# Do you "read" audiobooks?



## Violanthe (Mar 28, 2006)

This topic has recently come up "off the cuff" in a few discussions I've been in online, so I've decided to ask the question directly. Have you ever "read" an audiobook? How did you like it? Do you make a habit of it? If so, what is it that you like in listening to books, rather than reading print? What does a story gain in audiobook form? On the other hand, what does it lose? What are the drawbacks to audiobooks?


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## e.Blackstar (Mar 28, 2006)

I've only used a book on tape once, and that's because the library's paperback copy was checked out. It was kind of nice, but less portable (teachers tend to object more strongly to me whipping out headphones than a nice novel). Overall, I would choose the printed word.


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## Lindir (Mar 29, 2006)

I've done it a couple of times. It's nice if you're drivning and are tired of listening to the radio. But in the privacy of my own home, I prefer reading as I would probably fall asleep listening.


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## Talierin (Mar 29, 2006)

I actually like Lotr better on audiobook than in novel form. Dunno why, just do.

But I usually only listen to audiobooks if I want to read, but want to work on something while I'm reading


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## Wolfshead (Mar 29, 2006)

I'd rather read a book than listen to it, but I've listened to a lot of audiobooks in the car, or when I've been busy doing stuff and it's good to have sometime there to listen to when you can't be bothered with the radio or music. The Harry Potter audiobooks with Stephen Fry are particulary good.


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## HLGStrider (Mar 29, 2006)

I don't care for audiobooks, but they are nice on car trips because I am the sort of person who has been tempted once or twice to try and read at long stop lights. . .


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## Violanthe (Apr 4, 2006)

> But in the privacy of my own home, I prefer reading as I would probably fall asleep listening.


 
I fall asleep equally when reading or listening.


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## YayGollum (Apr 4, 2006)

Audiobookses? Pure evil, unless you happen to be someone who lives on the road and aren't dextrous enough to read a book while driving. Give me the feel and scent and of a real book! Garn! What if I feel like flipping back through a book to remind myself who a minor character is? I would have to figure out how to rewind something for a while. What if I despise the voice of the person who reads the thing at me? I can't find all of the spelling mistakes in an audiobook, which is fun to do on your second time through.  Also, I never use bookmarks. Mostly because it is fun to pick up the book that I am currently reading, then be forced to flip through it to figure out where I stopped the last time. Sometimes, you get to accidentally peak ahead, and other times, you get to reread a cool scene. Evil audiobooks are conveniently stopped precisely where you left off. Ick. Convenience? Not for myself!


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## Wolfshead (Apr 4, 2006)

YayGollum said:


> Pure evil, unless you happen to be someone who lives on the road and aren't dextrous enough to read a book while driving.


Or blind


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## YayGollum (Apr 4, 2006)

How would audiobook type things be less evil, if you happened to be blind? What did they invent that Braille stuff for, if not to read good books?


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## Barliman Butterbur (Apr 4, 2006)

Violanthe said:


> This topic has recently come up "off the cuff" in a few discussions I've been in online, so I've decided to ask the question directly. Have you ever "read" an audiobook? How did you like it? Do you make a habit of it? If so, what is it that you like in listening to books, rather than reading print? What does a story gain in audiobook form? On the other hand, what does it lose? What are the drawbacks to audiobooks?



I've never listened to an audiobook, nor do I have the requisite electronic thingie to do it, nor would I want to. However, as for ebooks — if it would possible to carry around a very lightweight and unobtrusive electronic thingumbob which would make it possible to carry around a whole instantly-searchable library, one which would offer a very pleasant "user experience" as they say these days, I think that would be a good thing!  

Barley


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## Wolfshead (Apr 5, 2006)

YayGollum said:


> How would audiobook type things be less evil, if you happened to be blind? What did they invent that Braille stuff for, if not to read good books?


Ah yes, but would a blind person read a braille book whilst driving, eh?   



Barliman Butterbur said:


> I've never listened to an audiobook, nor do I have the requisite electronic thingie to do it, nor would I want to.


 Audiobooks come either on cd or cassette. Surely you have that equipment?


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## Talierin (Apr 5, 2006)

I rip my audiobooks that are on cd to mp3s on my iPod - works great


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## Barliman Butterbur (Apr 5, 2006)

Wolfshead said:


> Audiobooks come either on cd or cassette. Surely you have that equipment?



Surely I do, _'sWounds,_ let me hasten to allay your confusion!  I can do audiobooks (and doubt if I ever will), but have nothing for _ebooks,_ which I understand need a special piece of equipment. As I said above, if there is a handy-dandy, comfortable, lightweight, unobtrusive, easy-to-use thingumbob _which would hold an entire library_ in the palm of my hand that I could read like a book, with the same feel as a book, I'd be interested! 

Barley


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## YayGollum (Apr 5, 2006)

Hmph. Fine, Wraithguard person. But then, blind people who aren't dexterous enough to read a book in Braille while driving get tossed into the same group as the ones who aren't dexterous enough to even employ the regular types. Sure, the blind guy would have to be a bit more dexterous, but it's the same thing, in my brain. *runs away*


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## Wolfshead (Apr 6, 2006)

Barliman Butterbur said:


> Surely I do, _'sWounds,_ let me hasten to allay your confusion!  I can do audiobooks (and doubt if I ever will), but have nothing for _ebooks,_ which I understand need a special piece of equipment.


