I am a huge fan of audiobooks. They helped me get through intimidating books like Moby Dick, Anna Karenina and Nicholas Nickleby. And literary classics are twice the fun when heard in a British accent. Occasionally I abandon an audiobook if the narrator isn't that great. Sometimes I'm frustrated at having to "rewind" the book in order to capture a choice quote. But these are small quibbles. Audiobooks are what got me out of my slump last year so I shouldn't criticize them, right?
This year I've discovered a few additional reasons why they are not always ideal.
(1) Sometimes listening to a book makes the story come to life in a bad way. That happened when I tackled Kristin Lavransdatter earlier this year; I became so emotionally immersed in the story that I had to revert to the written page to manage the stress.
(2) Sometimes they come dangerously close to sounding like bad preaching. Recently my small group began reading the book, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Scazzero. It has some good ideas mixed in with pop psychology. Listening to it often made me angry. But when I read the actual page, I was able to overlook the flimsy reasoning and sift out the good stuff.
(3) Sometimes you miss important details. I listened to several Dorothy Sayers' mysteries in February. When I went back through the written text to find favorite quotes, I discovered some essential clues that I'd missed while listening. This is not the fault of the audiobook as much as it is the fact that I usually listen while doing something else (cooking or exercising) so my mind is less engaged.
Still, I'm a huge fan because there's something scrumptious about being read to. Yet I'm aware that it has its limits. What about you? Did you ever find that listening to a certain book was a bad way to "read" it?
Blessings,
1 comment:
I can't listen to nonfiction via audiobook unless it's told in story form, like a biography. I have to read nonfiction and note and underline and mark quotes and points, etc., to get the most out of it. I'm sure I'd get something out of it via audio, but not as much as when I read it.
Finding clues I missed when I go back through the text happens whether I read or listened to it.
A narrator makes so much difference between a good and bad audio experience. I'm listening to one now from Librivox, which offers audiobooks for free. I use them sometimes when Audible doesn't have a title I want, or the book is short and I don't want to use a full Audible credit on it. Librivox uses volunteers to read the books. Some do a great job. Some, like in the one I am listening to now, don't even do basic reading well, much less reading with expression.
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