The Sword and Laser discussion
Reading primarily through audiobooks?
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Vance
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Mar 15, 2010 10:29AM
I have found that as I have gotten older, with work and family, I have less and less time to sit down and just read. I have found myself switching almost entirely to audiobooks and podcasts. I know this is a self-selected sample of those who DO read, but are there any others out there who are getting their reading fix primarily through audiobooks nowadays?
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I still read, but I have found all my radio listening has been replaced by short stories and topical podcasts. Its kind of nice to not be constantly bombarded by advertising in the car! But stories in audio and text are such a different experience I don't think I will ever be able to completely go to audio. I still enjoy reading too much.
Primarily I like audio because it allows you to READ while you are either driving, walking/commuting, working and even exercising.But I am some one who likes to feel things. Find the unseen details. And with audio you DO NOT get images which in my books is a very big negative. Because of that I will never probably 100% move to audio. But yes I do prefer audio over text but I need text/images more than audio.
And also that I am a power reader. I like to jump through certain parts of the book WITHOUT leaving any important bits out(thats where images help). And with audio you can't jump. If the book is not that captivating, I will feel stuck.
But for the books that I read A LOT, I mean a lot, I would definitely want to have the audio version too. A must.
Feel how you may, but the audiobooks I listen to are pirated, but in my defense, I use the money I would have spent to buy even more books.The guys on gdgt (I think) raised a very good point, I love the art of book covers.
What am I saying? I read more audiobooks than I do paper back books, but that is because I have more time to do so, as I spend a lot of time in the art studio... I mean, when I have listened through all my podcasts
Fahad wrote: "Primarily I like audio because it allows you to READ while you are either driving, walking/commuting, working and even exercising.But I am some one who likes to feel things. Find the unseen detai..."
Are you talking about images in graphic novels? I don't remember the last time I encountered an illustration (besides maybe a map) in a book I've read. What images are you using to jump around?
aldenoneil wrote: "Are you talking about images in graphic novels? I don't remember the last time I encountered an illustration (besides maybe a map) in a book I've read. What images are you using to jump around? "IF there are any. Yes there are not that many but as a rule, I prefer text over audio because I can go through it much faster and because of images(if any).
aldenoneil wrote: "Are you talking about images in graphic novels? I don't remember the last time I encountered an illustration (besides maybe a map) in a book I've read."They're all over the place in non-fiction, especially history books. History is great for audiobooks because things tend to get repeated so it's not so bad if you tune out for a minute, but sometimes the lack of maps makes it hard to follow.
You are right about history books, and other non-fiction (which makes up more than half of my reading). I do sometimes wish I had the picture, the map, etc, they are discussing, but I usually end up going online and finding it.
I love audio books. My local library has a surprisingly good selection of them (on CD's of course). And i have been burning thorough about 2-3 a month. Mostly non-fiction and Classic books. I find that it is hard for me to read most modern fiction authors this way, because i tune out and miss a lot of the story. But a lot of non-fiction and Classic authors seem to write as if they meant for the story to be read to you rather than you reading it.
If you're an Audible subscriber, the site's having a sale with select books marked down to $5. If you're not a subscriber, just go to audible.com/twit2 , get two books free, buy a bunch of $5 titles, and then cancel the subscription.
I primarily listen to audiobooks when I'm at the gym or in the car. I also listen while housecleaning, but I rarely do thorough "full house" cleans. When it snowed, I loved listening to books while shoveling, made it go by easier. I end up listening to 1 book and then readind another 1 or 2 in print at any given time.I have seriously whittled down my podcast list. I have found that as podcasting has matured, episodes have gotten longer, and hosts don't really have that much more to say. And, there are certain hosts I can't deal with. But I typically listen to most podcasts just as background noise while at work, before switching to music.
terpkristin, I really need to do that with my podcasts as well. I have more than a dozen I follow and it makes up the majority of my listening time.On the "when I listen" side, I have found that I can work out longer, clean more thoroughly and get more chores done because I can listen while I am doing it!
terpkristin wrote: "I have seriously whittled down my podcast list. I have found that as podcasting has matured, episodes have gotten longer, and hosts don't really have that much more to say. And, there are certain hosts I can't deal with."Like, say, there's a podcast that used to be really good, but it relies upon a panel of guests, and there are two guys who are rather annoying in large doses, and they're on every frakking week (though never together, which actually might be interesting). And one of those guests, whom I'll refer to as Qwerty, has his own podcast that used to be interesting, but now he spends half the time asking for listener donations so he and his partner, whom I'll call XVJ, can quit their day jobs. Yeah, that'd be annoying.
