What Are You Thinking? Continued 14

I can only make myself listen to audiobooks if they have a ready great narrator, like Stephen Fry. I could listen the that man read the phone book, he is a delight!
In general, I prefer to read with my eyes, so I can reread certain parts if I zone out (fully awake) without actually processing the words I just read, or actually drift off to sleep. With audiobooks, I could fall asleep while it keeps playing for hours, and spend nearly that much time searching back for the spot where I left off.
That being said…if my honey wanted to read me a bedtime story, I would not say no! Bonus that he could see when I fell asleep and put a bookmark in it, whereas a recorded audiobook could not.
I’ve never listened to an audiobook and I feel like this is why. I’ve thought about putting one on while driving but think I’d still get too distracted and realize I missed a dozen paragraphs and have to rewind.
 
Hrmm... that all makes perfect sense! I dozed off to a poetry reading before. 😬 And have no clue where to go back to.. And there's something soothing about having a loved one read out loud for you..

I listened to two separate authors read their own works. Their voices were lovely, but so utterly devoid of emotion that it killed my enjoyment for their works.
I’m sorta clarifying things in my mind as I talk about this. But I think I dislike fiction not because it’s devoid of emotion but it’s because it’s devoid of “my” emotion? If I wanted a radio play I’d listen to a radio play. That’s not why I read fiction if that makes sense. The voices and emotion and emphasis “I” place on things is part of the joy. I don’t like ceding that work to anyone else?
 
I’ve never listened to an audiobook and I feel like this is why. I’ve thought about putting one on while driving but think I’d still get too distracted and realize I missed a dozen paragraphs and have to rewind.
He'd definitely need to have an accent for me. 🫣
 
Do we enjoy audio books due to their convenience or because we crave having someone to read to us like when we were children? 🤔
For me, it depends entirely on the reader. James Marsters does an amazing job on Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files, and I continued to listen to King's Under the Dome all the way to the end due to Raul Esparza's narration, long after I would have given up on the printed book. ( Not his best book ) But I have bailed on quite a few after just a short listen.

The best one is Max Brooks's World War Z. They got a massive cast of actors, like Alan Alda, Jürgen Prochnow, Carl Reiner, Mark Hamill, and about 20 others, with full soundscapes and the whole thing. It is everything the movie should have been.
 
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