Image courtesy of openculture.com
Book Riot posted an article today about books that are better listened to than read, and it got me thinking… I was never really a fan of listening to audiobooks until I started working at my university’s library a couple of years ago. To me, part of the fun of reading a book is being able to create the characters inside of my own head. And I feel like when there is someone else’s voice inside your head being those characters, part of that joy is taken away.
However, when I worked at the library shelving books, we were allowed to listen to iPods so we wouldn’t go crazy from the monotonous silence, and I started listening to audiobooks. It was a great way to feel like I was doing something personally fulfilling while serving the rest of the student body. I caught up on the classics I had never been able to make myself sit down and read (Great Expectations, The Great Gatsby, anything “great”). But I still didn’t get the same satisfaction from “reading” with my ears as I did from reading with my eyes.
Image courtesy of goodreads.com
That is, until I listened to The Book Thief. The story is told by Death, and narrator Allan Corduner does a fantastic job of bringing Death, and his victims, to life. His voice was soothing but somber at the same time, and he gave palpable personality to the characters simply through his changes in tone. I couldn’t get his voice out of my head for days after listening to the book, and when I read the book again in physical form, the voices in my head sounded like his own.
Are there certain books you have really enjoyed listening to, or any you wish you had listened to instead of read? Let me know below!
P.S. If you go to Book Riot’s article, you can get a free Audible audiobook and 30-day free trial!
katliterary 