双语：有声图书爆发 受众逐年剧增

　　Cory Wilbur, a 25-year-old software engineer in Boston, never used to read much. He barely cracked a book in college and would read one or two a year on vacation, at most.

　　25岁的波士顿软件工程师科里·威尔伯(Cory Wilbur)之前阅读量一直不大。上大学时就很少翻书，一年最多也就在放假时读上一两本。

　　But in the past year, he's finished 10 books, including Dan Brown's 'Inferno,' Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs and George R.R. Martin's fantasy series 'A Song of Ice and Fire.' He listens to audio books in snippets throughout the day on his iPhone during his morning workout, on his 20-minute commute to work, and while he's cooking dinner or cleaning up. Before he falls asleep, he switches to an e-book of the same story on his Kindle, and starts reading right where the narrator left off.

　　但在过去一年，他“读”完了10本书，包括丹·布朗(Dan Brown)的《炼狱》(Inferno)，瓦尔特·艾萨克森(Walter Isaacson)为史蒂夫·乔布斯(Steve Jobs)写的传记，还有乔治·马丁(George R.R. Martin)的系列奇幻小说《冰与火之歌》(A Song of Ice and Fire)。早上锻炼的时候，20分钟的上班路上，做晚饭或打扫卫生的时候，他一小段一小段地听iPhone上的有声书。入睡前，他改看同一个故事在Kindle上的电子书，从朗读者停下来的地方接着开始阅读。

　　'I fly through a lot more books than I used to,' Mr. Wilbur said.

　　威尔伯说：“我浏览的书比过去多多了。”

　　The digital revolution may have dealt a heavy blow to print, but it is boosting literacy in other unexpected ways by fueling the explosive growth of audio books.

　　数字革命或许已给印刷业造成了沉重的打击，但它推进有声书的爆发式增长，通过其他意想不到的方式提高了人们的文化水平。

　　Once a static niche for aficionados renting clunky cassettes or CDs for their commutes, audio books have gone mass-market. Sales have jumped by double digits in recent years. Shifts in digital technology have broadened the pool of potential listeners to include anyone with a smartphone.

　　有声书曾经是一种静态、小众的东西，供发烧友们租借笨重的磁带或CD在上下班通勤时听。现在它已经变得大众化。近几年其销量实现了两位数增长。数字技术的变化扩大了潜在听众群体，任何人只要有一部智能手机，都是这个群体的一员。

　　At the same time, publishers are investing six-figure sums in splashy productions with dozens of narrators. Using the Netflix model, some audio book producers have even started experimenting with original works written exclusively as audio productions, ranging from full-cast dramatizations in the style of old school radio plays, complete with music and sound effects, to young adult novels, thrillers and multipart science fiction epics.

　　与此同时，出版商投入六位数的资金制作由数十位朗诵者诵读的豪华作品。一些有声书制作商借助Netflix的模式，已经开始试验专为制作有声作品而写的原创作品，既有演员齐全(full-cast)、带音乐和音效、按老式广播剧风格制作的改编剧，也有青少年小说、惊险小说、科幻史诗系列等。

　　'It's one of the few times in history that technology has reinvigorated an art form rather than crushing it,' said Max Brooks, author of the zombie novel 'World War Z,' which was released in May ahead of the Brad Pitt movie in an elaborate new audio edition with 40 cast members, including Alan Alda, John Turturro, and Martin Scorsese. It sold 60,000 CDs and digital-audio copies. 'Now, because there is such demand and the production value is so inexpensive, it opens the door for more creative storytelling.' he said.

　　僵尸小说《末日之战》(World War Z)作者马克斯·布鲁克斯(Max Brooks)说：“技术非但没有毁灭、反倒是复兴了一种艺术形式，这在历史上并不多见，有声书便是其一。”今年5月，《末日之战》在布拉德·皮特(Brad Pitt)主演的同名电影之前发布了一个精雕细琢的有声版，演员达40位，有艾伦·艾尔达(Alan Alda)、约翰·图尔图罗(John Turturro)、马丁·西科塞斯(Martin Scorsese)等。这个版本卖出了6万份CD和数字音频。布鲁克斯说：“现在有这种需求，生产成本又如此便宜，这就为更多故事的创作创造了条件。”

　　Digital innovation isn't just changing the way audio books are created, packaged and sold. It's starting to reshape the way readers consume literature, creating a new breed of literary omnivores who see narrated books and text as interchangeable. Last year, the audio book producer and retailer Audible unveiled a long-awaited syncing feature that allows book lovers to switch seamlessly between an e-book and a digital audio book, picking up the story at precisely the same sentence.

