What are your thoughts on audiobooks?
It seems like I may be dipping my toe back into "reading" through audiobooks. I realized that instead of listening to random YouTubers at work, I can listen to more intentional writing this way.
How do y'all feel about them? If you listen, what sorts of productions do you prefer? Are there any particular ones you think are spectacular, a cut above the rest? Do you listen to them in addition to reading the book as like a companion piece or instead of the book?
I've listened to some GraphicAudio books now and I like having a full cast for the characters, they've got some good voice actors. Though they're listed as unabridged, I worry they've still perhaps dropped paragraphs. But I think I'd end up zoning out more on single narrator books.
Part of why I never engaged before is because I have poor auditory processing, so I figured I just couldn't keep up. At least for simpler texts, I haven't had much problem, and it may be helping me improve in that respect. I hadn't tried before, but now I can watch YT vids at double speed without missing anything.
I started since my partner was interested so I set up audiobookshelf and some other services for grabbing files. It's been a great piece of software to use, there's other software that can manage and serve audiobooks, but none puts them first like abs does. Do recommend if you're interested in self-hosting audiobooks.
I find I'm unable to concentrate on audiobooks very well. I constantly find myself lost in thought and discover I've got no idea what's going on in the book or how far I need to backtrack to get to the last place I was actually paying attention. I can listen to podcasts fine because I usually don't care if I space out and miss a few minutes of random guys laughing at their own jokes, but in an audiobook that lasts like 20 hours I slowly get more and more confused as the number of story details I missed piles up over the course of the book. So for books that I actually care about I only read e-book or dead-tree formats.
The first mistake of listening to audiobooks is doing it like you'd listen to a record. Don't sit in your comfiest chair in a quiet room and start Listening To An Audiobook.
Audiobooks are for distracting your conscious brain while the rest does something mindless like chores, stupid mental health walk, driving, etc.
Idk why, but this line is cracking me up. I keep looking for a Pokemon Go-but-less-dystopian game to make me do the stupid mental health walks, but maybe I should try an audiobook. I'm like the person you replied to, can't maintain focus on audio-only to save my life, but maybe if I can overcome the "how do when no headphone jack or wireless buds" I'll give it a shot.
Audiobooks and podcasts honestly work great for keeping your mind distracted as you walk. Put on a two hour podcast the other day for my usually 1hr walks and I ended up walking for 2 hours and halfway across my city without realizing haha.
I'm a life long compulsive paper-book reader. I got an audible subscription several years ago when a job I had required that I occasionally do a 1-2 hour drive to another office. Since then I've listened to probably 12-15 or so per year.
I love them in situations where I'm not distracted by anything else, long boring drives, flights, etc. I also walk a lot and now I can't stand it if I don't have a book or podcast to listen to. When I feel my attention start to get drawn away from the recording, for example if I get into really frantic traffic when driving, or if a walk takes me into an area where there's a lot of noise, I just pause the book rather than trying to concentrate on it.
I like audiobooks for non-fiction in particular, since I have a habit of wandering off mentally if I'm reading some long history title with dry sections. With the audio versions, the act of focusing on listening seems to reduce the wandering-off stuff, although it does still occasionally happen and I'll have to rewind a little.
A friend has an audiobookshelf server that I use occasionally. I have had a lot of trouble with the app losing my place between sessions, or accidentally bumping the tiny controls causing me to skip ahead to some chapter and it can be difficult to figure out where I really left off. I'm not going to look such a gift horse in the mouth if you catch my drift, but mention it since its about the only irritation I can think of with the open source self hosted stuff.
Over the years I've run into some titles where I felt like the audio version of a novel brought something extra that made the experience better than print; I somehow wound up listening to the entire Dungeon Crawler Carl series recently and the voice acting in those books is remarkable enough that I recommend them over the print versions.
I still read about as many print books as I ever did, although I find the audiobooks allow me to enjoy time that would be otherwise be wasted. I probably wouldn't do it were it not for the subscription services since I'm not likely to spend 30-40$ for a title and was too lazy to set up the self hosted stuff. I think the main thing is figuring out which scenarios they work well for you and whether you have enough of that kind of time for it to make sense to set everything up.
