MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - E-books vs audiobooks, which do you love more?

f00l · 05-26-2008, 03:51 PM

Thanks to everyone who replied about audiobooks and e-books.

I want to hear from more people, if anyone else is interested.

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AUDIO

I have Sirius as well as an Ipod. For radio, I'm a big fan of the news and music channels on Sirius, as well as Howard Stern. For local radio, we are fortunate to have an excellent NPR station and an excellent publicly-owned classical station, as well as 2 good college stations (if you happen to be within 20 yards of the campuses, else you can't pick them up.) With the exception of an amazing PM-drive time talk guy here (Russ Martin), the rest of local radio can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico, except for the environmental impact of all that bad radio on the Gulf.

In the mornings, I drive a LOT; many hours each day. I go back and forth between Stern and audiobooks depending on mood, not enough time for both.

Regarding the cost of audiobooks: If audible.com has what you want, and you have a compatible player, you're all set. Take a subscription, and you can get almost anything for under $14 or so per book, and they have sales. Unfortunately, they don't have some of my favorites. Those I buy used, at Half Price Books, or off Ebay or Amazon when I find a good price, which can mean a lot of patience. Or if you're OK with the moral issues and legal risk, there are the various p2p networks. I am queasy about that approach. Seems the author should get his/her $.

As delighted as I was when I realized my Palm would play audiobooks (and audible files, which can be downloaded from audible.com thru any cellular carrier directly to the device), the capacity and sound options are too limited. I have more than 100 G of audiobooks on my Ipod. A decent audio library aka a security blanket for bad traffic days.

I have to weigh the worth of audiobooks differently than print *anything*. Audiobooks take linear time, no skimming....and the choice of narrator matters immensely. If I am interested in a book on audio, that book had better be worth the time investment for the unabridged version. I don't bother with abridged fiction at all, and rarely buy unabridged non-fiction (except good history or something from a writer noted for literary qualities).

Lesser authors and most non-fiction can be read on the page (or skimmed, or skipped around during the read) in a fraction of the time investment of audio, and that is all the time I will give to something I don't love or revere. So, for me, an audiobook has to have great narration and it has be a book I would not be without. That said, a wonderful audio recording can newly re-create and enhance the quality of a beloved book or series. Several examples of well-known writers follow:

I read all the Harry Potter books before I listened to the audio. I loved them in print. I then listened to the Jim Dale audio recordings, and now I prefer those to the page, tho I still love the physical act of reading those books....Mr Dale is able to give each character such a unique voice and inflection that I now can't imagine them feeling *right* with another narrator's vocal stylings. Perhaps I would have loved Stephen Fry's UK HP recordings best had I heard them first, and they are very good. But I was already familiar with Mr Fry's multi-faceted presence in UK broadcast media, and perhaps also for that reason, my identification of Fry's reading with HP was diluted.

As for Tolkien.....I am not such an aficionado as actor Christopher Lee, who has read The Hobbit and the LOTR series yearly for decades. But I lucked into a used copy of the unabridged Rob Inglis recordings years ago at Half Price Books. Once again, despite repeated re-readings over the years (perhaps once a decade; sorry Mr Lee, I don't measure up to your devotion :>) Mr Inglis's version gave me the stories anew. If you have the patience for Tolkien, the unabridged audio can make you glad you took every phrase slowly, even the `light-weight' hobbit songs and so forth. It turns out that Mr Tolkien was quite the subtle stylist; even in his passages describing geography and flora. Mr. Inglis's recordings are entrancing, and worth the time they take.

I have loved John Le Carre's books ever since I first found a copy of The Spy Who Came In From the Cold. Recently, again, in a Half Price Books store, I lucked into one of the Chivers Audio (BBC/UK) unabridged recordings with narration by the British actor Michael Jayston. These were never commercially on sale in the US except for mail order AFAIK. Once I discovered these versions, I starting buying copies of all the Le Carre books narrated by Mr Jayston. I got many of them from Ebay, a few from Amazon, and a few from the publisher, and I have perhaps 3-4 titles to go, since they are expensive. Unfortunately, audible.com has other editions, which are decent and much cheaper, but not competitive in quality to the Chivers versions IMHO.

Mr Jayston's reading of the "Quest for Karla" series blew me away. Especially in the conversations between the major characters, I would listen to a passage again and again, and each time understand more of the explosive and tightly confined emotional, social and political subtext. I had managed to gather only a surface of understanding while reading the same words on the page. I had always admired the author. I think I gravely underestimated him. And Mr. Jayston's readings expressed vocally the full measure I had been too much in a hurry to appreciate when reading print.

I now have a new theory now of why Le Carre's never really `done' a major American character in most of his works. Le Carre's understanding of the English mindset and its political and social confines, as conveyed in his fiction, is so subtle and delicate that perhaps he can't write a character from a culture outside his own with the same depth of understanding and consequence. He sees the British mind from the inside, perhaps, and he sees the American mind from the outside. I have been told that the writer Charles McCarry is able to do something similar to Le Carre in an American vein. I have purchased McCarry's existing audio library from audible, and intend to start on him when I finish my audio Le Carre library.

