So, I Tried Listening To Audio Book and This Is What I Think of It

I never thought I would give a try on audio book. I believed it is not the same as reading because you actually don't hold the book on your hands. See, I was naive and being a cow. So, after all these years I finally decided to try it and I am glad I did. There are some reasons that caused my hesitation, though. First, I am not a native English speaker. Although I can understand different accents, I am still not confident enough when it comes to dialects. What if the narrator has a heavy accents that is hard to understand?

Now that I have given audio books a try, I realized that it's actually a stupid reason. Why? Because I found out that audio book narrators are carefully selected people, many of them are even real actors/actresses, they know what they're doing. It's very unlikely that they narrate it with some weird accents nobody can understand. Narrating a story also means that they also have to read dialogues between two or more people, and as an actor/actresses, it's like their daily meal. The narration is the monologue, the dialogue is the... well, dialogue. 

Second, I am into quotes. Audio book doesn't allow me to highlight a sentence to quote it later. Maybe this is the minus of audio books, but I learned to deal with it. Nothing is perfect, but it has a different way to compensate it, by being extremely convenient. What I love about audio books is you can read listen to them while you're doing your daily activity. In my case, I listen to it while at work, doing my task. Mind you, my task doesn't demand full concentration, so having my attention divided between work and book is not really a problem. This might not work if you are trying to solve a math problem or something like that.

I believe audio book is a unique beast. It has to be devoured while you are doing something. It's not like its cousin the paper book, where you can sit, read it and be happy. You don't listen to audio book while staring at the wall, do you? It's silly. Just like when people listen to music, it's usually while they're doing something, unless we're talking about concert, of course.

Oh, in my case it also means that there are some genres that suit audio version perfectly. Crime, and thriller for example. They come to life as soon as you turn it on and it also adds extra thrill which is so welcome in these genres. I also love it for chicklit as it usually light enough and don't require full concentration. I'd stay away from heavy literary fiction, if I were you. That sophisticated baby does better in printed/ebook version because it takes time digest those beautiful words. This includes a deep sigh and staring at the wall for a while (a.k.a. things I do while reading litfic)

To sum it up, audio book is indeed not the same as reading, but it's just another way to digest information out of a book. In my case, it also seems a bit nostalgic because it reminds me of my childhood, where a book was being read to me. 

I'd like to know about you. Are you a fan of audio books? What is the first audio book you try? Tell us!