DC Public Library discussion

Hello everyone and happy July!

It’s a great time of year for road trips and travel, and to many readers, that means audiobooks!

So this month, let’s chat about the art of listening to our books, rather than reading them.

Are you an audiobook listener? If not, why not? If so, do you care a lot about the reader or is a story the same story no matter its format? What do you consider the strengths and weaknesses of the format?

You can also join us in reading an audiobook and discussing its merits. We have some selections below, or check out our audiobook bookshelf. Keep in mind, this is a format rather than a genre, so you can read (or listen to, rather) any sort of book you like!

2013 Audie Award Winners (annual USA award for outstanding audiobooks)
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene, read by Colin Firth
I Suck at Girls by Justin Halpern, read by Sean Schemmel
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, read by Kate Rudd
The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff, read by Simon Vance
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker, read by Emily Janice Card
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter, read by Edoardo Ballerini

Read by the author (often a special treat)
Bossypants by Tina Fey
Naked by David Sedaris
Yes, Chef: A Memoir by Marcus Samuelsson
How to Be Black by Baratunde Thurston
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
When It Happens to You: A Novel in Stories by Molly Ringwald

Here are some more things to think about: Are you listening a book that you’ve previously read? How do the two experiences compare? Where do you listen to books? In the car? On the metro? While folding the laundry or working out?

“Talking Books” were invented in the 1930s and marketed to blind readers, but they’ve really taken off with a mainstream audience since the 1980s. Let us know if you’ll be listening to any audiobooks this month, and let’s discuss this relatively new - though people have been reading aloud for as long as they have been reading - format.

As for me, I'm currently trying to track down Colin Firth's reading of "The End of the Affair" because, well, it is Colin Firth! Plus, I've never read any Graham Greene and have been meaning to.

I'm a huge audiobook fan -- although I have to admit that podcasts have cut deeply into my listening time in the few years. I generally listen to them while doing chores like dishes, laundry, yardwork, or if I'm in the car by myself, or sometimes just walking around.

What I've found over the years is that I really prefer plot-based audiobooks, as opposed to ones where language or style is important. Since I'm always doing something else while listening to an audiobook, I can't pay enough attention to do justice to stylish prose. Same thing with regard to nonfiction -- I can't absorb the material properly in audio form.

So I end up mainly listening to either genre books (mysteries, thrillers, sci-fi, historical fiction) or classics (I did War and Peace and Don Quixote on audio). In general, I will listen to books that I wouldn't otherwise read -- partly because the selection just isn't as good, but also because if I'm really psyched about a book, I want to get the full reading experience.

My go-to audio author is Elmore Leonard -- if you've never checked him out, try Raylan, which follows US Marshall Raylen Givens as he gets into wacky hi-jinks in Kentucky. (Some of the plotlines in the book have made it into various parts of the TV show based on the character, "Justified" -- but there's plenty that hasn't.)

Tony wrote: "What I've found over the years is that I really prefer plot-based audiobooks..."

I couldn't agree more with you, Tony. I don't listen to audiobooks often but when I do they need to have a good amount of suspense and intrigue or I find that my brain moves on to other things. The Woods, by Harlan Coben always comes to my mind when I think about this, too. The plot was amazing.

I like to listen to audiobooks on the way to work or when I am going to be walking around a lot. It's hard for me to focus on the story if I am doing anything too strenuous. I normally choose a book that I would probably read otherwise. I think the narrator really makes a huge difference. Books that are written from multiple perspectives are a favorite of mine, in particular, I really enjoyed The Poisonwood Bible as read by Dean Robertson. Frank Mueller's reading of The Great Gatsby was also exceptional. It sounded as though he were sitting in Jay Gatsby's library and smoking a cigar.

Tony & Mike,
I agree about suspense-filled, plot-driven audiobooks being the best for listening. James Patterson's Cross Country and The Informationist by Taylor Stevens were two of my favorite audiobook listening experiences, even though if I were to read the books I'd probably put them down due to the awful prose. In fact, it seems like a good reader can make up for bad writing, or at least make it less noticeable.

