Anyone else not able to read audiobooks?

[Lonesomefetter]

I just can't do it, even books I have read before. My mind just wanders, really odd.

Same. I can’t make images from them, the meaning is diluted, all I can focus on is the sound of the voice which slowly becomes a wall of sound kind of dirge. I find being spoken at very irritating.

Really dislike audio books, it's like I haven't read it at all - I can't remember anything.

I read very fast and tend to skip boring bits so I think it's just too different to how I read naturally. My MIL reads incredibly slowly and likes audiobooks.

Me too!

Exactly the same here.

I only listen to foreign fiction (in the foreign language) and non-fiction. I don't like listening to fiction in English. I can. I just don't like to!

I listened to The Goldfinch once on holiday. I had to have it sped up, otherwise I’d have drowned myself.

Thank goodness - I thought it was just me! I have to keep going back and re listening as I zone out and miss loads.

I'm the opposite. I love audio books so much that I rarely pick up a book now. The narrator is very important.

Eleanor Oliphant is brilliantly read by Cathleen McCarron - don't think the character would have come to life if I'd read it myself.

And I love Steven Pacey's narration.

I can only listen to non-fiction. I bought one about The Beatles thinking it was 43 mins long and would do for my commute to work. It was going on a bit so I double checked - turned out to be 43 HOURS! Really enjoying it though.

Same here. I have got credits building up on Audible and am thinking about cancelling it as just haven't been able to concentrate on listening. Apart from with the Shardlake series of books, which I devoured, and didn't miss a word.

But just remembered they were the dramatised versions, so more atmospheric and engaging than books just read out loud.

I think the trick is to be a captive audience, so they are brilliant for motorway journeys, while decorating or doing other jobs that don't occupy the mind.

I can manage them on long car journeys if I’m driving but fall asleep if I’m a passenger and can’t be doing with them otherwise at all.
Like a PP, I have to see a text to make sense of it. DH has a habit of wanting to read stuff out to me, either from emails or the BBC news website. I always say “Let me see it!” and he really doesn’t get it but my mind doesn’t process words at that pace .. I have to read it myself.
Non fiction seems to work better and I’m on the third volume of Simon Dharma’s History of the World. But only on motorway journeys .. and only the chunks when I’m actually the driver. I have a very patchy grasp of what happened in some periods

I need them on at least 1.75 speed - usually x2 or over so I don't just zone out (I frequently wish I could speed people up in real life as it's so hard listening to them speak so slowly /to stay focused!)

but they go into an entirely different part of my brain than reading does and I only really like them for fairly silly nonsense.

I can listen if I'm driving or washing up or something but can't just sit and listen because I end up picking up my phone and scrolling and then I don't take the story in

Another one who can only listen if I'm doing something like driving, cooking or tidying.

I'm fairly new to Audible and have generally enjoyed it. The 68 hours of A Suitable Boy is a slog though!

Very curious about people saying they can cope if the speech is speeded up. Must give this a try, I'd love to be able to listen to audio books.

I can listen to autobiographies in audio books and often do when I go for a walk but can't listen to novels at all.

I was adamant that I wouldn't listen to audiobooks but then Jarvis Cocker wrote Good Pop Bad Pop and how could I resist having him read it? Then Patrick Stewart, reading his autobiography, and by the time I'd finished them, I was hooked. I'm onto my second fiction book by now and am loving it. At this rate, I'll forget how to read books! I especially adore them on my long train journeys and in bed

Like others, I can only listen if I am doing something else like housework, walking or supervising my children at the park for instance. If I'm still, my mind wanders too much, even when driving.

I find it easier to focus if I increase the speed as it occupies my mind and takes more concentrtion. I never listen on less that x1.5.

Audiobooks drive me mad. They read sooooo slowly. Also, I hate not being to flick back and forth or re- read a passage with ease if someone interrupts or the mind wanders. That being said, I do currently have an audiobook on the go that I am somewhat enjoying, so maybe I'm getting used to it!

Be aware that if you cancel your subscription you lose any credits that you still have. I think this is bloody outrageous but it’s what happens. 🤬. You need to spend them first and then cancel.

I'm the same. I can't follow novels on audio, I just zone out too much. The only genre where I think it works is in autobiography.

I only listen when I'm doing housework or have insomnia. It has to be a good narrator. The strike novels are excellent on audiobooks. I also much prefer British narrators. The American typewriter voices you get for some novels are awful.