by Connolly Bottum, Subsidiary Rights and Editorial Assistant for Harlequin Intrigue–and the newest member of the SYTYCW Team
Before last year, I never listened to audiobooks. I worried that I would miss important details if something distracted me while I was listening. I feared the narrator would read too slowly – which would irritate me – or too quickly – which would give me a headache. Despite those concerns, I started listening to my first audiobook in March… and I loved it!
These days, audiobooks account for roughly half of the books I read. Here are five reasons why:
1. You can multitask while listening to audiobooks. Maybe you can walk for short distances or listen to music while reading a hardback or an ebook. Can you solve puzzles or clean your house? You certainly can’t drive. (If you disagree with the preceding statement, it might be an especially good time to start listening to books.)
2. You can experience your favorite books in a new way.
Don’t all readers wish they could read their favorite book again for the first time? Unfortunately, that isn’t possible. However, listening to a book can feel quite different from reading a print copy. Based on the inflection of the audiobook narrator’s voice, listening to a book could help you notice things you never focused on while reading.
3. It’s harder to spoil a book.
Sometimes when I’m reading an ebook or a print copy of a book, my eyes drift to the final sentence of the chapter and spoil the ending for me. It is so frustrating! In contrast, you would have to specifically tell your audiobook to skip a section in order to spoil the end of a chapter. You can still hear spoilers from the internet or friends, but I don’t have a magic cure-all for that since I hope people would not become hermits to avoid spoilers.
4. Audiobooks can help you to share reading with friends and family.
No need to worry about stuttering! The narrator will handle the reading for you while you and your loved ones settle in for story time.
5. You can have favorite narrators.
Who doesn’t love finding new favorite authors? The experience of finding a new favorite narrator is fairly similar. Furthermore, a narrator will typically read books by a number of authors, so you could find new favorite authors too!