　　数字创新改变的不只是有声书的创作、包装和出售方式，它也开始改变读者消费文学的方式，培育了一批新的文学爱好者。在这些爱好者看来，朗诵图书和文本图书是互通的。去年，制作并零售有声书的Audible公司发布了人们期待已久的一项同步功能。利用这一功能，爱书人可以在电子书和数字有声书之间无缝切换，捡起同一句话继续阅读，不差分毫。

　　So far, Audible, which is owned by Amazon, has paired some 26,000 ebooks with professional narrations. The company is adding more than 1,000 titles a month and aims to eventually bring the number to close to 100,000.

　　到目前为止，身为亚马逊(Amazon)旗下公司的Audible已将大约2.6万种电子书搭配了专业朗诵。该公司一个月新推有声书1,000多种，最终目标是推出接近10万种。

　　'We're moving toward a media-agnostic consumer who doesn't think of the difference between textual and visual and auditory experience,' says Don Katz, Audible's founder and CEO. 'It's the story, and it is there for you in the way you want it.'

　　Audible创始人、CEO唐·卡茨(Don Katz)说：“我们在接近一群无视介质、不去考虑文本、视觉、听觉体验之区别的消费者。”他说：“他们关心的是故事，而故事就在那里，你想它是什么样子它就是什么样子。”

　　Audio books have ballooned into a $1.2 billion industry, up from $480 million in retail sales in 1997. Unit sales of downloaded audio books grew by nearly 30% in 2011 compared with 2010, according to the Audio Publishers Association. Now they can be downloaded onto smartphones with the tap of a finger, often for the price of an e-book.

　　有声书已经从1997年4.8亿的零售额膨胀为一个12亿美元的产业。据有声出版机构联合会(Audio Publishers Association)数据，2011年网络下载有声书销售量较2010年增长了近30%。现在点一下手指就可以把有声书下载到智能手机上，价格常常跟电子书一样。

　　Recorded books date back to the 1930s, when the Library of Congress created a 'talking books' program for the blind. The proliferation of the cassette deck in autos boosted their popularity in the 1980s. CDs followed, but sales plateaued as audio books failed to keep pace with other forms of digital entertainment.

　　录音图书可上溯至20世纪30年代国会图书馆(Library of Congress)为盲人群体制作的一档名叫“会说话的书”的节目。80年代汽车卡式磁带座的繁盛促进了录音书的流行。接下来是CD，但由于有声书没有能够赶上其他数字娱乐形式的步伐，其销量一直停滞不前。

　　These narrated books typically cost $50 or more ($100 for Stephen King's lengthy 'The Stand'), so devotees borrowed them from the library or rented them from mail-order services like Books on Tape, which still exists as a unit of Random House and emphasizes unabridged titles for libraries and schools.

　　这些朗诵图书的价格一般在50美元或以上（史蒂芬·金(Stephen King)的长篇作品《末日逼近》(The Stand)售价100美元），所以爱好者从图书馆借，或者从Books on Tape这样的邮购服务提供商那里租。Books on Tape仍然作为兰登书屋(Random House)旗下公司而存在，侧重于为图书馆和学校提供无删节的版本。

　　Prices are much lower now, as production costs have plunged and demand has risen. Audio books can be bundled with an e-book for just a few dollars, downloaded as part of a monthly subscription plan or bought individually for as low as $1.99 (for a short story) or as high as $69.99 (for the Bible). An average downloadable audio book costs close to $20.

