Discovering Audiobooks

I’m not someone to change her habits lightly. I find it easier to have my habits which do not require of me to think along with what I’m doing - which allows for me to think of other things, such as my stories, instead. It took me quite a while to shift from mostly printed books to e-books, even though now I wouldn’t want to miss my digital library, which is extremely useful for someone who goes through books as fast as I do. Very, very recently, I also decided to try out audiobooks.

I’ve never really gotten into books on CD, which was the early version of the audiobook. Having to change CDs regularly while listening to a story over hours didn’t really appeal to me much. Modern audiobooks are, of course, still very long, but they come in digital form and I can listen to them on my smartphone, on my PC, or on the Fire tablet (which will also partially replace my slightly damaged Paperwhite). The apps take care of keeping in mind where I’ve left off, so listening to a book over the course of, say, a week is not much of a problem. I can continue precisely where I’ve stopped before - although I try to listen in full chapters, because that means less thinking about what just happened before that sentence.

My first buy was “The Brothers Cabal”, which I got quite a bit cheaper, because I already own the e-book from Amazon. I have read this book several times already, so it’s not as if the story itself is new to me, but I certainly did underestimate what a good voice-actor or actor can do with the text. Listening to the guy who reads the book is just amazing; he brings the characters to life with his voice alone.

It’s also about the entertainment factor, though. I can’t listen to an audiobook while writing, of course, but I also enjoy computer games. Playing Viscera Cleanup Detail, House Flippers, or a casual time management game while I listen to an audiobook? Heaven. I really slip into the zone with VCD and a good audiobook. I listened to the first four hours of “The Brothers Cabal” in one go, well into the evening, simply enjoying myself. They were fun, there was nothing on TV, and I wasn’t writing, either, because I had back troubles and needed to walk around regularly. With a TV series, that would have left me with only half the information, but an audiobook is easy to listen to while you’re walking around your living room.

That doesn’t mean I will stop reading books, of course, but I can now see the draw audiobooks have for people. If you travel a lot by car or by train or by bus, if you have a long waiting time ahead of you, or just whenever you need a break - an audiobook can definitely help there. If you have weak eyes, the audiobook is a way to enjoy the story without too much of a hassle, too. I’ve always carried a book with me when I was travelling (later on my e-reader) and I have a tendency to listen to music while I’m out for a walk (which I should do more often for health reasons). An audiobook can replace the music for me, since I never turn the music up too much and am quite capable of listening while I’m on my way without being blind to my surroundings.

As a matter of fact, my parents one Christmas gave me a book on tape when I was a small kid. For weeks, my dad secretly recorded one of my favourite children’s book chapter by chapter on an array of cassette tapes (it was in the late 70s), so I could listen to him reading my favourite book when his job made it impossible for him to be home in time to read to me himself. Yes, he did that whenever he came home in time, which was most of the time, luckily.

My dad was good at reading me stories in an interesting way, just as the professional narrators on Audible are good at reading the stories in an interesting way. Well, they are better - but then, they have training for it, my dad did not.

I’m really looking forward to one more option for my evening in bed with an audiobook whenever I feel a little too tired for reading. Or just to curling up on the couch and listening when I’m not in the mood for reading or just want to close my eyes for a bit. It’ll be a little like it was in my childhood when my dad would read me to sleep at night.

I’ve had a time when I listened to radio dramas for the same reason, but audiobooks are better - with only one person talking, even if they ‘do all the voices,’ it’s closer to my childhood experience. There’s also no music and sound effects to distract me. Radio dramas are fine and can be a lot of fun to listen to, but I prefer the story and the voice of the narrator only, please.

On the other hand, I’m now wondering whether at some point my own stories might become audiobooks as well. It would be cool to have them read in a good voice, but currently I’m self-publishing and that means I don’t have the means to get them done. It depends on the future of my books. If I can ever afford it or have an offer from a creator of audiobooks to do them, I will definitely allow it.

If not, the only time they get read out loud will continue to be during my editing process - which is soon going to start anew, since “Alex Dorsey” will be coming out at the end of February.

Audiobooks aren’t something which you can listen to in one go - they’re several hours long, even if the stories are relatively short as you read them. On the other hand, they’re also something you can look forward to as a reward or just as a bit of comfort during a hectic day.