This is all hypothetical, of course.
I notice myself switching to audiobooks a few years ago rather than reading a book. I rarely get a chance to sit down and when I do I am either too tired or want to zone out and watch something. One benefit I noticed from audiobooks is that I go through a lot more books than I use to, mainly because I don't have to specifically dedicate a time to sitting down and reading. I still buy an occasional book but only if I really want to read it and its not on audible or something special about the printed book like graphics, maps or etc.
Sean wrote: "...and they're on every frakking week ..."Exactly my sentiments. I tried podcasting a couple of times but every time it seemed that the procrastinators(opps! sorry, but not quite that wrong), podcastors didn't had that much to say but had to fill those spots. Its like when you don't want to do some thing and are just wasting time talking, trying to evade what ever you don't want to do(in this case it probably is 'NOT to make a small padcast').
And only because of that I was unable to go too deep into the podcasting wasteland except for few podcasts and even at that, not all of their podcasts, but I did liked some of their podcasts and would like to hear them again and again.
I listen a lot to podcasts, but mainly short, about half hour stuff. I love audiobooks but don't have commutes so long as to finish them in a reasonable amount of time. My best experience though, was with Anathem, which I read and listened to in the same period of time (though not simultaneously). It helped a lot with the weird words that I would have completely missed, especially since english is not my first language.
I'm in the same boat (no long commutes). I will try when going to pick up and drop off the kids (my lengthiest commute, +1hr), but I'm finding that podcasts are fine to listen to, but for books, I have to actually read them. I've tried a couple audiobooks now, and when at home, I just get too easily distracted.
Cecilia wrote: "I listen a lot to podcasts, but mainly short, about half hour stuff. I love audiobooks but don't have commutes so long as to finish them in a reasonable amount of time. My best experience though, w..."I started with EscapePod, which is mainly science fiction short stories. Very good stories. Give it a shot if you haven't tried it yet
Sean wrote: "Like, say, there's a podcast that used to be really good, but it relies upon a panel of guests, and there are two guys who are rather annoying in large doses, and they're on every frakking week (though never together, which actually might be interesting). And one of those guests, whom I'll refer to as Qwerty, has his own podcast that used to be interesting, but now he spends half the time asking for listener donations so he and his partner, whom I'll call XVJ, can quit their day jobs. Yeah, that'd be annoying.This is all hypothetical, of course. "
In the morning! And instead of half of the show, its more like 10-15 min... time it.
I have heard a couple of books, but I prefer to keep my audio fiction short: http://escapepod.org/ or http://www.starshipsofa.com/
I also listen more audiobooks than i do regular books. Do any of you feel that after a really good audiobook you wish you had read it instead?Sometimes i feel that the audiobook can "spoil" the book as a normal book. Similar to the way watching the movie before reading the book can.
Not me, Chace, since if I am listening to a book, it is because I had no desire to physically read it in the first place. Besides, I have found the the "experience" is much richer when listening, so I don't feel I am missing out on anything.
Vance wrote: "Not me, Chace, since if I am listening to a book, it is because I had no desire to physically read it in the first place. Besides, I have found the the "experience" is much richer when listening, ..."I know what you mean. It all depends on the reader for me though. If the reader is good then I will usually listen to almost anything they have read. But on the flip side, some books I thought I would enjoy as audio, but the reader annoyed me so much I couldn't even follow the book.
The readers tone and pitch is everything for me when it comes to audio books.