The best audiobooks have given me a new appreciate for what a gifted actor can do with great source material. I would not do without them.

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E-BOOKS AND PRINT

Computers and the internet have gotten in the way of my reading more than my other habits over the years. I spend so much time online now, I've gotten in the habit of setting books and magazines aside for `later'. I sit down at the keyboard, and I'm lost for hours, the whole world is standing just behind www.google.com, and I can't tear myself from it. Reversing that habit is one reason I'm shopping for an E-Book device. If books were always with me, I might regain the addiction I had growing up, with the thousands of books I had then. I would love to use the Reader for every spare moment, the way I now use the Ipod. I'd have a better mind, no doubt, and sound less like someone trying to complete and pass an entrance exam to hell.

I used to cover such a breadth of writers and topics, and of course, with audiobooks, you can't, unless you've mastered time-travel. (Hermione, anyone?) I miss that.

I need an E-book device so I can stop feeling starved.

I might go for a Kindle just because I could possibly wheedle one out of a family member. :> Then I could just go for the upgrade treadmill when I got frustrated.

---------------------------

Is pbook shorthand for paperback?

Specific replies:

Thanks for the rec. to podiobooks and Starshipsofa, will check them out.

To Elsi, who might live near Denton: I just purchased some of the "Ladies #1 Detective Agency" series from Half Price Books; you have motivated me to get to them.

To Cassidym: I believe there are water-proof mp3 players, and Otterbox makes several very protective coverings for the Ipod. I think one of the Otterbox cases is supposed to be waterproof to the point that you can swim with an Ipod, if you're willing to test that. I know there are various waterproof headsets. I wonder if someone makes a waterproof bluetooth headset for swimming? If you were close enough, the mp3 player could stay ashore with one of those. I know various companies make underwater speakers you could hook any audio source to if you own the pool....

To daffy4u: what is free time? Can you buy that used on Ebay or at a garage sale?

Again, thanks. The people and threads here are great.

Bad weekend.....2 trips to Frys already, a Half Price Books visit, and now I'm convinced I'll die without an E-book reader. That, or back to the daily entrance exam to the dark site of the force. You are all to blame.

f00l (of a typist)

