Monday, October 24, 2011

Musing Monday: Audio books, Yae or Nae?

Musing Monday is a weekly meme by Should Be Reading. This week’s musing asks…

Do you listen to audiobooks? Why, or why not?

I do listen to audio books, though not religiously. I still prefer reading print where I can flip back to certain passages, reread a section with ease, and read at my own pace. Plus, I sometimes have a hard time concentrating on the audio; I get distracted easily, and suddenly I have no idea what's going on with the story nor how long I wasn't paying attention.

That being said, I do enjoy a well-read audio book. I'm currently listening to The Throne of Fire, the second book in the Kane Chronicles, by Rick Riordan. It is awesome! I listened to the first book in the series several months ago, and knew that I would have to listen to the second book, too. I also loved listening to the Harry Potter books read by Jim Dale (though I really want to hear the Stephen Fry versions!) and The Eyre Affair was also excellently read. These are great for while I'm working or for long car rides; I prefer print for every other occasion.

But for every winning reading, there's a reading that can turn you off the medium. I listened to some of the Sookie Stackhouse audio books, and while the reader was fantastic as Sookie, her rendition of Eric cracked me up (and not in a good way). It brought me out of the story to marvel at the horrendousness of the strange generic-European deep voice she took on to portray the character.

When it comes to audio books, the reader can make or break the story.

1 comment:

  1. See, I agree with what you said about how an audio book can take you out of the story in some ways. I'm sure if the story is read by an excellent speaking person, it could be a plus...but when the speaker attempts to shift tone of voice to depict other characters, I find it pretty distracting.

    Plus, something about being read to lulls me into sleep!

    ReplyDelete