This week, Top Five Wednesday is about top five audiobooks.
I have a problem with this: I've never listened to an audiobook. The only one I've ever felt the urge to listen to is 'Ready Player One' read by Wil Wheaton, but I haven't listened to that yet.
So I thought instead of trying to find five that I want to listen to, that I'd make a listen instead of the five reasons that I don't listen to audiobooks.
5) They're scary
Audiobooks are a genre that I've never experienced, so it's intimidating to try to get into them. The other four reasons on this list are probably things that I'd be able to work through, but this one just makes it impossible to start working through them.
Is there a word for the fear of audiobooks?
4) They're not read by me
When I read I make all of the characters voices different, to be able to distinguish them from each other quickly and easily. Yes, this is in my head, not out loud. So if the narrator read the text completely in their voice, without putting on strange squeaky high-pitched bits for the children, or low, testosterone filled voices for the villains... Well, I wouldn't be able to follow the story.
3) They're easy to lose track of
When I listen to music I'll start daydreaming, and the next thing I've been listening to silence for twenty minutes without even realising. If I started thinking too much while listening to an audiobook, I know I'd miss huge parts of the plot.
2) They're expensive
Most of the books I buy are from charity shops, or are on very low sales. Audiobooks hardly seem to do this, so I can't really justify paying for them. I know some sites do the first audiobook free for new members, but there is just too much choice for me to be able to commit to one, so I'd rather have nothing than a free thing that I'd regret.
1) They're slow
I can read fairly quickly, if I have time. I read slowly when I don't have much time, of course, but I wouldn't be able to fit in an audiobook then anyway. I know they appeal to people who drive, because they can't read when they're travelling to places, but I take the bus everywhere so it's fine for reading actual words on a page!
I hope you enjoyed my Top Five Wednesday. Do you read audiobooks? If so, why do you enjoy them, and would you recommend them to me?
Your reasons are similar to my own rationale so thank you for writing this post! :P
ReplyDeleteWith regards to the time and cost, these are big sticking points for me and audiobooks. Even if I speed up the narration and make the narrator's voice go all weird it still doesn't seem to go by quick enough for my liking. Likewise, the audiobook experience relies entirely on having a good narrator, one who does different tones and voices for each character without that being jarring - I find Harry Potter as read by Stephen Fry to be good at this.
I too drift off without realising then twenty minutes go by and I forgot I was even listening to an audiobook! I've tried to combat this recently with some success by only listening to audiobooks when doing other mechanical tasks, for example if I'm doing laundry or knitting or even whilst taking a bath/getting ready on a morning. This has helped me to focus on the audiobook as my main area of concentration whilst the other more monotonous task can be done mechanically without much thought.
The only recommendation I would have, being an audiobook newbie myself, is to try looking for books read by some highly recommended audiobook narrators - for example, Neil Gaiman is wonderful at reading out his own books and is extremely engaging.
I didn't know that Neil Gaiman read his own books - I'm definitely going to need to try to listen to some of those, because I think authors reading their own books would be something I could get on board with. If I go to book events and authors read out sections from their own novels I find it very easy to pay attention to, so that should be easier for me to get into.
DeleteIf I try to listen to audiobooks I normally try to only focus on them, so having them on in the background while doing something repetitive is a brilliant suggestion. I can imagine ironing and folding clothes would really help this, so it might encourage me to do more household chores!
Thank you for your advice, hopefully it'll help me succeed with more audiobooks :)