I’ve listened to audiobooks for many years, including a large number on cassettes that I checked out of my county library way-back-when.
For me, there is a very sharp dividing line between books written in the first person and those that aren’t. It makes all the difference in the world when I’m selecting my next listen. I don’t mind a single narrator reading in the voices of the different characters in a novel in first person, for example, but doing this in third person just turns me off. This is true even when a very gifted individual reads.
If you read on a kindle you can adjust font size!!! At the beach I saw a woman reading with maybe a dozen big words per page. She was flying through the pages, which is what caught my eye.
for most books I prefer a real book or an ebook. But I love audio books for books with especially with wonderful dialog. For examply,I just finished Agatha Christie’s Partners in crime which is fun because of the banter between Tommy and Tuppence.
I especially enjoy audio books for anything by P.G. Wodehouse and most by Georgette Heyer.
I love the sound of good writing. Tom entered the room. The musty, stale air was unpleasant. The dusty, cracked leather chair sat waiting. Yellowed papers on the desk shifted slightly in the drafty air.
A movie would only show Tom walking into the room that had been dressed with the appropriate props. Lighting sets the mood.
Both are good when done correctly.
But there’s times I enjoy letting the author paint the scene with words.
I signed up for an Audible account many years ago and have consumed a substantial library of titles. For many years I listened exclusively during my 40 minute walks to and from work - so hefty titles like Neal Stephenson works would take a few weeks to listen through. Now that I’m retired my walks total nearly 4 hours per day, usually spent listening.
For better or worse, it has been quite some time since I read a paper book, but I don’t feel that I’ve missed out on much other than the non-fiction titles with accompanying .pdf files - I have yet developed a convenient way to keep those handy on my walks! On the other hand, that problem exists with paper books themselves.
I like to listen to audio books and music. I’d also like to take phone calls. I like the portability and discreetness of ear pods but I think my ears will hate it the feeling and headphones look heavy and bulky.
I listen to them when driving or cleaning or running errands. I usually combine physical books and audiobooks and will read the physical book if I’m chilling at home and then pick up where I left off on audio when I have to do stuff.
I usually listen on 1.5 speed. Took a little getting used to, but it sounds normal to me now. And there are times when my attention wanders a bit and I have to backtrack, which is easier with a physical book, but no big deal on audio.
I use the ol’ one earbud method most of the time. In fact, I’ve just realized I currently have one in because I’ve been doing chores to The Fellowship of the Ring today.
I find that I can get into the plot faster if I start with an audiobook. I like that I don’t have to “put it down” and can continue the story even if I have to go somewhere or do something else. And I like that, to a greater or lesser extent, audiobooks can add something to a story beyond what comes through in the writing. And the written version can have stuff that doesn’t always come through in the audiobooks. Physical + audio gives me the best of both worlds!
Much like @FlikTheBlue, I go with audiobooks that cover things I’ve read before, so that there’s less distraction of trying to follow along. In that case, I absolutely multi-task, since 99% of the time the audiobook is for long car-drives, where a pleasant distraction is a must.
And another + many for the quality of the performance, which is what I consider it, adding greatly to the audiobook. In fact, I generally specifically search for audiobooks that area already built for such a format. Comedy books by standup professionals (Carlin, Denis Leary), books that are written as first person stories or journals (The Martian, World War Z, Kitchen Confidential), or the like.
But again, if I’m reading new, or NOT stuck on a long drive, I’m reading a dead tree or kindle book. And as my vision slowly deteriorates, 95% or so of my purchased books in the last 5 years are Ebooks.
As long as you stop at a chapter, it would be pretty easy since you can just pick what chapter to go to on the audiobook.
I think Amazon has a feature for their Kindle books (on all? some?) where it will sync to the location on the Audible version for you and vice versa. But even with a paper book, it wouldn’t be a problem much of the time.
I have no problem driving while listening to an audiobook, but it was easier back when I had a car with a CD player, so I could get the book from the library. I mostly listened to them on road trips with my wife, so we could both listen.
But now I don’t have a commute, and we have Sirius, we mostly don’t bother. I prefer real books. But if I had to listen at home, listening while doing a jigsaw puzzle would work. I found that back when I had conference calls, before Zoom, I could fully participate while doing a puzzle.
Well, yes. But if you have purchased a physical paper book, you will also need to purchase an audiobook as well, correct? (Unless you have borrowed the audio book from Libby or another lending service.) That was my question to @SurrenderDorothy.