Last week, Sarah’s Bookshelves Live had a really fun Patreon episode where she and a co-host ran through a list of questions about their audiobook listening routines, and well, I couldn’t help myself. I loved the discussion so much that I copied down the questions to answer them myself!
Why would someone choose to read an audiobook over the written word? (Or, another way of saying this: When do I intentionally choose audiobooks over the written word?)
I choose audiobooks to get more reading time into my life. I would read a lot fewer books if I wasn’t consuming 3-4 audiobooks every month. These days, around 33% of my reading life is audiobooks. And for someone who reads 100+ books every year, that’s a significant number of audiobooks! I’ve also found that I prefer listening to audiobooks for certain genres. For example, I like to listen to dense nonfiction books and character-driven novels on audio. In print, I’d likely DNF these books because they can feel a little tedious to read. When I’m listening while taking a walk or making dinner or doing chores, it’s a lot easier to consume something that may not be rapturously exciting.
There are certain types of books, too, that I intentionally choose to listen to. I love listening to memoirs (especially if they are read by the author, although not all authors should read their memoirs and that’s a hill I will die on). I love oral histories on audio because they usually have a full cast and it feels like listening to a dramatic play! And I really love listening to series that would otherwise fall to the wayside if I had to pick up each book in print. I only have so much space for print books in my reading life, so I want to make sure I devote it to the stuff I really want to read with my eyes. I’m all caught up with the Finlay Donovan series thanks to audio, and the only way I’ve stayed current with the Three Pines series is by listening to the audiobooks. (Although I still haven’t read the latest book – oops!)
Anyway, long story short: I read audiobooks because it allows me to consume so many more books than I would otherwise, and because certain genres and formats just work better for my brain on audio.
Do you experience books differently in audio than in print?
The answer to this is a resounding, of course! While I’m not here to debate if audiobooks “count” as reading (GTFO with that outdated opinion, thank you very much), I do think the way our brain processes audiobooks vs the written word is different. In some ways, it makes the reading experience so much richer. Listening to all of the Emma M. Lion books on audio has been the best treat for my ears. I’m excited to read them in print soon and see how that changes my relationship with the series (if it does at all!). I’ve also had experiences where I start an audiobook and quickly discover I need to pick up the print book. This just happened with the latest book in the Lady Sherlock series. I’ve done most of these books on audio, but I had a lot of trouble keeping track of all the characters and plotlines in the most recent one, so I DNF-ed it on audio and now have to figure out how to work it into my reading schedule.
I think there is something to be said for the fact that sometimes I don’t listen as closely as I should and miss details from time to time. But that happens with print books, too, because I tend to skim over long descriptive paragraphs. I think our brains take in information differently, whether orally or visually, and that’s also why audiobooks don’t work at all for some people. (It’s also why audiobooks can be a great option for auditory learners!) So yes, some types of books would probably be better to read with my eyes so I can really take in the information and slow myself down while reading, but it doesn’t mean I didn’t get enough out of an audiobook to understand what it was about or how it impacted me.
What are you doing that you can multitask and pay attention to your audiobook?
There are so many things I can do while listening to my audiobook:
- Work (I have certain tasks that don’t require a ton of brainpower)
- Making breakfast/lunch/dinner
- My morning and evening routines
- Going for walks
- Doing chores
- Playing a game on my phone
- Coloring
- Driving
- Puttering around my apartment
There are certain instances where I won’t listen to an audiobook. I have a Bluetooth shower speaker, but I never listen to my audiobook while showering because the sound isn’t great to pay attention to dialogue and such. It’s fine to half-listen to a podcast, but I don’t enjoy listening to audiobooks in the shower. I also don’t listen to audiobooks at the gym. I just feel like I can’t concentrate as well as I want to!
And I should also say that I live by myself so I don’t have to worry about anyone else getting annoyed by my constant audiobook listening. I’m sure my audiobook listening time would vastly decrease if I started living with someone else!
How do you choose your audiobooks?
This one is easy, and it’s my most uncomplicated method of choosing books. But there’s still a bit of logistics involved because I can’t make anything too easy for me, right?! I flip through three different types of books every month:
- Fiction
- Mystery/thriller
- Nonfiction
I try to always go in this order as I choose my books. The last book I read was a mystery (the latest Finlay Donovan, in fact!), so my next audiobook will be nonfiction. What I’ll do is open up Goodreads, go to my “want-to-read” list, and sort by date. I’ll start at the top or bottom of my list (depending on what book I chose previously—Finlay Donovan was near the bottom, so I’ll start from the top this time) and then make my way down the list until my eyes land on a book that falls into my genre parameters and interests me at this moment in time. Then I’ll check my audiobook apps (Libby and Hoopla) to see if the book is available as an audiobook on either one. I’ll also take a gander at the length because I am pretty averse to reading anything over 13 hours. As long as it’s available and doesn’t have a wait, I’ll snatch it up! If the wait is only a few weeks, I’ll get on the holds list and find a different book to read while I wait. Or, if it seems like a super popular book and I’m desperate to listen to it on audio, I’ll check Spotify. I get 15 audiobook hours every month with Spotify, so as long as I haven’t hit my limit, there’s a good chance I’ll just pick it up there.
However, I will say I broke my routine when I started reading the Emma M. Lion books. I had to! I wanted to read one right after the other, but I made myself read one Emma, then one non-Emma, then one Emma, then one non-Emma. I also forced myself to take a month-long break in May and July because I didn’t want to read the series too fast! Alas, I am now on the final book (for now) so I will be back to my regularly structured audiobook routine starting next week.
How do you rate an audiobook – are you rating the narration/performance, the book itself, or both?
I honestly try not to factor the narration/performance into my audiobook ratings. If the narration is particularly great, I might bump it up half a star because it makes the reading experience so much richer. But if the narration didn’t work for me, I try not to dock the book itself because of it. A great example of this is Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors. The audiobook narrator was awful. So monotone, and it didn’t make any part of the reading experience richer. But I loved that book so much (and I know I would have DNF-ed it in print), so I suffered through the terrible narration and still gave the book 5 stars. Not all authors have any sort of say when it comes to the audiobook narrator and how it’s performed, so I don’t want to use that as a reason to give a book a bad rating.
Do you listen to audiobooks? Why or why not?
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