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Hitchhiker's Guide top of audiobooks

01.08.08 | Anna Richardson

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy has been voted the favourite audiobook in the Book Marketing Society's 40 Best Audiobooks promotion.

BBC Audiobooks' version of Douglas Adams' classic was chosen from a selection of 40 audiobooks, which were featured in a special supplement in the Guardian on 28th June. Members of the public were invited to vote for their favourite.

The top five cover both classic and modern titles and include a range of genres, with Charlie Connolly's Attention All Shipping (Little, Brown) in second place, followed by William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (SmartPass), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (Random House) and I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (BBC Audiobooks).

The Hitchhiker's Guide was originally created as a radio play by Adams, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978.

Samantha Newman, sales director for BBC Audiobooks, said she was "thrilled" at the news and added that the publisher would be releasing a digitally re-masterd edition in the UK and internationally in November to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the first radio broadcast.

The campaign to find the UK's favourite audiobook was supported by major UK publishers, and retailers backed the promotion in store and online. Buyers from Waterstone's, Borders and Amazon.co.uk were on the initial judging panel.

The National Year of Reading launches Free Download Week next week in association with the 40 Best Audiobooks. A free, daily-changing download of five complete audiobooks will be available between 4th and 8th August from www.yearofreading.org.uk.

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By William McCabe

The BBC "Audiobooks" mentioned are recordings of original radio programmes unless they've included the recent adaptations of the later "Hitchhiker" books. It seems odd to call a recording of a game show a "book" .

Thu, 27/01/2011 - 14:38

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