I can understand the point of listening to a book on tape or CD if you’re blind or even just have trouble reading, but I can’t really think of any other circumstances where a real book wouldn’t be simpler, cheaper, and more convenient. Perhaps if you were driving, you could listen to a book in the car, but apart from that, I just don’t get it.
Do any of you listen to audiobooks on a regular basis? If so, what are the benefits? As far as I know, they’re almost double the price of a regular paperback, and you’ll need batteries to listen to them. Am I just being a book snob? Please enlighten me!
It’s not that regular, but I first did this as a way to pass the time on car trips between Ohio and Florida. We later found that our kids really liked these, so have started using books on CD as a happy compromise on some trips that are short to grown ups but a bit long for kids. Now sometimes they’ll ask for these at bedtime as well.
We’re currently listening to the Chonicles of Narnia as narrated by Kenneth Branagh, who does quite a good job with them.
Instead of thinking of them as an alternative to books, think of them as an alternative to radio.
I mostly listen to them on long car rides, but sometimes I’ll slip one in while I’m straightening up the house or something equally mindless. I’m “reading” Simon Winchseter’s KRAKATOA now (coincidental to the tsunami disaster, I assure you) and the only frustrating part concerns the lack of charts and maps while I drive.
I have a 2-hour commute, so I listen to them in the car.
You’re right Bibliovore, they are expensive. I tried Books-on-Tape, but they’re still expensive to rent and The B-o-T people were a pain in the ass. Now I get a lot of them from the library. Also Costco sometimes has them cheap.
I’ve been thinking of checking a couple of them out at the library so that I can crochet or knit AND “read” a book as well. A TV program usually needs to be watched, as well as listened to, and there are no radio dramas any more. Well, not that I know of.
I’ve been a member at audible.com (downloadable digital audiobooks) for about a year and a half now, and have a lot of isaac asimov’s foundation series and ‘the complete robot’ from books on tape.
First off, I’ll definitely agree with the people who’ve talked about listening to audiobooks while you’re doing something else with your hands or while travelling. I have a little audible Otis that came free with the downloading club, and I take it on the bus with me for commuting into work, or plug it into speakers in my kitchen. I listen to audiobooks while eating, while cooking or washing dishes.
Also, I’ve found that with a good reader, an audiobook can ‘come alive’ more than just words on the printed page… though I’m still a voracious reader of the printed page. Listening to ‘the hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy’ series on audio is a completely different experience from reading it, because the reader (who, for the ones I have, is also the author… douglas adams did a GREAT job of reading his own books) makes the stories come alive, clues me in, with tone, to some of the jokes that I missed reading them myself, and characterizes each character with their own ‘voice’. Some books that I’ve always wanted to read but could never stick with a printed copy of, (long dark tea-time of the soul and ‘the tombs of atuan’, for instance,) just sweep me along as audiobooks, and have become utter joys.
I’ll second what everyone else has said, and add that they work beautifully at keeping the kids from fighting in the car.
I also find them much more soothing than noisy music or distressing news on the radio.
I listen mainly while driving, occasionally while working out. Whoever above said to think of them as an alternative to radio had it right. Also, some books can have a dimension added by a talented reader.
I love them. I’ve got a 1/2 hour commute to work when I listen. Also while I’m doing yard work, house work, etc. Our local library has a giant collection of them.
As others have said, audio books for kids are great in the car on long trips.
We have a radio station over here called Oneword , whose main programme content is audio books. The main drawback is that it is a digital only radio station . So most car radios cannot receive it.
There was a radio station in my home town that used to do radio plays. Og, how I loved them. It was so much more fulfilling in someways to have the scenes payed out as custom images in your head and the lack of visual cues really hightened suspense and drama.
We are very lucky in that respect in this country . The BBC talk station ( Radio 4 ) broadcasts a least one play every day of the year. These last from 45 to 90 minutes. They range from light comedy , crime and detective plays right through to the classics. They also attract the cream of British acting who are willing to take part for a much smaller fee than what they would receive in the West End or television. Sometimes I have had to park up so that I would not miss the end of a particular play.
If you can receive the BBC World Service you will be able to hear some of these plays. Also the BBC streams much of its output over the Internet and you can hear many plays and other programmes for up to a week after the broadcast.
For anyone who likes radio dramas, there are a number of websites that sell recordings of old radio shows/plays. You can get a CD-ROM full of MP3’s for very cheap. I know of at least half a dozn good sites; try searching on “OTR.”
Yes, exactly. I don’t generally care for television, and sometimes I’m not in the mood for music. I think of it as being read to while I work with my hands.
Okay, I can understand if you’re too busy to read, you can listen while in the car. But I can’t help but wonder how you could NOT go nuts by having your “inside the brain reading voice” compromised by the voice of the guy reading the book. I think it would throw everything off. Just everything! How do they do the female voices vs. the males? What about kids? Oh…this would make me nuts.
But I’ve discovered something. Some books are better on tape. I couldn’t bring myself to read Oryx and Crake, but it was great on tape. Possession is one of my favorite books, but I’ll admit I skim the poetry - so much richer with the poetry read aloud. LotRs is the same way, so much poetry should be read aloud instead of read - and I didn’t waste bandwidth on pronouncing names. I “read” Pride and Prejudice every few months on tape - another favorite I’m not wasting real “reading” time on by “reading” while I drive.
All of the above. Since I took this job with its >1 hr drive each way, I’ve found I get *more * reading done than when I had a 10-minute commute. I’m certainly better entertained by a well-performed book than by the radio, and even by reading the same books on paper. I borrow extensively from the regional library system, which has most of what I want, and I donate my used purchased audiobooks to them for others to enjoy.
Not a problem at all. With a smooth performance, it’s like I see the words printed in front of me across the windshield anyway (I shut them off when leaving the freeway and I have to concentrate on traffic).
A decent actor can pull that off very effectively. Just try listening to a novel performed by David Ogden Stiers, for instance. Or just listen to, or watch, a good one-man Broadway play to see how it’s done; it’s the same thing - Patrick Stewart’s “A Christmas Carol” is a good example.
I haven’t done it in a while, but I used to go check out books on CD from the library, rip them to mp3, load them on my mp3 player, and listen to them at work. It was a great way to pass the time on the weekend.