05-26-2008, 03:51 PM	#13
f00l aka bad typist Posts: 29 Karma: 197836 Join Date: May 2008 Location: Republic of Texas Device: Oasis, iphones, android, old kindles, fire phoned	Audiobooks vs E-books and how it all changed your life :> Thanks to everyone who replied about audiobooks and e-books. I want to hear from more people, if anyone else is interested. ----------- AUDIO I have Sirius as well as an Ipod. For radio, I'm a big fan of the news and music channels on Sirius, as well as Howard Stern. For local radio, we are fortunate to have an excellent NPR station and an excellent publicly-owned classical station, as well as 2 good college stations (if you happen to be within 20 yards of the campuses, else you can't pick them up.) With the exception of an amazing PM-drive time talk guy here (Russ Martin), the rest of local radio can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico, except for the environmental impact of all that bad radio on the Gulf. In the mornings, I drive a LOT; many hours each day. I go back and forth between Stern and audiobooks depending on mood, not enough time for both. Regarding the cost of audiobooks: If audible.com has what you want, and you have a compatible player, you're all set. Take a subscription, and you can get almost anything for under $14 or so per book, and they have sales. Unfortunately, they don't have some of my favorites. Those I buy used, at Half Price Books, or off Ebay or Amazon when I find a good price, which can mean a lot of patience. Or if you're OK with the moral issues and legal risk, there are the various p2p networks. I am queasy about that approach. Seems the author should get his/her $. As delighted as I was when I realized my Palm would play audiobooks (and audible files, which can be downloaded from audible.com thru any cellular carrier directly to the device), the capacity and sound options are too limited. I have more than 100 G of audiobooks on my Ipod. A decent audio library aka a security blanket for bad traffic days. I have to weigh the worth of audiobooks differently than print anything. Audiobooks take linear time, no skimming....and the choice of narrator matters immensely. If I am interested in a book on audio, that book had better be worth the time investment for the unabridged version. I don't bother with abridged fiction at all, and rarely buy unabridged non-fiction (except good history or something from a writer noted for literary qualities). Lesser authors and most non-fiction can be read on the page (or skimmed, or skipped around during the read) in a fraction of the time investment of audio, and that is all the time I will give to something I don't love or revere. So, for me, an audiobook has to have great narration and it has be a book I would not be without. That said, a wonderful audio recording can newly re-create and enhance the quality of a beloved book or series. Several examples of well-known writers follow: I read all the Harry Potter books before I listened to the audio. I loved them in print. I then listened to the Jim Dale audio recordings, and now I prefer those to the page, tho I still love the physical act of reading those books....Mr Dale is able to give each character such a unique voice and inflection that I now can't imagine them feeling right with another narrator's vocal stylings. Perhaps I would have loved Stephen Fry's UK HP recordings best had I heard them first, and they are very good. But I was already familiar with Mr Fry's multi-faceted presence in UK broadcast media, and perhaps also for that reason, my identification of Fry's reading with HP was diluted. As for Tolkien.....I am not such an aficionado as actor Christopher Lee, who has read The Hobbit and the LOTR series yearly for decades. But I lucked into a used copy of the unabridged Rob Inglis recordings years ago at Half Price Books. Once again, despite repeated re-readings over the years (perhaps once a decade; sorry Mr Lee, I don't measure up to your devotion :>) Mr Inglis's version gave me the stories anew. If you have the patience for Tolkien, the unabridged audio can make you glad you took every phrase slowly, even the `light-weight' hobbit songs and so forth. It turns out that Mr Tolkien was quite the subtle stylist; even in his passages describing geography and flora. Mr. Inglis's recordings are entrancing, and worth the time they take. I have loved John Le Carre's books ever since I first found a copy of The Spy Who Came In From the Cold. Recently, again, in a Half Price Books store, I lucked into one of the Chivers Audio (BBC/UK) unabridged recordings with narration by the British actor Michael Jayston. These were never commercially on sale in the US except for mail order AFAIK. Once I discovered these versions, I starting buying copies of all the Le Carre books narrated by Mr Jayston. I got many of them from Ebay, a few from Amazon, and a few from the publisher, and I have perhaps 3-4 titles to go, since they are expensive. Unfortunately, audible.com has other editions, which are decent and much cheaper, but not competitive in quality to the Chivers versions IMHO. Mr Jayston's reading of the "Quest for Karla" series blew me away. Especially in the conversations between the major characters, I would listen to a passage again and again, and each time understand more of the explosive and tightly confined emotional, social and political subtext. I had managed to gather only a surface of understanding while reading the same words on the page. I had always admired the author. I think I gravely underestimated him. And Mr. Jayston's readings expressed vocally the full measure I had been too much in a hurry to appreciate when reading print. I now have a new theory now of why Le Carre's never really `done' a major American character in most of his works. Le Carre's understanding of the English mindset and its political and social confines, as conveyed in his fiction, is so subtle and delicate that perhaps he can't write a character from a culture outside his own with the same depth of understanding and consequence. He sees the British mind from the inside, perhaps, and he sees the American mind from the outside. I have been told that the writer Charles McCarry is able to do something similar to Le Carre in an American vein. I have purchased McCarry's existing audio library from audible, and intend to start on him when I finish my audio Le Carre library. The best audiobooks have given me a new appreciate for what a gifted actor can do with great source material. I would not do without them. ----------------------- E-BOOKS AND PRINT Computers and the internet have gotten in the way of my reading more than my other habits over the years. I spend so much time online now, I've gotten in the habit of setting books and magazines aside for `later'. I sit down at the keyboard, and I'm lost for hours, the whole world is standing just behind www.google.com, and I can't tear myself from it. Reversing that habit is one reason I'm shopping for an E-Book device. If books were always with me, I might regain the addiction I had growing up, with the thousands of books I had then. I would love to use the Reader for every spare moment, the way I now use the Ipod. I'd have a better mind, no doubt, and sound less like someone trying to complete and pass an entrance exam to hell. I used to cover such a breadth of writers and topics, and of course, with audiobooks, you can't, unless you've mastered time-travel. (Hermione, anyone?) I miss that. I need an E-book device so I can stop feeling starved. I might go for a Kindle just because I could possibly wheedle one out of a family member. :> Then I could just go for the upgrade treadmill when I got frustrated. --------------------------- Is pbook shorthand for paperback? Specific replies: Thanks for the rec. to podiobooks and Starshipsofa, will check them out. To Elsi, who might live near Denton: I just purchased some of the "Ladies #1 Detective Agency" series from Half Price Books; you have motivated me to get to them. To Cassidym: I believe there are water-proof mp3 players, and Otterbox makes several very protective coverings for the Ipod. I think one of the Otterbox cases is supposed to be waterproof to the point that you can swim with an Ipod, if you're willing to test that. I know there are various waterproof headsets. I wonder if someone makes a waterproof bluetooth headset for swimming? If you were close enough, the mp3 player could stay ashore with one of those. I know various companies make underwater speakers you could hook any audio source to if you own the pool.... To daffy4u: what is free time? Can you buy that used on Ebay or at a garage sale? Again, thanks. The people and threads here are great. Bad weekend.....2 trips to Frys already, a Half Price Books visit, and now I'm convinced I'll die without an E-book reader. That, or back to the daily entrance exam to the dark site of the force. You are all to blame. f00l (of a typist)