Ah, but you originally said


Barliman Butterbur said:


> I've never listened to an audiobook, nor do I have the requisite electronic thingie to do it, nor would I want to. However, as for ebooks —


You start off talking about audiobooks _then_ move onto ebooks. Not that it matters. I know what you mean  

Anyway, in regards to ebooks, then can actually be read on a normal computer. However, they can be transferred to a palmtop computer to be read on the go.



YayGollum said:


> Hmph. Fine, Wraithguard person. But then, blind people who aren't dexterous enough to read a book in Braille while driving get tossed into the same group as the ones who aren't dexterous enough to even employ the regular types. Sure, the blind guy would have to be a bit more dexterous, but it's the same thing, in my brain. *runs away*


For a start, don't be calling me Wraithguard person  I personally think that blind people who read whilst driving are frankly a menace and should be stopped


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## HLGStrider (Apr 6, 2006)

Elgee gets together a troup of blind drivers to picket Craig.


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## Wolfshead (Apr 6, 2006)

HLGStrider said:


> Elgee gets together a troup of blind drivers to picket Craig.


They'll have to find me first  

Bad taste?


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## HLGStrider (Apr 6, 2006)

Everything you do is in bad taste. 

The blind people march off in disgust after hitting him over the head multiple times with picket signs.


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## Violanthe (Apr 11, 2006)

> I've never listened to an audiobook, nor do I have the requisite electronic thingie to do it, nor would I want to


 
For most audiobooks, all you need is a tape player or cd player.


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## Rhiannon (Apr 14, 2006)

I love audiobooks. I don't listen to them instead of actually reading with my own eyes, but when I'm driving between home and school (which is three hours either way, give or take) or just in a position to be driving around town a lot (when I worked twenty minutes away over Christmas) I always have either an audiobook or tapes of old radio shows. I love the audiobook of Susan Cooper's _The Gray King_, which is read by a Welshman (the book is set in Wales). I love the first few audiobooks of Stephen King's Dark Tower series, especially _The Gunslinger_, because the reader (I wish I could remember his name, though I do know that he passed away in an accident) was absolutely perfect. When I'm reading a Dark Tower book to myself, my brain does its best to do it in his voice. My sister traded the audio book of Neil Gaiman's _Coraline_ to me (so that I would let her have the single solitary copy of Sandman vol. 5, _A Game of You_, instead of buying and keeping it for myself), and I'm anxious to listen to it on my next long drive, because Gaiman has a fantastic reading voice. I'm also anxious to hear the audio book of Gaiman's _Anansi Boys_, which is read by Lenny Henry. I went to a reading and signing in London where Lenny Henry and Neil Gaiman chatted and took questions and both did readings, and I want to know what voices Henry does for all of the characters.

So I love audiobooks. But I also love being read to--reading out loud has always been a big deal in my family. My dad read LotR outloud to us at least six or seven times before I was old enough to read it myself. We would read for at least an hour or more before bed every night (actually he's still reading every night to my younger siblings still at home--last I heard they were on Robin McKinley's _The Blue Sword_). If we weren't working on a novel we had anthologies of short stories and poetry (I still have 'The Highwayman' memorized). And if my older brother wanted to get me started on something, like Poe or Steinbeck, he would just start reading it to me when I was doing something else and then wait for me to pick it up on my own. Actually he crashed my slumber parties more than once, insisting that we needed more culture, so that he could make us all sit down and listen to 'The Raven' or 'Annabel Lee'. And I love reading to children--I'm not as good at reading novels aloud, but I love picture books. When I worked as a nanny and was tired of being run around I would just coax the three year old into letting me read to him ('Are You My Mommy?' eight times in a row was preferable to another round of 'Let's Make A Really Big Mess'), and when I babysat during high school I would take my own books with me, because 'Saint George and the Dragon' is ever so much better than the 'Big Book of Disney Princesses'.


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## Violanthe (Apr 18, 2006)

> I'm also anxious to hear the audio book of Gaiman's _Anansi Boys_, which is read by Lenny Henry


 
I just finished listening to this one. It's quite good. I was afraid it wouldn't be able to compete with George Guidall's reading of American Gods, but it certainly stood up to the challenge.


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## Kristaline (Apr 19, 2006)

I love audio books in the car. It is a good way to keep my kids from arguing without having to listen to silly children's songs over and over and over. I have little patience for repeating soundtracks. Plus, I get carsick if I am reading in the car...eewwwwwwww.

I do agree about not using a bookmark and having to flip and skim a bit to find your place. There is a bookmark in the drawer of my desk. I think I have had it since HS and used it once or twice. And I like taking a book to bed for reading. It isn't the same when you have a audiobook.

I don't think I have to have one over the other, but like to use both to achieve the best possible results. We spend a lot of time in a car and since I am the driver, it makes me feel like there is less "wasted" time. Who can call it wasted if we have enjoyed the words of our favorite author and saw something other than the cornfields mile after mile?


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## Starbrow (Apr 20, 2006)

I generally prefer reading to listening to a book, although audio books are nice on long drives. However, I do think that some books are better suited to being heard than read. For example, on one drive I listened to Romeo and Juliet - much, much better than reading Shakespeare. I also think some comedians works are better read aloud.

And those blind people who are reading while driving must be from Chicago where blind students must take Driver's Ed. And they say Chicago Public Schools are improving.


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## Violanthe (Apr 25, 2006)

I like both reading and listening, but I have much more trouble paying attention when reading.


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