Audiobooks and reading books question.

[Andtheworldwentwhite]

About 2019 I started listening to audiobooks. Found that I really loved them. I now get through a few a week as I listen to them while at work.

But I have found that this has stopped me reading an actual book. I have never been able to read two books at once as I just seem to get the characters mixed up. And even more so now with audiobooks and normal books. But I really miss reading a book.

I have tried to not listen to them but now I just get bored at work with nothing to listen to. As an example at work I walk three dogs but seperatly. Which takes about three hours. So three hours of just walking without a book seems unthinkable. ( addicted ? Can u be addicted to things like that? )

Anyway. Not sure what the point of this post is. Just wondered if any other audiobook listeners out there have this problem as well? I don’t watch tv and used to just read a book in the evenings.

I'm a book reader, I love reading! I tried audiobooks but I couldn't get on with them. I listen to podcasts instead, short stories/crime/factual in the daytime and read books at night 🙂📖

If it's a long book series, I switch between ebook and audio (usually on same device). So I might read one chapter on the bus, then change to audio to listen to on the walk from the bus stop. Or I might start reading on an evening, but swap to audio when my eyes get tired.

I do both and I also have an audiobook on the go with my seventeen year old that we listen to in the car and I definitely sometimes mix up what's happening!

What about listening to different genres from the books you like to read? I'm reading the new Marian Keyes and listening to a Ruth Rendell and also the club with my daughter. Which could take us four months to finish.

I’ve been doing this a bit more recently - for example with the Strike series, they’re such unnecessarily long books, so whilst I’m really invested in whether they’re ever gonna shag the story I can sometimes find them a bit of a slog to get through, but having the option to listen for a bit, usually whilst walking or travelling, then read once I’m home really helps. I also listen via Alexa whilst I’m ironing or doing other boring stuff at home.

Must have been an app update recently too as I’ve noticed the sync between kindle and audible is pretty seamless, when I’d tried in the past it didn’t always get it quite right. It’s an expensive way of doing it though, essentially buying the same book twice. I don’t mind using an audible credit on it occasionally though. I do think some books have the option to buy both at once.

I’m generally fine having two on the go, one audible and one to actually read - although my actual reading speed has slowed so dramatically in the last 5 years or so just since having DD. Unless I’m doing the same book on both like above; I’ll tend to choose two very different books so at the moment I’ve got a memoir on audible and then one of the Slow Horses series to read on Kindle.

However I also recommend podcasts for listening as an alternative to the audiobooks - similar experience but unlikely to get mixed up with whatever you’re reading. I really like History based ones, but there’s loads of great stuff out there.

Have you thought about podcasts? There are thousands to choose from, even ones which discuss books, and that would leave your reading brain for actual reading, if you wanted.

sorry, just seen pp beat me to it,

I listen to audiobooks and always have reading book on the go too. I have found it works best if they are quite different time periods/genres - eg I listened to Michelle Obama's autobiography recently and that didn't interfere with reading a mystery set in Elizabethan England. But having two historical mysteries on the go, even with different characters, doesn't work.
I would also recommend podcasts and the suggestion to try short stories is a good one

I'd like to get into podcasts.
Do you have a favourite platform?
TIA.

I think I will give podcasts a try. It’s nice to know I’m not on my own with loving audiobooks. Thanks for the ideas

I love both audiobooks and actual books. I get something different from each. A great actor can really bring a book alive and help you experience it in a whole new way. I listened to Lord of the Rings, for example, and then read it. And I’m glad I did, because the reader did a fantastic job . The Tom Bombadil chapter is astonishing when read out loud - almost overwhelming in fact.

That said, I do think some authors are better suited to audiobooks than others. The best are writers who excel at dialogue and comic characters. Dickens was made for audiobook, and so was P. G. Wodehouse, Oscar Wilde, Evelyn Waugh and Douglas Adams. My favourite is Stephen Fry reading Sherlock Holmes. Oh, and the Narnia books are wonderful as well.

Other writers, however, are less suited. They need to be read slowly and carefully. I don’t like listening to Virginia Woolf, for example, Aldous Huxley or Iris Murdoch. I’ve never read him, but I suspect Henry James would be better read than listened to as well.

I always have about eight books on the go.

I struggle with audiobooks, fine when narrated by British people or anyone with a natural voice but the weird voice over style of many American based audio books sets my teeth on edge.

On BBC sounds there are some great Podcasts I really like Dead to me - basically horrible histories for adults
Lady Killers - Lucy Worsley female true crime,
David Mitchells comedy show
There is a full version of Macbeth with David Tennant as Macbeth which is fabulous his natural accent is just perfect

I go for totally different genres. Nothing too complex for audio books as I listen a lot while driving and often miss a bit because I am concentrating on the road, so memoirs, straightforward books with just one plot strand, non-fiction (I am working my way through Bill Bryson's books at the moment).

Me too for very different genres

Sometimes non fiction for audiobooks, sometimes books I know already, sometimes trashier books - thrillers etc. Whereas my physical books tend to be more literary.

BUT the key thing is to avoid starting 2 new books at once.

I do both. Audiobooks are mainly for when I'm driving or walking. I need something where it doesn't matter if I don't follow a complicated plot too closely. I usually go for auto/biographies, especially when read by the subject.

Sometimes I'll read and listen with whisper sync, especially if it's a very long book. Nothing beats actual reading though!

I do both and agree with @OllyBJolly i tend to go for stories that don’t need as much focus in audiobooks and focus instead on the performer