+1 for this especially. I prefer books generally, but when I’m doing something mindless, audiobooks give my brain something to do. Laundry and/or dishes plus an audiobook is something I actually look forward to doing.
Ah I'd never consider that someone may prefer them because of fiction vs non-fiction! I made sure one of my earliest grabs was DCC, I've heard it recommended quite a bit, especially since the original narration is pretty good.
My ABS use has been fairly simple, connect locally or offline only, losing progress would be rough. When I drop a book on my face, I've got a feel for where I was and can skim text to find it again -- not so much audio.
Yeah our previous solution was renting from the library, but that means time limits -- that was the inciting action, an audiobook in progress that was returned and would've taken months to get back. I'm sure timewise it didn't make sense to go through the setup, it's almost more a hobby to run my own services over subscribe.
Thanks for sharing :)
Different take: I love them. I live in a car dependent city (Atlanta), and am a father of three kids. The amount of time I spend on the road, between my errands and theirs, I have knocked out 33 audiobooks so far this year. And when I'm emptying the dishwasher at home by myself, and other house chores, it's great to dive more into the books I love.
I can't do it. Admittedly, i haven't forced myself to give it a proper try, i've always bailed 10-15 minutes in. It just feels very weird to me, which is odd because I listen to podcasts and i've got youtube going in the background a lot of the time.
I do read a lot in text, though, mostly fiction, mostly gamelit/LitRPG
I have done audiobooks in the past. They're OK but they have the same fundamental problem as podcasts; they require me to have long periods of time where I am not focusing on anything.
I read a lot, and I also play a lot of video games and I'm of the opinion that good voice acting (Hades 2, for a more recent example) can absolutely elevate a game to new heights.
That said, I can't stand audiobooks. I don't know why. Probably for the same reasons that I absolutely cannot fall asleep if the TV is on no matter what is playing, or how I would rather the TV be off if I'm not specifically trying to watch it. I'm bad at multitasking I guess.
audiobooks are the main type of books I check out from Libby. They work well for fiction, history, and autobiographies, etc. I no longer buy them though - the ebook is much more efficient in terms of storage than mp3s. but yes, I highly recommend them - they keep my mind happy when doing tasks that I think are useless such as driving.
Apparently in the minority in this thread, but I love audiobooks. I love stories and I like being able to multitask. Listen while working, then keep listening while cleaning or doing laundry or cooking. Listen while traveling.
There are some narrators good enough that I can accept their different voices and get lost into the story telling. Obviously graphic audio is great, but they have to break up larger novels.
I've been on the monthly plan on audible for years. Unless something dramatic happens, I'm gonna stay there. It just has my whole library. I think some have been taken down from purchase, but I can still download them. I do appreciate all the other platforms that offer audiobooks, so there's competition in the market
A. I have to do something else to be able to follow an audiobook, like simple mobile games, drawing, knitting or walking on uneven ground.
B. Yesterday I joined a group call where someone was reading a book out loud. It was an amazing experience. The pauses, the difficulty pronouncing names, zoning off, readjusting the voice, etc, etc. It was ultra cozy and a completely different experience than an audiobook.
I'm not a real reader, I've read a total of 1 book this year and currently switching between two others which is a massive increase from last year where I read 1 book the whole year. One book I'm reading is Entrances and Exits by Michael Richards, the actor known for Kramer on Seinfeld. I switched to the audiobook version of the book since I was kinda losing interest and it's helped me continue reading the book. It's narrated by Richards himself and there's just something to hearing speech rather than just reading it that captures my attention better. Maybe I'm just a lazy bum.
I also listened to a snippet to the audiobook version of Diddly Squat: A Year On The Farm by Jeremy Clarkson and he also narrates that and I think him narrating it makes a huge difference. Clarkson has his own cadence to his speech that adds to the humor he's written down, which just makes getting through his stories more enjoyable. I think having a proper narrator who can capture the tones of speech that the author intended while writing the book can make the audiobook just as pleasurable if not more pleasurable than simply reading the text.
ok! i’m just finishing up Michael Richard’s’ book. I wasn’t expecting him to be so well-read and… spiritual. The audiobook is definitely the way to go.
anyway, enjoyable listen nonetheless. thanks for mentioning it!