Absolutely! I have been listening to audiobooks since the 80's and I also followed "readers" around, listening to their work even when I would never have read that book. And, likewise, there was a version of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant I could not even get through five minutes of!
Chace wrote: "...Sometimes i feel that the audiobook can "spoil" the book..."With videos/movies, yes but I never felt that with audiobooks. In fact with video its so much that I have stopped watching videos so that I can first read the book. I think my biggest disappointment was Exorcist. Saw the movie and then wanted to read the book but was scared. I mean for movies they do trim the story to fit it in that about two hours spot, right? :)
There was a book I was looking at on Audible a few months ago, something on the history of Islam in Spain. But a bunch of reviews mentioned how awful the narrator was, pointing to mispronunciations such as al-Andalus coming out like "Allen Dulles." I listened to the sample, and it was just as bad as reviewers mentioned.The dead-tree book went on my Amazon wishlist.
I "read" through audio for pleaseure, My job requires me to do quite a bit of research, so i dawn the iPhone loaded with audio books and pod casts and "read" two things at once.
L0k1 wrote: "I "read" through audio for pleaseure, My job requires me to do quite a bit of research, so i dawn the iPhone loaded with audio books and pod casts and "read" two things at once."Hmm! reading the same book while listening, that is something I would really love to try but would only want to do that for the books that I really like. Would love to do that, just for the love of that book.
Yeah, the nararrator makes a big difference. I've also found that I can read faster than I can listen to books on the "normal" speed setting on my iPod, and with some nararrators, I can't understand them when I speed it up. So some books, like The Gathering Storm (latest tome in the Wheel of Time), though I had it in audiobook, I ended up reading the dead tree version for 90% of it (listened to about 10% while in the car).Especially for fantasy books, I've found I prefer to listen, generally, so I can envision the scenes more easily.
I find that I get through books faster when listening for the simple reason that I have much more listening time than reading time. But, it is true that I can physically read faster than the narrator talks, but when I have maybe 20 minutes a night, three or four nights a week to to read, it takes me FOREVER to read a book nowadays!
Mod
However, they're not replacing regular books for me -- I listen to them when it would be impossible or uncomfortable for me to read. Otherwise, it's back to the Kindle for me!
Going through an audiobook is a different experience. I listen to them on the way to work and back. Also use them when exercising. If the narrator and content are great, I find myself driving slower to get more story in or walking longer distances.I too have an Audible account but I'm backed up on credits because audio is slower to consume than reading.
I used to listen to audio books via cassette (Books on Tape, kind of like Netflix) back in the day. I never was able to really make the switch over to digital, except for a few Apple store downloads. Just too many other things to listen to (podcasts in particular, but music also) and my commute is pretty short. Received a Kindle this last Christmas and now am completely hooked. With the amount of reading I do it just fits my life so well these days.
Oh, man, I remember the cassette days! I had an account at Books-on-Tape, and also later with Recorded Books, Inc, (Audible now has a lot of their stuff, I think). But I also had cards at a dozen libraries around the LA area just to get more audiobooks. We often had to juggle 15 to 20 cassettes per book, and you had to flip every 45 minutes!Wow, do I sound old!
Vance wrote: But I also had cards at a dozen libraries around the LA area just to get more audiobooks...."My local library (small texas town) has a surprisingly great audio book selection. Both CD's and tapes. I have run thorough a lot of the CD's and lately have found myself wishing I had a tape player in the car so I could expand my selection. That thought struck me as funny when I thought about how many books i can fit on my 4gig nano if I used audible or bought them thorough Itunes. :)
I have been listening to podcast, my wife calls them nerdcasts, and audiobooks for two years now. My bike commute became a 45 minute one way car commute. I feel it gives my son words everyday, he is 17 months, and me a chance to get news and finish books. My wife has even jumped on the audiobook bandwagon. We always pick out a book before we take a long trip and listen to it. If we cannot find the audio we read to each other, the one who is not driving :). We even took a roadtrip with friends and all 5 of us read a book. It was much better than any audiobook. I now have my mother-in-law hooked on audiobooks too. They save you in this world that keeps speeding up, but where you want to stop the ride for a second and enjoy the view.
