Struggling with audio books

[Jellytotsburnmytongue]

I have always loved reading. Anybody who also loves reading will understand the feeling of having to put a book down to do something else that needs to be done.

My friend always tells me how much she loves to listen to her audio books as she is cleaning, driving etc.. I thought this sounds ideal, I'll try listening to audio books while doing other things.

But no matter how much I try I can't focus on audio books! The only way I can describe it is to say it's almost like I don't follow the story as I'm too busy trying to remember what they are saying. I don't have that issue when I read at all, and can just speed read through books and follow the story.

Does anybody else find they have this issue with audio books or am I just weird 😳

Not just you.

No, not just you! I find it harder to follow storylines and remember who all the characters are, not an issue i have with an actual book (well, not usually!). I do think it partly depends on what I'm doing while listening though, and my frame of mind.
I listened to Hilary Mantel' s Wolf Hall in the car while commuting to a stressful job a few years ago- not a clue what was going on! But i really enjoyed listening to a Rebecca Wait book last year while mainly walking in the park ...
A quick poll of my book group reveals very similar feelings...

Not just you! I really can't get to grips.

It's a bit like when you watch the film of a book and the characters are nothing at all like you've imagined.

Hearing someone else's voice read doesn't sound like the reading does in my head.

Not just you, if I am driving and get to somewhere a bit difficult the part of my brain listening to the book shuts it off. Then I hear a new character, think where she come from? Rewind go back to something I remember and resume, maybe 10 mins. The only way to get through some of those 'books you should have read'. For me it is Dickens.

I have to sit and do absolutely nothing to fully listen to them which kind of defeats the purpose of them. I may as well just pick up a book.
My mind wanders if I do anything else and I miss too much to keep up with the story.

I'm the same, I hear but I don't listen

I’ve tried them on my commute but really can’t get into them.

I always hated people reading to me as a child as well (much preferred made up stories or to just read the book myself). I wonder if there’s a connection there?

Same here. I can‘t concentrate on a book while doing something else. Lots of people do but in the end it is down to personal preference I think.

It also depends a lot on the narrator, some will put you to sleep and some will make you forget to take the right turn when driving.

Totally agree! My commute has recently more than doubled so I signed up for the Audible free trial but I just can't focus on what is being said. They are talking but i'm just not listening.

Also if I try the sample chapter and don't like the voice of the reader it puts me off completely.

I'm going to stick to podcasts, I don't seem to have trouble focusing on them for some reason.

I like listening to audiobooks when walking but not so much when driving and definitely not when engaged in a task like housework - I find it too hard to concentrate when I’m doing something else.

The narrator makes a huge
difference. I listened to two books in a series and they were great, the narrator changed for the third and it was too jarring as the characters then sounded wrong.

You could try listening to books you’ve already read and enjoy or try chatty podcasts. It might be that it’s just not your thing.

I think it's hard but can be something you get used to. I tend to listen to Woman's Hour and an audio book when I do long dog walks. I found some narrators can be an instant turn off, but on the whole if you aren't doing anything taxing it can be just like listening to the radio. I did "work my way up" to audio books by listening to My Dad Wrote A Porno - Belinda Blinks - it's a very silly but highly amusing podcast that tipped me into using podcasts and audio books in general.

I found them boring and unable to concentrate until I sped them up - I listen to them at 1.5 x times the original speed, sometimes 1.3 times - try that as an idea - adjust in the settings.

If I wear ear pods I don’t have any problem. Apart from falling asleep.

Not just you. I love audiobooks for dull work, walking etc, but I choose lighter reads for audiobooks than for actual reading. I often have both on the go at the same time. Audiobooks I choose as much from what the narrator sounds like as how interesting the story is. A narrator can totally kill a book, if you don't enjoy how they sound.

If you want to try something different and have audible, there are loads of series of The Unbelievable Truth in the audible plus catalogue.

I'm so glad I'm not alone. I felt my friend thought I was making it up as she loves her audible. I honestly thought I'd love audio books too until I tried them.

Before jumping into audible I joined the library app to try the audio books out there first.

The strange thing is I can listen to documentaries on BBC sounds no problem, it seems to just be audio books.

There a few good ideas that have been mentioned to try and see if I can overcome the difficulty in listening to them. Thank you for all the ideas I'll give them a try ☺️

Me too..I love reading but cannot focus on an audio book..my mind wanders.

There are some podcasts I love though...particularly enjoying uncanny ..love a spooky story

I'm not a fan of audiobooks for this reason, but I do like podcasts. I think because that feels more like a conversation and it doesn't tend to matter so much if you miss bits of it, whereas books I like to be able to go back and reference etc, I like to feel like I'm "experiencing" every word.

Even for podcasts though there are only certain activities that I can concentrate with. My hands and eyes have to be busy, but I can't be "thinking to myself". So for example, I can wash up or fold clothes while listening to a podcast, but I can't sort the DC's outgrown clothes to sell or have a clear out that involves making decisions.

I can focus while sitting on a tram/bus on a route I know really well, but if I'm going somewhere new I can't focus on the podcast while trying to figure out which stop I'm at now and how close I am to mine. I can listen while walking along but I can't browse in a shop.

The opposite is also true that if I have nothing to do with my hands and/or eyes then I'll find something to focus on instead and then this sort of distracts my brain into the new activity and then I can't listen to the podcast.

I really want to be able to read non-fiction, but I just can’t. I read fiction all the time, and quickly, but I can’t get past about chapter 2 of non-fiction. I find I can listen to them (on Spotify, where audiobooks are now free with a premium subscription so it was no risk to try it out!). Maybe that would work for you? I also like podcasts so was pretty confident it would work.

I can only listen to comedians’ autobiographies on audiobook. Anything with a plot is impossible for me to concentrate on on audio.

I don’t ’get’ Audible, and only borrow audiobooks from Borrowbox (local lending library app). Audible seems expensive and doesn’t really seem worth it for me personally.

That's how I first got into audiobooks, ones I'd read so I didn't have to work out what was going on!

Totally agree that the narrator/s can really make the experience - whether lifting the book or ruining it 😁