucks and blows.

Most supermodels suck and blow.

LOL. Good one.