Over the summer I traveled from Madison to Minnesota at least five times (I must have blocked out the exact number). Since then, I’ve gone home at least two more times. The best thing about those trips was discovering that yes, I can listen to audiobooks!
Before my long, solo car rides, I’d never been able to really enjoy audiobooks. Going to and from school is too short, and I get distracted listening to books while I try to clean or cook. But car rides offer no distractions, so I used the time to get through some books I was dying to listen to but hadn’t had the time to read.
But I also didn’t know how to review audiobooks, so I put those off for most of the summer which resulted in a backlog of audiobook reviews. When I discovered how many I had, I decided to publish all of them consecutively and have an audiobook celebration for the next couple of weeks. So for the next couple weeks I’ll only be posting audiobook reviews. Exciting!
Welcome to Audiobook Week(s), and Sophisticated Dorkiness will be back to it’s regularly scheduled programming around December 14!
Do you like listening to audiobooks? Why or why not? What’s your favorite (or least favorite) audiobook and why?
Photo Credit: Playful Librarian via Flickr
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
An audio book is essential for a long solo car ride!
Kathy: I couldn’t agree more. I’m never doing one with an audiobook again.
Audiobooks kept me sane when I was spending an hour and a half a day in traffic. Now that I’m working close to home, I miss them. But I don’t miss the commute!
Ardene: That’s a terrible, terrible commute! Audiobooks would certainly help with that. Part of me thinks I’d get a lot “read” if I commuted a lot, but hate driving so much I don’t think I’d last long.
I commute to school, so I have audiobooks on me all the time! The best one I recently listened to was The Night Watch by Sarah Waters. It was a great audiobook! I tried reading the book and was so-so on it, but the audio really made it come alive. Plus there’s an author interview at the end, which is awesome!
Lu: There are some books where the audio makes it pop. I think the only reason I got though Twilight was because I was listening to it. I just started The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson, which has an author interview. I’m way excited about that.
That picture is very sweet. I first heard the chronicles of Narnia series, rather than read it. When I was little I would play those tapes over and over again (no wheels ont he bus for me) but now I don’t listen to books. Althought I know it’s insane to think this, it kind of feels like cheating if I hear it read to me rather than read it myself.
Jodie: I love that picture. Flickr is awesome for creative things like that. I feel sort of the same way with audio versus reading — I had a hard time reviewing them as book because there are so many other things that might go into my impressions because I listened rather than read. But it is a nice way to get some books out of my TBR list and know if they’re ones I’ll want to read again.
I love audio books, but can’t imagine Hugo Cabret making a good one. Is there an audio version? Hugo Cabret is all about the pictures for me.
My favourite is Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith. It had me gripped from the start, is a fantastic gripping story and is well produced. I look forward to all your audiobook reviews – I’m always after good new ones.
Jackie: I’ve no idea about the Hugo Cabret audio, I didn’t think of that when I grabbed the photo from Flickr
I’ve never heard of Child 44, but I’ll keep it on my list to look for when I have my next long drive home.