This isn’t a “books vs. audiobooks” post, to be clear. They’re both valid ways to read!
In college and high school, I often used audiobooks for school-assigned literature. This way I could get through difficult texts I’d usually struggle with via regular reading.
Since I’ve graduated, I’ve noticed I tend to do the opposite. The more high-effort the book is, the more likely I am to read it with my eyes. These days, the best audiobooks for me are essay collections or novels told in a relaxed, conversational style. I usually listen to them while exercising/driving/doing chores, so I prefer stuff that I can still follow even if something irl grabs my attention for a few moments.
That said, I’m flexible. The only hard rule I have is that I don’t listen to any high-concept sci-fi/fantasy. If the book is filled with a bunch of unfamiliar-sounding names and terms, I need to see them written down if I’m gonna remember it.
What are your preferences for audiobooks/books? What goes into your decision process? My only request is that you don’t say “the quality of the narrator” as an answer. That’s too easy!
by bluerose297
12 Comments
When I listen to audiobooks it’s really mostly because I want to have access to a book while doing something else, or when reading would be annoying (for example, I get sick when I read in cars). Otherwise I’ll go for reading instead of listening whenever I can.
When it gets to content, something that I take into consideration is works like Fantasy, since listening to made up words can mess with my concentration specially in books full of them (like the Sword of Kaigen).
Chance makes the choice.
If I walk buy a book I want to buy vs my monthly subscription to audible.
If i can find the full audiobook on youtube even better.
Recently i listened to “The Powder Mage trilogy” and will be buying a nice set of hardbacks for that series.
I only pick audiobooks if I have something to do (like cleaning house etc), and then I pick from a long list of books that I am not interested in enough to focus my full attention on.
I vastly prefer traditional reading to the audiobook experience, so I keep books I’m actually excited for in petto for that.
I prefer to listen to audiobooks of memoirs. I think hearing it read in the author’s voice adds something to the experience and understanding of the text.
Other than that it’s pretty random. It depends on availability at the library and my mood.
If the prose is beautiful or dense, I prefer to read it. If it’s YA or the writing is simple, I prefer audiobooks because the narrator may enhance the experience for me.
Mostly I use audiobooks for non-fiction, especially biographies or history.
Audiobooks for nonfiction or slower books. And I’ll actually read fiction or faster pace books.
I prefer fiction or celebrity memoirs read by the author.
I’m totally blind so I grew up with books on tape, but I also learned to listen to really fast text-to-speech and read that way for a long time. I started deliberately reading audiobooks with the Iron Druid series because I found the pronunciation guide and high frequency of unfamiliar non-English words to be a bit intimidating. Then, for a long time, I listened to audiobooks when I was reading with someone else (listening together in-person or streaming it in a voice call), or when I really enjoyed a narrator. For the past year I’ve read almost everything in audio and have picked books I know to have good narrators. Ultimately, that’s a lot of my reason, because with an ebook I can still move around and do things, and I can speed it up much faster than an audiobook without losing much comprehention. Full-cast audiobooks are also nice, and if the narrator is the author, I’ll also usually choose the audiobook.
I prefer audio for non-fiction, author-narrated memoirs, and books with multiple languages. Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr came up in another thread. The audio was helpful for the Greek pronunciations.
I use both formats for longer books if I can. ~300 is my arbitrary page count. This allows me to finish a book more quickly, which is helpful if I’m on a time crunch because of a library due date or a book club meeting.
Bestsellers have long waits at the library so I request the first available format. I get what I get and don’t throw a fit. The waitlist for Tom Lake was 26 weeks for the print and 10 weeks for the audio. I would have been happy with either format but the audio was an absolute treat!
Availability of course, I have so many loans on hold through Libby it’s almost comical. But for me as far as audiobooks it boils down to time management. I listen during my morning commute and on the way home from work in the afternoon. Otherwise it’s regular reading for me. That way I can keep things balanced
I listen to audio books less than I read physical/digital, but I tend to choose audio when it might help me follow something complex (Gideon the 9th and sequels), or when I’m particularly interested in the reader/production (Lin Manuel Miranda reading Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe)