I recently discovered Hoopla (thanks, Michelle!), and borrowed the audio version of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins. It was a book that I knew I didn’t want to own, but wanted to read to stay current with the market. I figured it was going to be on the dark side given that it is the prequel to The Hunger Games and it follows tyrannical President Snow as a teenager during the 10th Hunger Games.
As I got to the end of the story, I found myself wishing I had the actual book in my hands so that I could control how I read the story. I didn’t like listening to the dark parts and felt like the narrator read too slowly for me. If I was reading the book myself, I could read quickly and get past the “bad” parts, but listening to the story dragged out those moments and made them last much longer than I wanted them to. I’m not one of those who can listen to a book at 2x or 3x the speed and still understand what the person is saying, so there was no way for me to speed up those parts.
The audio experience definitely changed the book for me in other ways, too. The voice the male narrator did for the main female character, Lucy Gray Baird, made her sound unintelligent and I had to really focus on her words and remind myself that it was his voice that was the problem and that the author really was portraying her as a strong female lead. I also found myself losing my concentration much more than I do when I am reading a book myself.
I mentioned all of this to Janet while we were at work the other day, and she said that her book club has experienced something similar, too. The people in her book club who listen to the audio versions of books tend to have different opinions about books than those who have read the books themselves. An audio version can affect how someone experiences a story.
Do you enjoy audio books? I know they are growing in popularity these days. Do you find that listening to a book is different for you? Which experience do you prefer: reading a book yourself or listening to it on audio book?
Is audio format something to consider while you are writing a book? Would keeping it in mind change how you write in any way?
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I first started listening to audiobooks when we moved to a new city and our commute time increased. I dislike being in the car for long, and audiobooks made the time go so much faster.
I’ve had mostly good experiences with audiobooks. The narrator makes all the difference. I mostly listen to classics, though I have enjoyed Christian and contemporary fiction that way, too. Classics’ longer descriptive passages or meandering plots are easier to tolerate if I am doing something else with my hands while listening. Plus a good narrator will also employ accents. I don’t usually think in accents when I read, so that enhances the story for me. Sometimes a narrator’s expressiveness will help me get a point or picture a scene that I might not have with reading. Plus, classics are usually so much longer, I don’t like for them to monopolize so much of my reading time. By listening, I can “read” more books. Classics are available in print at the library or often through Gutenberg online if I want to look up a passage in more detail.
The disadvantages: not being able to skim through boring parts; if attention drifts, it’s harder to go back over what you missed; it can be harder to look for certain passages; audiobooks don’t usually include an author’s afterword, where they often explain how they came to write the book and interesting tidbits.
I also can’t listen to nonfiction unless it’s in a story form. With nonfiction, I need to mark, underline, and reread certain parts to really get what’s being said.
Rachel, that’s an interesting insight into your comparison between reading and listening to books. After my Traumatic Brain Injury six years ago, I am gratefully able to read again . . . slowly. Years beforehand, I’d tried to listen to books, but was quite negative due to the few terrible narrators I’d heard, so I only listened to The Great Courses (amazing professors) as I’d drive long roads.
Now, I anticipate listening to audio books, “reading” while I drive my car, hike, garden or cook. Narrators are adapting quite well into the author’s true voice. It often benefits me hearing great memoirs (Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle; Jessica Simpson’s Open Book; Donald Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Years) and some non-fiction author’s voices (Donald Maass’ The Emotional Craft of Fiction; Michael Lewis’ The Coming Storm; Jessica Brody’s Save The Cat! Writes a Novel) sound like an amazing extended podcast.
Narrators improving are like actors improving, adding an affective personality and quality to a well written plot. Sometimes authors should demand narrating their own books; sometimes a different narrator makes the author’s words sound much better. Kinda like A Tale of Two Cities.
You make some interesting points about how the enjoyment of a story might change depending on whether one reads a physical book or listens to an audio version! I know lots of people who enjoy audio books, however, due to hearing loss, I prefer to stick with books or ebooks. Without facial cues, I’d probably miss half the story!
