Tuesday, October 21, 2008

In Support of Audiobooks

Shelf Awareness has just added a new reviewer who will focus on “audiobooks and the audio business.” Beth Henkes introduces herself as an accidental listener:

I'm a reader. I love books: the weight of them in your hands; the sound of the pages as they are turned; the smell of the ink, no matter how long it's been there. So I suppose it's surprising that, quite by accident, I also got attached
to audiobooks.
Henkes is an audiobook fan for several good reasons:
  • Publishers have committed to the quality of their audiobook productions
  • Audiobooks enable multitasking: read while commuting, exercising, or walking the dog
  • Audiobooks have become easy to find on-line, in retail stores, and in libraries
For the same reasons, I love a good audiobook, but not every book works well in the audio format. For more, see my prior post on which types of books make for good audiobooks.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Gwen,
I have come to love audiobooks for the car, because they help me focus on something else besides road rage! Also, I double the number of books I read by not wasting the time I am on the road. But you are right, some books don't lend themselves very well to audiobooking. I wish there were broader choices for audio.

Anonymous said...

Gwen, liked your post. For another look at audiobooks, try The Baltimore Sun's Read Street blog (www.baltimoresun.com/readstreet) on Tuesdays. We feature reviews by columnist Susan Reimer, who listens to books on her daily commute. The direct link to all of her posts is: http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/books/blog/audiobooks/
Regards,
Dave of Read Street

Gwen Dawson said...

Dave, thanks for the link. Lots of good audiobook info there.

Gwen