Allison,
You are so right about the narrator! Do you find yourself getting attached to any narrators or only associating them with a certain work? Jim Dale is known for doing an AMAZING job with the Harry Potter series, which I must admit I listened to more than once. However, when I tried to listen to "the Night Circus," which he also reads, I was too disconcerted by hearing his voice in an out-of-Harry-Potter context to finish the book.
The reader can really hurt a book too! I thought I didn't like The Yiddish Policemen's Union after I listened to it, but I think it must have been the narrator's annoying voice, since when I read it a few years later, I LOVED it!

Also, Tony, "Justified" is one of my very favorite shows, if not my favorite. Will I like Raylan if I really want to keep Raylan Givens as Timothy Olyphant in my mind? Also, wouldn't it have been amazing if they could have gotten an actor from the show to read the book?

I love listening to audiobooks in my car during my commute. It's generally more entertaining than listening to the radio.

The person who reads the book is important, especially if it isn't the author. I prefer it when an author reads their own book, like Neil Gaiman does. I tried two times to start reading The Graveyard Book on my own and never made it past the second chapter, yet when I put in the audiobook, I couldn't wait to drive so I could listen to more of the story.

If by the end of the first CD the story hasn't grabbed me, half of the time it's because of the person reading the story, sometimes it's the story itself.

I don't usually do audiobooks because I don't have a car, but I love listening on road trips!
I think great audiobooks are the Harry Potter JK Rowling novels. These are fun to listen to over and over again because there are so many wonderful little details that you can pick up on each time you read or listen to the books.
Recently on a road trip, I listened toGone Girl, which I enjoyed because they had two separate readers for Nick and Amy's chapters. Since I hadn't read this before listening to the audiobook, I couldn't wait to get back in the car and turned it on! I think mysteries are definitely good for audiobooks because the suspense will keep you listening.

Megan wrote: "Recently on a road trip, I listened to Gone Girl, which I enjoyed because they had two separate readers for Nick and Amy's chapters..."

Thanks for your review about Gone Girl, Megan. I've heard so many good reviews about this book. I think that listening to the audiobook may be the best way for me to finally cross it off my list. Approximately how lone did it take you to complete?

It was about 16 or 17 hours...15 discs if I remember correctly. It goes fast though, since the narrators change (giving you a break from one person's voice) and the suspense will drive you crazy!

I'm a huge Gone Girl fan - that book seriously made me remember why I love to read in the first place. Read it! Or listen to it! My only issue with the audiobook would be (hypothetically, since I didn't listen to it) the fact that it is SUCH a page turner and you basically want to read it as fast as possible, whereas an audiobook necessarily slows things down a bit. Then again, it might be the perfect distraction for a long ride. But I imagine that listening to it for an hour a day on a commute or something like that would be torture.

My new favorite discovery is how easy it is to listen to e-audiobooks on my smartphone!

I love audio, but since I don't drive it isn't easy to listen to books on disc--despite the fact that I might be the only person in the world who still owns (and uses!) a Discman.

And if I just listen at home on my computer, I often don't have time to finish before the due date.

So audio books on my phone are the perfect solution--I've had a smartphone for awhile, but the one I had until recently didn't have enough memory for audio books. This one does!

Erin, I totally agree! Most audiobooks that I've listened to have been on my phone. I think I listened to the entire Harry Potter series on my phone while riding the Circulator one summer (after reading it more than once, of course)!

I downloaded the audie-award-winning Colin Firth narration of The End of the Affair from Audible.com. Anyone who listens to podcasts knows how easy it is to get a free trial from Audible ;)

It was wonderful and beautiful but waaaay too depressing for me, and I realized that whenever I listened to it, it would put me in a really bad mood, moreso than if I had been reading the same book, I think.

It seems like listening to audiobooks affects me more emotionally than reading books - at least the sadder ones. Maybe listening rather than reading makes it seem more real and less fictional? Or hearing a human voice makes it seem more personal? I also know I'm more likely to laugh out loud at a funny audiobook than a funny book that I'm reading. Anyone else experience this?

A few years ago, I tried audiobooks and hated them! I couldn't focus on the plots during my commute to work. This year, I decided to give them a try again. I found that non-fiction "how-to" books were perfect to listen to while I did monotonous tasks like uploading huge files to my department's shared drive or preparing formed documents. I could listen and ACTUALLY multi-task! I take notes as well so if something seemed of interest, I would rewind and quickly jot down/type notes. Now I prefer to listen to non-fiction "how-to" books rather than reading them.