Audio Obsession #1. What stops you from listening to audiobooks? (Part 1)

Audio Obsession

Audio Obsession is a feature where I spread my love for audiobooks around blogosphere. Here you’ll see all things audio related.

What stops you from listening to audiobooks?

I love audio format. So it really pains me to know that many of my fellow booklovers don’t listen to audiobooks. What stops people? I’ve come across several reasons; today I’m going to discuss them. On Wednesday I plan to post Part 2, where we’ll continue this discussion.

Audiobooks are so long, I don’t have time.

I agree audiobooks are long. An average length of an audiobook is about twelve hours. You can read a book faster. But look at this from another angle. You can listen on those occasions, when you don’t have an opportunity to read. You can listen while driving, cleaning, cooking, working-out, etc. Audiobooks help to make even dreadful choirs bearable and maybe even enjoyable.

Example from my real life.

I hate ironing. So much so, that while choosing clothes to buy I ask myself if it would be easy to iron this garment. If not I wouldn’t buy it. Here is my story: I needed to iron a big pile of clothes and my mood wasn’t cheerful. Then I put my ear buds in and started Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty. The story was so engaging, that I finished ironing in no time.

I know some people speed-up, so they can get through the audiobook quicker. I don’t do this. I feel like I would lose something special if I increase the speed. I LISTEN. I like to hear different intonations, pauses. I want to absorb emotions in narrator’s voice. It’s hard to do if you speed up.

I’ve listened to one audiobook, it was awful. I think audiobooks are not for me.

I hear this phrase a lot. It’s funny really, because people don’t say “reading is not for me” after they’ve read one or two bad books. My advice: if you’ve listened one or two audiobooks and didn’t like them, pick up another one. Just be pickier in your choice. Choose a book you are really interested in. Not some random audiobook that you can borrow from your friend or a family member or a book that happened to be available in your local library. It should be a book you want to read. Then make your research: read reviews about audio version of this book; find information about the narrator, is he or she good; listen to an audio sample. This way you increase chances to find an audiobook that would work for you.

Audiobooks are expensive.

This is true. Audiobooks are expensive. I’m fortunate that I can afford to buy them, but I understand that it can be an issue for many readers. There are ways to purchase audiobooks for low prices or even listen them for free.

Lovely Rachel from Reader’s Den is my guest today. Here her tips how to safe your money.

1. Borrow and download audio books for free through your library. Use your library card to sign into the Overdrive application on your phone or iPad. You can also borrow e-books as well, and have them delivered to your electronic reading device. You usually only have 14-21 days to complete the book.

2. Subscribe to the Audible Daily Deal. Every day they have a book discounted from the normal price. Usually $3.95 or $4.95 compared to $14.95 and higher. Audible also runs sales from time to time so it's good to be part of their mailing list.

3. Look for e-book/audiobook sale combos on Amazon. A lot of times if there is an audio version of the book you can buy the e-copy and get the audio version with it for a highly reduced rate.

Example:
The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop by Carolyn Brown is $4.99 for the e-copy and for an additional $1.99 you can add the audio version. This is nice when you want to switch back and forth from e-copy and audio version. I've done this with a lot of the Kate Daniels and Mercy Thompson series.

So tell me, do you listen to audiobooks? If not, what stops you? Have I convinced you to pick up an audiobook?