Glad you enjoyed it! I was also surprised to learn of Richards’ spirituality reading the book. I think a lot of others would also be surprised by that since his name is basically tied directly to his Kramer character.
Depends on the book. We often check out audio books for long road trips. A good narrator can make a world of difference, and so can the format of the story. Last time we listened to one that opened with a bunch of (fictional) news snippets and articles, and we initially switched to another book thinking the whole novel would have that format. That sort of format does not translate well to audio.
That said, I don't listen to them too much since I don't have many tasks I can do while listening, and largely lack the patience to sit around just listening these days. They're still our go-to choice for long road trips though.
I do have a soft spot for the narrator George Guidall. Not even sure how exactly to look up specific narrators, but he's narrated over 1,200 audio books. I listened to him read a good chunk of The Cat Who series during high school, and would actually sometimes just lie down on the floor listening to it for hours on end. On our last trip I even picked out one book specifically because he narrated it. His voice is just really calming.
Me too! Like butter for the ears!
If you like him, Michael Kramer is another good one, though not so prolific.
I'd seen audiobooks for House of Leaves and I'm like for real?? I haven't even read it and know the format is too important!
Thanks for the recommendation!! I'm finding several books narrated by him that I'm interested in -- it can be hard to pick what version of, say, Dune to listen to before building up a catalog of narrators you like.
The whole "look up specific narrators" thing is kind of a nightmare - audiobooks don't have great "source of truth" with sites keeping track of them the same way other media has like imdb, tvdb, tmdb, myanimelist, etc. Storygraph/Goodreads list some audiobooks, but not with specific fields, mixing them with general books and delineated in the title or description. Audible only keeps record of their current listings. I've got several audiobooks that turn up nothing when I try to Google for them, veritable ghost recordings.
I listen to non-fiction only if read by the actual writer. Anything by Stephen Fry or Miriam Margolies for example. When the author reads their own material, they know how it has to be read.
As for audiobooks, it needs the correct combination of book and reader/performer:
Some books are just written in a way where reading it sound super janky even if the reader is top tier (He Who Fights Monsters).
Some books are elevated by the audio production (Project Hail Mary, DCC) so that I actually prefer the audio version.
And some work because the creators cared, like the new set of Discworlds books from Audible. Footnotes has its own voice (Charles Dance) and Death has the same voice in all books (Peter Serafinosomething). Also each sub-series has its own dedicated reader, Indira Varma for the Witch books etc.
Came here to say this Project Hail Mary is a must for those who think they're not into Audiobooks and are at all interested in sci-fi, even if you're not the delivery is incredible I'd say give it a go.
A late response but another audiobook lover. I used to be an avid book reader when I was younger, but between life getting busy and eyestrain from reading screens all day, I stopped reading for years. I stumbled across audiobooks a couple years ago and they reignited my love of books. Now I almost exclusively listen to audiobooks.
I tend to enjoy them when in calm driving conditions, while doing chores like gardening or cleaning, and while napping/before bed (this one's dangerous as I often fall asleep and then have to rewind).
I have access to a couple public libraries, so use Libby to borrow audiobooks. Some libraries have tonnes of digital materials and others few, so yymv.
Some books I listen to sped up a bit, and others I actually slow down a smidge. It really depends on the narrator's cadence.
In terms of suggestions: a lot of the books I listen to are for the stories and not so much the quality of narration. But, BBC Radio has a series of full-cast dramatizations, and the ones Ive listened to are fantastic. Another seemingly random suggestion is World War Z; it's read by a full cast with some pretty famous voices.
It really depends on what I'm reading. I read physical books at home and Audiobooks during my morning commute. I only listen in the mornings because I'm leaving at 6AM, the roads are less busy and the commute is very routine, I can concentrate on the book more, on the way home I find my mind is too full and traffic is too chaotic to really focus (as much as one can focus while driving).
