I have been listening to a few audiobooks recently. Partly because my old phone is now basically an mp3 player on our alarm clock and I also now have audible on my phone. So far it has been mostly re-reads. I have been listening to various Discworld books at night. They are quite good because the story is only part of the appeal, it is the insights and the characters that I enjoy, so I can listen until I fall asleep without worrying that I have missed something.
On my audible account, I have started a couple of new books but also listened to ones I read years ago. Listening is a very different experience from reading. I think I prefer re-reading books in audio because of my other reading quirk. I often (usually) will read the end of the book before the rest. I need to have an idea of what is coming up to fully enjoy the book. I don’t like overly suspenseful stories.
I find it really interesting that there has been such a boom in audiobooks recently. Is it because we all now carry around portable players (phones) so we are used to listening? Or was there always this pent up demand that no one was catering for? My mum preferred to listen to books when we drove long distances, so consequently i “read” quite a few interesting books. I can remember sneaking out to the car for the final tape of “far from the madding crowd” because we arrived home with about 20 minutes left. For a long time, I preferred just to listen to music, but podcasts have lured me back.
A good narrator is important. I am ambivalent about one author, I like her books, but the narrators she has don’t work for me and it is putting me off her books.