Mine is simply this: I'm not going near them, because listening isn't reading.
Now usually I am very open minded about pretty much everything; genres, formats, publishers but when it comes to the audiobook format, I just can't do it.
The Taste of Apple review recently went up and it was a multi-media novel, with music accompanying the words and occasionally, the words being read too. Now as you know I really enjoyed the experience, the added dimension of sound with the visual created by the words on the page, but it got me thinking about audio books as well.
And I came to this conclusion: Listening isn't reading. Listening to a story is fine, I'm not saying that it's wrong, but I just can't do it. If I'm listening to something I have to concentrate on I will usually close my eyes to visualise, so as soon as there's a lull in the story...I'll probably go to sleep.
Harry Potter for example was and still is one of my favourite series of all time, I will never get sick of it even during the many re-reads and movie marathons. But when I had a copy of the audio books as a young teenager I used to literally use it as my bed time story to help get past my insomnia.
I couldn't listen to it for more than 10 minutes without going to sleep.
I suppose for me sound isn't a strong sense in the way of visualising things. Being a muso of sorts and having very accurate pitch when I think sound, I think music...not stories.
I wouldn't have been good around the times before books, when stories were passed down by word of mouth...I would have been asleep through most of them.
What about you?
