As a kid there was very little I loved more than story time. Listening to someone relay tales of fascinating worlds and beloved characters was the epitome of magic. And as I've mentioned many a time I've pretty much always been a fan of out loud solo reading as well. Love hearing spoken dialogue.
But something about audio books just throw me. I've listened to quite a few of them, and it's not exactly that I don't like them, I just don't feel the same connection to the story as when I'm reading. I get distracted by line delivery choices and the voices that the reader has decided to give each character.
For instance, the other day I was road tripping it up and decided to slap the iPod on shuffle and let the music gods determine my travel soundtrack. This is something I highly recommend, especially for those of us who have some downloaded audio books. There's something oddly enjoyable about suddenly hearing one fifth of a random chapter in the middle of Ella Fitzgerald and B*Witched.
Anyway, I've both listened to and read the book that I was getting tastes of, so I can say with confidence that I enjoy the story. But, during this I wasn't thinking, Man, I want to listen to this whole thing again. Instead I just kept wondering, Why do all the male characters have Batman voice? It's not like they were interrogating criminals. In the scene I got an excerpt from they were removing a roof. Impressive, sure. But not the sort of thing you generally need a secret identity for. Of course, maybe that's not it at all and they've all just been eating gravel during coffee breaks. Who can say?
The point is, the audio books I've tried thus far haven't given me quite the experience I look for. And I would like to change that, as occasionally my enthusiastic car ride scream singing gives me a bit of a rasp. And then I'm the one with Batman voice.
To prevent any confusion in the streets of Gotham, it would be nice to break up my driving concerts with a good book. So, I'm coming to you. Suggestions for really well done audio books please! All genres welcome.
I understand what you mean. I think it's because on some level we use visual things to help us connect to a story. Reading is visual and I think to some extent we use visual cues when listening and communicating. I was reading in Scientific American this morning on how even how we process the written word via paper versus screen is different.
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