Quote:
Originally Posted by SeaBookGuy
For the first time I can remember, I gave up on the audio version of a book (which I'd paid for from Audible), and switched to the print (library e-book) - a non-fiction book that was too dense to continue listening, but
I wanted to skim through to the end. I couldn't imagine going back and forth between the print and audio versions of a book.
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yeah, I have had the same sense from the samples I have listened to of some non-fiction books. Certain books just don't lend themselves to audio as entertainment. However I find the biographies I've purchased excellent experiences. In these cases I likely will never buy the book versions but ya never know. There are two I really enjoyed, one was about Einstein and the other Oppenheimer. Don't have the exact title names handy but the readers add a lot to the well written books. I doubt anyone would be bored reading the books even after listening to the audiobook version.
I find even some fiction, especially SF, can be tedious listens if there are long detailed sections of details that really are best read than listened to. I think part of that is my mind tends to wander when listening to an audiobook as I am usually busy with something else, like posting on a message board,
so I need to listen to the book a few times to get everything.
Pandora's Star is example of a SF book so detail dense that the listen is often overwhelming but I was also reading the book at the same time so the audio and written word reinforced the story lines, and there are a LOT of story lines in Pandora's Star.
But this sort of thing is why I could see a company like Amazon, as they own Audible anyway, at least trying out the idea of the audio & ebook bundle or even an option for a discount on either the audio version or the ebook version, depending on the Price Fix 5 Cartel's mood at the moment. I just see it as a way to add value to a lot of people who already do buy both or to expose people who would never thought of an audiobook version thanks to having to live with the hassle of cassette tape recordings with a dozen, or more, tapes. But if they can have just the content sent to either their computer media player (which also manages the content on your MP3 player), ebook device, iTunes (supported by Audible) might be attractive to a nice subset of readers.
I think one reason I enjoy audiobooks so much is I never have been much of a listen to music all the time sort of person. So audiobooks fill the void for background noise when I quickly get tired of any music I might have playing.