My mom reads almost exclusively through listening to audio books and she has had similar difficulties in skipping parts she would normally flip past in a print version. The narrator can ruin a reading experience and I’ve noticed that many audio book listeners will follow a narrator they’ve grown to love to book after book. I usually only listen to audio books on long car trips. I choose the audio book carefully since I can’t skip very easily and since I’m stuck in the car anyway, I don’t mind the slower pace of the story. Audio is a great way to introduce your kids to the classics as we found they were willing to sit through the more flowery prose more willingly via audio. Occasionally, I will listen to audio books while doing dishes but with a household of three teenage boys, there is rarely the quiet necessary to keep focused. So I usually listen to writing craft podcasts instead. They are shorter and if I miss something, at least I’m not missing plot. Anyway, I do enjoy audio on long trips, but for the most part paper books or Nook books are my favorites.
I love audiobooks but I’m choosy about the narrators I listen to. Fortunately Audible lets you hear a sample before you buy.
I didn’t think I’d enjoy audio books as much as I do now. I love both experiences. I usually have an audio book going that I listen to while walking, driving & cooking. Then, at night when I want the quiet, I read a paper version.
While almost all of the narrators I’ve experienced are impressively skilled with their readings, I have also stopped listening to a book because I didn’t enjoy the narrator.
I have also purchased the paper books after listening because I enjoyed the book so much and wanted to mark some passages.
I think genre is a key consideration. I wouldn’t/couldn’t listen to darker stories either.
I love audio books. They are a wonderful way to make boring tasks and enforced inactivity bearable. In one of Nora Roberts’ recent books, her heroine was an audio book reader, and there was a funny scene where she was practicing her different types of screams. I find there are types of fiction I like to listen to and types I prefer to read the old fashioned way. I’ll read a blurb and think, “I want to listen to that,” or “I want to read that.”
Love, love, love audiobooks. I can listen while I work in a small office by myself, while commuting or walking the dog. I even enjoy cleaning now that I’m listening to audiobooks.
Great idea for a blog post! I love listening to audio books, but the experience has helped me realize that I don’t read at a steady pace, particularly when I’m reading non-fiction or more literary books. When I find a turn of phrase I really love, I read it slowly and sometimes more than once. Other parts, I tend to skim. So I’ve found that I enjoy audio books most when they are plot-driven (such as police procedurals or mysteries), and I’m listening more for what happens next than for beautiful writing that I want to linger over.
To add to my previous comment: It does frustrate me that audio books don’t include the front matter and back matter pages. If an author includes their personal thoughts, or info about what they’ve written, I enjoy reading that. It’s a puzzle to me why the back matter is not included with audio books. A listener can always choose whether to listen or not.
I also agree with Julia’s comment that I like to linger over beautiful prose. If I’m listening to the audio and discover there’s prose I love, I’ll sometimes check out the Kindle version or even purchase the paper book so I can relish the writing.
I see the sense, books being read,
I see the sense in listening
at exercise, en route, abed,
but somehow something’s missing.
Who will narrate Gordon Taylor
and Kingsford-Smith, as well?
What of, today, Sindbad the Sailor,
voice-memory known so well?
Who can capture the inflections
of treasures from long past?
Some might offer kind suggestion,
but time, it moves so fast
that voices of our yesteryears
fade to the sound of falling tears.
Hi Rachel. Your post raises some interesting questions. I prefer visual reading–my own pacing, rereading a paragraph or line that captures my imagination, and the joy of having a book in my hand.
However, I do enjoy audiobooks when I’m driving. I’ll need to check out Hoopla. I also found Chirp which offers audiobooks for a very low price. When my husband and I travel by car we like to listen to a story together.
So I think there’s a place for both. And I think the novel I’m writing could be translated into an audiobook to good effect. Thanks for raising the question!
I realize I’m commenting to an older post, but just wanted to share an example of how a marvelous audio book leads to a book purchase. I purchased Amanda Dykes’ Whose Waves These Are upon Janet Grant’s review in January. I loved it so much, I am now listening to the audio of Amanda Dykes’ Set the Stars Alight. This fabulous, creative book is now on my “to buy” wish list. The audio is lovely, but I want to own this book and look forward to reading it slowly so I can savor the beauty of the words. In this case, the audio experience and reading experience will be complementary.
This is exactly why I only listen to audiobook versions of books that I’ve read before! Then I already have my own preconception of the story, and the audiobook frees me up to enjoy picking up on details I’ve missed. I also enjoy realizing how someone else might interpret the inflections of various lines!