After listening to Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan – which was my first foray back to audiobooks in years – I was back in love with audiobooks. And yet, as I’ve mentioned before – if you haven’t already read my Part 1 to this CLICK HERE – I’m not wholly decided on when, how, and why to go with the audiobook. It just feels so conflicting! Physical book to have and to hold or audio book to listen and be told!?
For starters, when I read a book I feel like I’ve accomplished something. Maybe that’s a lingering result of school but it’s there. Since I wrote that first post I have listened to over a dozen audiobooks in half as many months. They’re kind of my new best friends. And while I feel some completion in having heard that story it’s not the same.
To hold a book and turn its pages, reading the words the author strung together to tell their story, is to form something of a relationship with the story. Sure I feel emotions while listening to and reading stories. I formulate new ideas and thoughts about the material. Or I hash out old ones. Whatever the case I interact with the story. But holding it I also interact with the words. That is not something I can say for audiobooks. Well, it’ s just not the same!
Listening to a story has its own benefits. I interact with language, with voice, with speaking. You get to hear a person’s voice, experience them acting (because that is what narrators do after all), and test your own listening skills. Something I love is hearing pronunciation of words I do not know which there are a lot of in fantasy novels especially. Listening to a story is beautiful. However, you do not see the words and their structure. You do not see how they are set up on the page. I’m sure this can be true for all people but I believe it especially true for a writer.
Not only do I study books when I read them – what worked and why, what didn’t and why not – but I admire them. With a physical book you see the typeset, the style, the font, the color of the paper, the smell of the paper, the margins, and so much more. You experience not only the story, but the book. While authors don’t always, or perhaps often, get to choose all these things for themselves in the world of traditional publishing, these days we’re seeing a lot more independent authors and presses. Which means we might also be experiencing more personal decisions with respect to the actual production of the book.
Now please don’t get me wrong. I’m not putting anyone down who prefers audiobooks or can not read for one reason or many others. Audiobooks are amazing opportunities. I am a slow reader so the fact that I can finish a story in a couple of days listening to an audiobook is fantastic. If they were cheaper I’d listen to even more! So this isn’t even so much a which one is better type of post, rather I’m just reflecting on how my mind approaches the matter. I don’t find it a light decision to pick to listen to audio over read the story myself. I just don’t. Words are one of my passions and I’m trying to build a better relationship with them. Choosing to listen rather than give one-on-one reading attention is a tricky choice.
It’s helpful to see how different authors structure dialogue and even how they arrange their chapters. I like seeing the length of paragraphs because I don’t have a great attention span for long chapters when reading. Another advantage to listening, long chapters don’t bother me. You can still pick up on a lot of things listening, after all it’s still a book, it’s just someone else who’s reading it. You don’t get to dog-ear a page or highlight or sticky note. I know, I know these apps and whatever have all kinds of fun features but pushing “bookmark” is not the same for me as making one in a book. Besides, I’m not very good at coming back to book notes! Lol.
So, summary is I love audio books but I miss the connection to the actual words. I don’t have a method for when to read and when to listen if I don’t already have the book in one form or another. I think it will come to depend on the individual books and authors. Also at this point I think I want to stay consistent with regard to the edition I pick for a series. If I start a series in audio then I want to keep that up. So if I’ve already started the series with a physical book, I’m going to read the book. I’ll also be paying more attention to people’s thoughts on specific audio books.
But ok! This has been long enough. I’m sitting debating listing the other books I’ve listened to since Audio Book Talk Part 1 or making that its own post. Hm…
How’s about I go ahead and end this here and encourage you all to share your thoughts! Do you have any trouble deciding when to go with audio or maybe you’ve not even thought about it that much? Are you a reader and a writer or just a reader?
I know I keep saying I’m going to post more and then I don’t so maybe you are losing faith in me. But that’s actually a really good reason to follow me, because then you’ll just know that I actually did post! You’ll be like oh it’s magic there’s a post from the Elpy Dimension! 😉
Check back Sunday, tomorrow, I’m going to share the audio books I’ve been listening to and am. Also this coming week expect a post from me yammering on about figuring things out for this new year, how I want to do things differently, and maybe a new review in my new format!
Cheers guys, thanks so much for your time!