At home I am reading almost exclusively serious literature which I would never really consume via Audiobook, I need to make character lists, notes in the margins, ect. I really like to underline sentences/passages that grab me or stand out. I need to be going back and re-reading things or sometimes I just need to read a page or paragraph over and over to really feel that I understand it. Also I believe that great prose should be sipped like fine wine and washed around in the brain before moving on. None of that is possible easily with an Audiobook.
In the car I'm listening to more plot driven novels, simpler books with a smaller (hopefully) number of characters or things that are thematically less important so that if I do space out or need to concentrate on something else it really doesn't matter. I also try and stick to shorter works (<15 hours) for Audiobooks as listening to something 20-30 hours long in 30-40 minute daily chunks takes a long time. I also listen at 1.1 to 1.2 speed but anything faster than that becomes harder to follow and chipmunk voice starts happening. Reading isn't a race, the journey is the whole point. I listen to all my audiobooks through Spotify as the prices at Audible are criminal and I'm already paying for Spotify for music, the monthly limit on Spotify matches nearly exactly my morning commute and I haven't hit the limit yet.
Wow you're a really active reader! I don't think I've ever kept lists or even highlighted passages, but I do reread some parts to soak them in.
Fully agree with sipping on prose, that's what I worry is cut out from even so-called unabridged recordings. It may end up being a major distinguishing factor in what I listen to versus read, though I will say a great narrator can elevate prose as well.
Thank you for the perspective :)
I've listened to hundreds of audiobooks. I listen at 2x or higher depending on the complexity of the story and the prose, as well as what I'm doing while listening. I generally prefer simpler narration without any effects or too much acting because I find the voices that they put on to be a bit annoying at times.
+1 Audiobookshelf too, it's a great piece of software.
I don't know if I have any particular suggestions for specific audiobooks. Stephen Fry has a retelling of a bunch of Greek myths where he's the narrator and he has quite the charming voice. The woman who voices The Wandering Inn does a great job as well, she has a surprisingly versatile voice.
I like audiobooks but I HATE Scott Brick and his sing-song affect. I assume people only listen to audiobooks while doing other things, though. I would never sit down and just listen to something like that.
I will listen to Scott Brick, but he does make the experience worse.
uggghhhhhhhh.... he makes every character into a total whiner. I hate that he gets all of the great jobs, too.
I wasn't sure if the whiney tone was just me or not for a minute but he totally does that.
Last year there was a thread about books you've hate read and Atlas Shrugged was one of the books that was really up there. I had given up on it but I went back and listened to 62 hours of whiney Scott Brick reading whiney Ayn Rand.
you know, I didn't believe in the concept of hell until you said what you endured. why would they get him of all people for that‽
what gets me is that he doesn't speak like that normally. His normal voice is actually pretty good. ugh.
We're not allowed to listen to music or audiobooks (or anything like that) at work (driving trains) but most of us used to do it anyways. Now there are inward facing cameras inside all locomotives and I struggle to find other places where I enjoy audiobooks.
I can listen to them while doing dishes or other household tasks, but it's not the same. I do pull them out on road trips though; that hits the same as before.
I whole-heartedly love audiobooks - have since I was a kid. Either a top-tier narrator or (even better) a full-cast reading, though I'm not actually a huge fan of GraphicAudio. I even produced a fan-made full-cast audiobook once.
I only ever listen to books that I've already read "in paper" - to me, the reason I'm listening is to hear the performance of the narrator(s).
I love reading books and I love audiobooks, for different reasons. Going for walks or commutes, audiobooks (and podcasts) are a godsend. For topics I am interested in, but would struggle to find time or commitment for (eg, history books) they are also great. There's also some books that I would just struggle to get through reading because of corny prose or whatever, but they "play out" a lot better. The Brandon Sanderson Mistborn books would be a reeeeeeaaaal struggle for me wade through, but they are enjoyable to listen to, if that makes sense.
As for production, I don't really care. I like the fully voiced and acted "audio drama" style, but I also love a good narrator. Put Stephen Fry in a booth and call me happy.