My Year Trying Audio Books

So this year for the first time I decided to give audio books a whirl. Generally speaking watching Booktubers and such that’s how a lot of people seem to get so much reading done and they tend to rave about the ease of audio books.

Not the case for me. I tried several this year and while I wound up liking the books (usually) I think audio books were a big fat fail for me.

I read:

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland which was probably my favorite and the easiest to get through.

There was also Armada narrated by Will Wheaton.

Along with:

Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton & Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

&

Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson

Which I’m currently reading and have been for several weeks not because of the book but because I apparently just do not mix with audio books…

1. I forget the I even have them. Seriously, I don’t even know why I forget about them because I loaded audible on my phone and my Touch both of which I use a lot and it’s just like the books completely skip my mind for weeks at a time and when I do remember them I’m never in the mood to listen to them.

2. Listening to Books- My Mind Goes to the Clouds I usually don’t have any problem paying attention during a book. But listening to them?  I would just disappear somewhere else and lose whole chapters that I would have to go back and listen to again.

And again.

And again.

Hearing a characters voice presented to me doesn’t work so well as making it up myself. Which is kind of weird because I don’t think that I’ve ever been truly bothered by a movie adaption where I’m not only getting a voice but a visual. It’s an all or nothing thing with me I suppose.

3. Narration

Honestly, even narration that I did overall like (like Scarlet Johansson reading Alice) wore on me and all the voices started to sound alike at the end. The narration in Rebel of the Sands and Armada was perfectly fine but didn’t even try that hard to differentiate the voices.

Then you had Salt to the Sea. I got that one on audible because it was four separate narrators and all of them were fine on their own but then I ran into things like the voices they were doing for the other characters didn’t even sound close and the one female character, Joana, would get so over the top (especially doing the other voices) at times it would drive me nuts.

I think the best narration for me has been Jenny Lawson in Furiously Happy, which is of course her book and the story of her life.

So all in all, audio books really didn’t work out all that well for me. It was fun to try and audible was a good deal. $14.95 a month and you get one free book. Considering it took me an average of six-weeks to get through everything after Alice I always had a credit after I was done. But I did wind up canceling my subscription. They do kindly however let you continue to have access to whatever library you’ve amassed.