Audio Books

I've written a lot about paperbacks, e-books, etc. on this blog.  But I've never written about audiobooks.  I've never been that big into them.  In fact, I've experienced a grand total of one audiobook in my entire life: The Street Lawyer by John Grisham.  Lent to me by a coworker some 12 or 13 years ago.  I only remember that there was one narrator, and he was cheesy when he did the women's voices.  Now maybe this is standard, and I just don't have the experience of audiobooks to know any better.

So it was a little surprising to read two items in the New York Times about audiobooks:

Wired for Sound
The Mind's Ear

I don't actually know anyone (except that former coworker) who was into audiobooks.  I prefer music in the car (and am suffering right now because I am stuck listening to Atlanta radio until I get a Best Buy gift card this holiday season and a new car stereo with it).  When I walk on the treadmill (about 5 times a week), I usually watch TV.  I've tried reading while using the treadmill before, but it just didn't work for me.  I can totally appreciate that blind people like audiobooks; they used to advertise when I was in college to get students to read textbooks to be recorded for blind students.

The people I know these days who are divided into two camps over reading are not audio versus paper books, but paper versus e-books.

But, to any fellow aspiring writers out there...it might very well be worth reading your OWN work out loud, even if just to yourself.  Sometimes this can help you spot some really dumb stuff that you might have otherwise overlooked.