I've noticed that the busier I become the more towards audiobooks/podcasts I gravitate. It allows me to fill in the 15-30 minute gaps between scheduled activities in places where it might have been too distracting/poorly lit for me to read. During school holidays I turn back towards books only because it is SO nice to get comfy in bed/nice sofa/grass outside and read. I have found some podcasts to enhance the book though, like the full cast audio book recording of His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman. Something about amazingly produced audiobooks that draw me to them.
Another interesting thing about originally getting audiobooks from the library is that, after plowing through all the books they had in my favorite genres, I eventually was "forced" to explore other genres and it truly enriched my life! I would never had read the Aubrey-Maturin books (Master and Commander et al) or the Amelia Peabody (Crocodile on the Sandbank, etc) if not for running out of sci-fi and fantasy at the library!
"after plowing through all the books they had in my favorite genres, I eventually was "forced" to explore other genres" Absolutely!!! I have expanded my borders so much in this way. I found "freakanomics" because of this. After that book I realized I needed to expand my horizons even further. I have read so many different genres because of this one thing.
I just finished "To Kill a Mockingbird" on Audio. It was read by Sissy Spacek and she did a great job! I would recommend this book on audio to anybody that is interested.
Terrence wrote: "I notice myself switching to audiobooks a few years ago rather than reading a book. I rarely get a chance to sit down and when I do I am either too tired or want to zone out and watch something. ..."
I still like having a tree-based book always with me because it is easier to read a few pages on my break, waiting in line, or at a time when I need to be listening for something (like the nurse calling my name as I wait for my appt.). But I do listen to audiobooks in the car, and will listen to a chapter while lying in bed before I go to sleep. Being able to read in bed with the light off means my brain is more ready for sleep (light prevents me from becoming drowsy).
Erik wrote: "I have been listening to podcast, my wife calls them nerdcasts, and audiobooks for two years now. My bike commute became a 45 minute one way car commute. I feel it gives my son words everyday, he ..."Hahaha, I listen to nerdcasts too!
Richelle, I also listen in bed, but I actually use them to help me fall asleep! I have a single earbud (actually it is a regular one in which one side got damaged, so I just cut it off), and it is very comfortable falling asleep. I have been letting audiobooks "tell me a story" as I go to sleep for at least 20 years. :0)
i listen to audio books in the car, i get about an hour or so done every day. i could never listen in bed, i'm asleep in a few minutes, if that.
I listen to books quite a bit, but I always have a physical book that I am reading as well. Like Kyle, if I were to try listening to a book while in bed, I would be asleep before the reader finished a paragraph.
See, my problem was just the opposite, I tend to have trouble getting to sleep, so listening was a way of "passing the time" until I got sleepy, and I soon found that it could put me to sleep within 20 minutes or so, rather than laying there for up to an hour! Now, even if I don't get much listening in, it still serves its purpose!And, Nemaruse, yes I am OLD! :0)
I have been doing audio books and podcast now for a few years and honestly it has been a while since i picked up an actual book except for when I read for my kids. I love listening to books because I can read in the car mostly but also when I run. before I got in to Audio books I averaged about 1 book every two years now 4 to 6 a year or more. Thank god for the invention of MP3 players.
I both read and listen... I love the feel of a book in my hands but at the same time I am dyslexic so I often miss certen details when reading.Though the one problem I have with audio books are I'm rather picky about the reader...
Last night I started The Silmarillion as an audio book while walking the dog. I used to listen to audio books during my commute, but I started carpooling a few months ago and would rather carrying on a conversation than bore my carpool buddy with books (we don't read anywhere near the same genres).
If the reader is good I find that listening to audio books can be extremely enjoyable and worthwhile when I am working out and when I am driving from point a to point b. I would also recommend audio books for those who have even the smallest bit of road rage in them! I found myself reading the Harry Potter books awhile back and then listening to them because I heard so many good things about Jim Dale. I just finished Daniel Suarez's Daemon and cant wait to listen to FreedomTM.