　　随着制作成本下降、需求上升，现在有声书的价格已经下降了很多。有声书可以按几美元的价格跟着电子书一块儿购买，可以根据按月订阅计划下载，也可以单独购买，便宜的1.99美元（短篇，约合人民币12元），贵的69.99美元（如《圣经》，约合人民币430元）。可下载有声书的价格一般为接近20美元（约合人民币123元）。

　　'Everybody has an audio book player in their pocket at this point,' says Anthony Goff, vice president of Hachette Audio, where sales have jumped by 31% this spring over last. 'It makes that much easier for the masses to try it.' Downloadable books made up some 60% of total audio unit sales in 2011, dwarfing CDs.

　　Hachette Audio今年春季的销售额同比增长了31%。副总裁安东尼·戈夫(Anthony Goff)说：“现在谁的口袋里都有一台有声书播放器。这使大众尝试有声书容易多了。”2011年有声书总销售量里面，可下载有声书占了60%左右，CD销量相形见绌。

　　Audio book producers have been dramatically increasing their output. 13,255 titles came out in 2012, up from 4,602 in 2009, according to the Audio Publishers Association.

　　有声书制作商一直在大幅度增产。据有声制作机构联合会数据，2012年出产的有声书有13,255种，相比之下2009年的产量为4,602种。

　　Audio books are no longer viewed as just an ancillary product to print. Some audio publishers are now attempting to rebrand narrated books as a distinct medium from print, labeling them as 'audio entertainment.' A handful of such publishers have started dabbling in original audio content, hoping to demonstrate that recorded narratives can hold their own as original works of art.

　　有声书不再被视为印刷书的辅助产品。现在部分有声书出版商正在试尝将朗诵图书包装成一种不同于印刷图书的媒介，把它定性为“有声娱乐”。这些出版商里面，有几家已经在开始试水原创有声内容，希望以此证明，录音书也可以作为原创艺术作品而独立存在。

　　In the past five years, AudioGo has produced about 25 works exclusively for audio, including 'Baseball Forever,' a remix of radio broadcasts of some of the top moments in the history of baseball, 'Dreadtime Stories,' a collection of original horror stories, and a series of apocalyptic zombie stories. The company has also produced 10 full-cast productions that resemble old fashioned radio plays, a nearly extinct art form. They hired actor Val Kilmer to play Zorro in an audio dramatization titled 'The Mark of Zorro,' and recruited Stacy Keach, Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer on TV, to voice the detective in an original Mike Hammer audio book.

　　在过去五年，AudioGo制作了大约25种纯音频的作品，其中有棒球史上部分巅峰时刻的广播解说串烧《永远棒球》(Baseball Forever)；原创恐怖小说集《恐怖故事》（Dreadtime Stories），以及一系列的末日僵尸小说。该公司还制作了10部演员齐全的作品，类似老式广播剧这种几乎灭绝的艺术形式。他们聘请演员瓦尔·基尔默(Val Kilmer)在一部名为“佐罗的面具”(The Mark of Zorro)的有声改编剧里面扮演佐罗，还聘请在电视剧《米奇·斯皮兰版迈克·汉默》(Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer)里面饰演男主角的斯塔西·基奇(Stacy Keach)在一本迈克·汉默题材的原创有声书里面饰演汉默侦探。

　　Audible, the country's largest audio book producer and retailer, has been investing in original works as a way to showcase the dramatic potential of the form, and to provide exclusive content as HBO, Showtime and Netflix do in television. Audible has produced nearly 20 original audio books, mainly in fast-growing categories like mystery and science fiction. Audible, which Amazon bought in 2008, runs a subscription service for millions of members, who listen to an average of 18 books a year. Plans range from $14.95 a month, for one book a month, to $229.50 a year, for 24 books a year. The pipeline needs to keep flowing.

　　Audible是全国最大有声书制作商与零售商。它投资原创作品是为了展示这种形式的极大潜力，并像电视界的HBO、Showtime和Netflix那样提供专属内容。Netflix制作的原创有声书已经接近20种，主要是悬疑、科幻等增长较快的类别。2008年被亚马逊收购的Audible为数百万会员开通了一项订阅服务，这些会员一年平均听书18本。订阅计划既有每月14.95美元（约合人民币92元）、一月一本书，也有每年229.50美元（约合人民币1,400元）、一年24本书。品种必须源源不断地更新。