This Chicks Sunday Commentary: To LOVE or Not to Love..Audio Books

If you have a book blog then your love of all things books is a given. Or is it? Some bloggers hash out their feelings on ebooks versus physical copies of books and usually the physical copy wins. (Although my guess is that many of you have hundreds of ebooks lined up on a kindle or nook!) So, the natural next question would be, how do you, as a blogger, like audiobooks?

 Here are my thoughts!

PROS

  • Re-reading series: If you are anything like me, you are trying to balance your ARC commitments with just picking up a book and reading it for pleasure. But what about re-reading? There is nothing better than getting back to that series that you fell in love with while reading it for the first time! Now, years later, you have memories of having loved the series, but there are 20 books and it’s probably not realistic that you’ll ever read them again. But, wait! Do you have a long commute to work? Do you go to the gym or walk in the mornings? If so, then you have found the time to re-read! Kind of. You can now enjoy that morning walk while listening to an old favorite. Believe me, you will get that chance to listen to all 20 in the series.
  • Narrators– When you have found a great narrator, you will follow that narrator to their other books. A great narrator makes you forget that you are listening to a woman speak in your male heroes voice, or a man in a womans voice. But what about if your book has many voices? A great narrator will capture that personality of EACH character. Here are my recommendations on a few. Sample one by clicking the link. 

                Etiquette & Espionage (Finishing School) narrated  by Emily Gray! 

              A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel narrated by Nicholas Guy Smith 
                Outlander narrated by Davina Gray 

      • Inspiration! – Ok, that may be taking this a little far, but if I am in the middle of a really good book I would do anything to keep listening to it! ( and save my marriage by not ignoring my husband on purpose.☺️) Take another walk! Listening to an audiobook while excercising has inspired me to, well, excercise! Lol. 
      • Car Rides– Listening to an audiobook makes my drive go so much quicker! To be honest, I don’t have a very long drive to work and will sometimes sit in the parking lot for five or ten minutes until the scene concludes. However, I am in outside sales and spend a good bit of time driving, so my drive has now become fun!
      • Subscription services– I can support my local bookstore! Yes, you can also get Audiobooks on Amazon’s Audible or even at your local library, but I found Librofm.com, which is a monthly subscription service, just like audible, but it is connected to my local bookstore.  I love supporting my local bookstore and the dollars for the subscription at least in part, goes to them. Yeah!


      CONS

      • Narrators– I don’t want to say anything bad, but when the narration doesn’t click for me I have to dump the book and choose another. What makes a narrator bad? It could be an annoying voice on the main character, or it could be the actual writing of the book didn’t make for a good audiobook. If an audiobook doesn’t grab me, its just like reading a book myself. I struggle, and really, you have to devote A LOT of time to one! I will not spend 12 hours with a narrator I don’t click with.
      • Reviews– This is a great way to spend time reading another book to review. A Gentleman in Moscow (pictured above) is a book that I am currently listening to on my walks. Nicholas Guy Smith’s aristocratic voice is perfectly matched to the main character. I am listening to it in real time, and do NOT speed the audiobook up. I have heard that some bloggers do this, and I think that you can’t get emotionally involved with a narrator that sounds like a chipmunk! That would hurt my enjoyment of the story as well and therefore my review of that book. Bad Bloggers!
      • Time Spent– I am a very quick reader, so its a little frustrating when a narration drags. That is not the narrators fault it’s the writer who wrote all that prose! However, when someone reads it aloud it makes that paragraph seem even longer. Pick your book to your mood. If you are in a descriptive prose kind of mood, great! If you want a lot of dialog or action, be smart and pick that kind of book!
      • Romance– I love to read romance novels. That’s my go to genre when I am feeling down because an HEA picks my mood right back up. However, listening to a 30 page sex scene? NOT MY THING. Especially in a car when the audio all of a sudden seems so loud. I’ll find myself looking at the person on the bus bench next to me to see if they can hear what I’m hearing. Embarassing!  I guess I like my sex scenes to be a little more private.  Lol.  Years ago I was on a road trip with my mom and we had picked an audiobook to listen to. Oh my gosh, when a sex scene came up, we both looked at each other and laughed hysterically! I fast forwarded through the scene! There’s just something about hearing it outloud.  That is still a funny memory that she and I share with people. It makes for a great story, but I NEVER want to do that again. Lol.

      What is your opinion of Audiobooks? Do you have any funny stories to share? Any favorite narrators or books?  Please comment!

      Until next Sunday,

      Deb

      14 thoughts on “This Chicks Sunday Commentary: To LOVE or Not to Love..Audio Books”

      1. You are right that it has to be the correct narrator. Some of them don’t do the book justice. I usually prefer men read the male parts and women read the female parts (two narrators), but I have heard good narrators read both parts and thoroughly enjoyed the book. My main gripe with audiobooks is that they take longer to get through. I usually read fast, too. I would neve speed up the narration. How weird is that. The sex scenes are more embarrassing for me hearing a guy read them, for some reason. They make me want to giggle. I’m not sure why.

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        1. Lol! It’s like a man whispering dirty words in your ears, thats why! Haha! I think the biggest con is how long it takes to get through a book. 5ere must be a balance on reading descriptive paragraphs faster and dialog or action scenes slower? I’m sure in editing they must really take extra effort to make sure the pace remains consistent. I have listened to some fabulous narrators though! If you are having trouble reading Written in Red, listen to it! That narrator is amazing!

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          2. Asia is bad definitely. The cutting gets managed, but that doesn’t go away completely. It may just not be your thing. However, the narrator does an awesome job with all of the different characters. Its pretty amazing actually. So many voices! I hope you’re hanging in there!

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      2. Lovely post, Deborah, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on this 🙂 I actually never tried audiobooks. They seem so practical at times, but…I’m a bit scared of losing focus of it all, not being able to follow the story when I am listening it, instead of reading it? I don’t know if that makes sense, ahah. But they do seem like fun 🙂

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      3. I’m guessing many people would call me an audiobook junkie – I started listening to them while I was traveling, and I have been hooked ever since. I listen when I walk Choppy (that’s a good hour plus a day there) and on my commute (another hour plus going to and from work). I listen when I cook supper, when I am getting ready in the morning, when I go to bed, etc. It’s a rare day when I get less than two hours of listening time in, and it’s usually more like three hours or more.

        The narrators really do make a difference. My brother’s favorite narrator is someone a lot of people love (Scott Brick), but who puts me to sleep whenever I listen to his books (I actually now avoid books which he narrates). But my favorite narrators are amazing. I’ve more or less exhausted the audiobooks narrated by the late, great Edward Hermann, and my current favorite narrator, R.C. Bray, could read the phone book and it would likely be awesome. I mean, he got me to listen to a zombie series, and I HATE zombie books with a fiery passion (that said, despite the great narration which keeps me coming back to the series, he has not changed my opinion of zombie books – I would never, ever have finished the first book in the series, but for the awesome narration that keeps me coming back for more). I won’t tell you how many times I have listened to The Martian (which R.C. Bray narrates), but let’s just say I can quote more of that book than pretty much any other.

        The short story? I definitely fall into the LOVE audiobooks category.

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        1. I do too! I just got in from my own walk with my dog Nash and its the perfect way to start the day! I will also admit when things are slow at work or I’m doing something mindless I’ll plug in my ear buds… shhhh don’t tell!

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