LISN Audiobooks bring books to life
In the hubbub of life today reading – even for the most avid readers among us – has taken a back seat. I’ve lost count of the number of times a friend has said “I don’t have time to read anymore,” especially with travel and work commitments. The developers of LISN Audiobooks, Sri Lanka’s first audiobook library mobile application, have devised a solution for you.
Shanaka Mendis and Buddika Witharana are the smarts behind LISN, which they designed for a university project in late 2014. Buddika, a telecommunications engineer, engineered the development of the app while business student Shanaka oversaw business development. Their main motivation was of course that “people don’t read books anymore,” Shanaka says. But instead of armchair critique the duo decided to dig a little deeper to identify the reason for this problem and address that directly – and often, it was a matter of time or the high cost of printed books.
The LISN app is “for someone who doesn’t have time but loves to read,” they say. Already you’ll find a heap of audiobooks on the app – notably, they’ve all been penned by Lankan authors in the languages spoken in the country. So you’ll find Gamperaliya stacked alongside Kumar De Silva’s Bonsoir Diaries. In fact there are several Martin Wickramasinghe novels that the boys have recorded in audiobook form – Kaluwara Gedara, Bava Tharanaya and Ape Gama included. You can also find children’s books and soon, educational material on the app.
Due to the rarity of audio books being recorded in the country, the developers had to build their own bank of voices and enlist a recording studio to translate the books onto audiobook form. Recording is another process altogether, with “the personality” of a book being considered before the voices are chosen and it is recorded. “The biggest cost is conversion for us,” says Shanaka.
“Finding and paying for a voice artist takes time and of course money.” LISN is also offering what they say is a first in Sri Lanka via the app – a visually impaired user can use the touch to speech function to use the app. In using the app, you can either purchase (download) the entire book or for the more cost conscious user, chapter by chapter. The first chapter of any book is free, so you can try it out before making a decision to buy. And to make things a little easier the app enables you to pay via a Dialog or Mobitel connection should you prefer – the total gets added to your phone bill. The vision is to build a platform for book publishers and authors to explore new reader experiences, says Shanaka.
LISN is available via the Google Playstore at the moment, and will be available on iOS soon. Find them on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/lisnaudiobooks/