Whether you have children, grandchildren or are listening solo, this seven-book series is an extraordinarily satisfying and immersive audio experience that will transport you to another world.Įvicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond, read by Dion Graham. If you are ready to get started and need suggestions I have a few. But I would not recommend listening to a book for a class instead of reading it. Are they as simple as turning down a corner or whipping out a yellow highlighter? No, though this has never bothered me. In fact, there are rewind functions, chapter listings, and a way to make notes and bookmark passages. Seriously! People new to audio sometimes worry that they cannot go back to a particular passage or annotate it. You can “flip back” for reference and take notes in an audiobook. I feel that Marie Kondo and I decluttered my apartment together since I had Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, narrated by Emily Woo Zeller, on autoplay. You can follow instructions in real-time. Self-help is particularly suited to audio. Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, for instance, is wonderful thanks to two terrific actresses, Cassandra Campbell and Bahni Turpin. (The marvelous 1968 BBC ensemble production of The Hobbit is an exception.) And some people think they're confusing, but multivoiced full narrations can be powerful. Because I find them difficult to follow, I do not care for dramatizations, which is when a cast of narrators performs an edited version of the book. She points to Tina Fey’s Bossypants and Billy Crystal’s Still Foolin’ ‘Em as excellent author-narrated audiobooks. I usually prefer not to have the author read their own book but Cobb notes that certain books are enhanced by having the author narrate the audio. The right narrator can make or break an audiobook.Įveryone has an opinion about what makes for a good audio. But if you adore romantic comedy, consider a frothy delight like Kevin Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians read by Lynn Chen. If you like serious fiction, for instance, then go with Hilary Mantel’s outstanding Wolf Hall read by Simon Slater. I'd suggest choosing a title in a category you already enjoy. The public library is also an excellent and inexpensive place to begin, with most libraries featuring both CDs and digital options. They all allow you to click on a free sample. Browsing before buying/listening is a must (plus, it's fun).Įxplore audiobook retailers like, Google Play, Kobo and, among others. I find that, somehow, a massive traffic snarl, a towering pile of laundry or, worse, exercising doesn’t seem quite so daunting when I'm listening to, say, The Husband’s Secret, the bestseller by Australian sensation Liane Moriarty, voiced by Caroline Lee with her pitch-perfect Down Under accent.īottom line? As I tell my die-hard, book-reading friends, audio is well worth a try and I have a few tips for those who are new to it. So the appeal of snuggling up under the covers with a good book is, shall we say, limited.Īnother reason I and many others have become audiobook converts: You can multitask while you listen. I also devour two newspapers, my Twitter feed and email accounts on my iPhone. Five days a week, from early morning to late afternoon, I am attached to my computer as I write and edit. And 53 percent of listeners say they listen most often at home, while 36 percent report using audiobooks most in their car. “People don’t want to look at anything,” she says. Gaining in popularity as listening devices are “smart speakers,” such as Amazon's Alexa or Google Home.Ĭobb also surmises that people who are on their phones and computers all day want to relax by closing their eyes. She points to a number of reasons for the explosion in people listening to audios, including ease of technology: Instead of audio cassettes and CDs, you can now listen with your smartphone - the number-one device people use for audiobook listening (an estimated 73 percent of audiobook consumers do so). “We are on a meteoric rise,” says Michele Cobb, executive director of the Audio Publishers Association. There has also been a massive increase in the number of audiobooks being published in the United States. That continues six years of double-digit growth. The Audio Publishers Association estimates that audiobook sales in 2017 totaled more than $2.5 billion, up 22.7 percent over 2016. I’d much rather use my ears than my eyes. Asked to choose between reading a book - hardcover, paperback or digital - and listening to an audio version, there’s no contest. Professional book reviewer for three decades. Editor of my high school literary magazine. En español | For most of my life, I have been an obsessed reader.
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