Tag Archives: audiobooks

Sometimes the audiobooks are better.

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Just as there are people who argue the book is always better than the movie, I’m sure there are people who would argue that a paper copy of a book that you can hold in your hands is better than reading on a Kindle or a Nook or listening to an audiobook.

I personally think that it’s awesome that people are reading, no matter which way they “take” their stories.  Audiobooks have been a huge blessing in my life; they entertain me on long car rides, distract me from my OCD, help me fall asleep at night, and make mundane things (like driving, cleaning, etc.) worthwhile because I’m engaging my mind.

There are even a few books where I prefer the audio version over all others.  Here they are:

1. Saving Francesca and Jellicoe Road, both by Melina Marchetta, both read by Rebecca Macauley.  Let’s be honest: reading about Aussie schools in an Aussie accent is incredible.

2. The Piper’s Son by Melina Marchetta, read by Michael Finney.  Again, the Aussie accent.  This time a male Aussie accent.  (You have to understand that I listen to certain parts of this one over and over again, becoming more and more and more certain that it wouldn’t be quite right for me to marry any man who wasn’t Australian.)

3. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, read by anyone.  I found it really hard to read the paper version because Burgess writes in “Nadsat,” an Anglo-Russian slang he made up for the “droogs” in this book.  I kept tripping over the words and eventually gave up.  But I later revisited it on audio, and by the end felt practically fluent as a malenky horrorshow devotchka who wants to peet moloko.  (This alone makes me believe the Rosetta Stone curriculum works!)

4. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, read by Alan Corduner.  Great voice, awesome German accent!  Makes Liesel, Rudy, Max, and the Hubermans come alive as real people living in Nazi Germany.

5. The Last Unicorn written AND read by Peter Beagle.  I love hearing the tone and rhythm that were originally intended.  Plus, Beagle actually sings the songs!  And you get guitar interludes in between chapters.  Brilliant.

6. Absolutely everything by David Sedaris.  I about DIE laughing when I listen to him read his stories in his own voice!  Definitely better and funnier in his voice than on paper!

[Edited 9/30/13:

7. The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater.  Absolutely breaktaking.]

I also have to throw out major props to Jim Dale, who read the whole Harry Potter series and The Night Circus.  That man is unreal.  I don’t know how he can keep track of so many voices/characters!

How about you?  Do you listen to audiobooks?  Any audiobooks you prefer over the paper version?

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an audiobook controversy

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I am a fan.  A huge fan.

I travel a fair amount for work to exotic places like South Dakota.  (JK– I love South Dakota, but exotic it is not.)  In any case, when you pair a long car ride alone with obsessive-compulsive disorder, you get nothing but trouble.  I learned early on that if I didn’t give my mind something to chew on during those drives, then I would be submitting myself to OCD attacks.

I read Perelandra by C.S. Lewis while driving 75 MPH down I-29 from Watertown to Sioux Falls.  And when I say read, I mean read, my eyes flickering every two seconds between the page on my steering wheel and out the windshield.  I know, I know– it’s terrible, and it was so dangerous, and I could have killed myself or someone else.  Praise God I didn’t.

But in the end, my office awarded me the “FOR GOODNESS SAKES, GET A RADIO” award, and I started using audiobooks, the safer and legal version of reading while driving.  Over the years, I have collected a small library of audiobooks, which I listen to rather often since I like to re-read.

Now, here is my question, and maybe you in the blogosphere can help settle a disagreement between my co-worker and myself: is listening to an audiobook the same thing as reading?

I say YES.  Sure, it’s a different format of reading, but it’s still reading.  I think it is fair for me to listen to an audiobook and then tell a friend, “I just read such-and-such book.”  That seems obvious to me.

I cannot understand why my co-worker Josh disagrees.  He said it’s not the same thing.  I don’t understand why it wouldn’t be.  It’s still a BOOK, isn’t it?  How then would you describe your interaction with it?  “I just listened to such-and-such book”?  And if so, what is the difference between saying that and that you read it?

I fear this post is very inarticulate, but maybe one of you readers can help put my thoughts (or Josh’s) into words.  Help?