Week Eleven - Prompt Response

Ebooks and audiobooks are modern conveniences that allow readers to more easily access books, and to experience reading in a different way. Overall, I think it would be difficult to argue that they are not net positives. Audiobooks allow people to read while they're working or driving, and they open up options for readers who might normally struggle with reading. Ebooks are easy to travel with, they provide their own light to allow for reading without disturbing others, they often have useful features such as a dictionary to help readers with words they don't recognize. I know if I were going on a trip for a month, I'd much rather carry an ereader in my purse than try to shove five novels into my suitcase. 

I will admit, though, the romantic in me resisted both formats for far too long. There's something about the weight, smell, and feel of books that I don't think most people will ever want to give up - nor should they. Just like ereaders and audiobooks have their places, physical books have theirs. There's nothing like the feeling of curling up by a window when it's raining or snowing, preferably with a hot and/or boozy beverage, and propping an old paperback up on your knee.

My first audiobook was one I checked out before facing a 13-hour solo drive from Indiana to Texas to visit my family during the early pandemic - definitely not a time for a plane trip. I found a list of popular narrators, and decided on Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, narrated by Wil Wheaton. I've never had a drive go by so quickly; I was utterly absorbed. Since then, I used audiobooks while I'm driving longer distances, and have also started listening to them while I walk. I've found that while listening to music, I can stroll around the neighborhood for maybe 30, 45 minutes before I get bored and head home. With audiobooks, it's common for me to walk an hour or two - so thanks, audiobooks, for the added cardio health. Audiobooks have also provided me with a way to get through series that I'm maybe not particularly interested in but want to read because they're popular, or on the behest of a friend - I can put them on while I'm working and get through 4-5 hours a day without feeling like I'm wasting my time on something I don't really like. (I'm currently doing this with the A Court of Thorn and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas, which are incredibly long and that I find to be fairly mediocre; but, they're my best friend's favorites so I want to experience them with her). 

There are some appeals that might be altered by audiobooks - for example, characterization. The tone that a narrator chooses for a certain line might be different than how a reader might have interpreted it in their head. My general experience has been that characters in audiobooks sound a little more confident, a little more wry or sassy, and a little smarter than I would have read them myself - and I think that comes down to who chooses the career of an audiobook narrator. They have confident voices! It's what they do for a living. 

And there are some appeals/deciding factors that are added in the audiobook format as well, such as narrator preference. I can't tell you how many books I've had to stop, and then re-check-out as ebooks or physical books just because I didn't like the narrator's voice or what they were doing. Most recently, The Poppy War, which is a book I ended up loving but almost didn't get past the first chapter of because I originally got the audiobook, and the narrator sounded like she was about to start crying the entire time. Very off-putting. On the other hand, some narration choices add a depth and layer to the original text that transforms it, makes it something more. I'm specifically thinking of the cast-reading of Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, narrated by 165 readers; I found it to be an almost life-changing experience, and while the writing was strong I also give credit to the fact that the narration forced me to pay closer attention to every word than I might have done had my eyes been reading too fast. 

The same holds true for ebooks - there are some appeals that just aren't the same. For fantasy readers, there's often something satisfying about picking up an extremely long book that's the first in a series of extremely long books. Personally, I get all starry-eyed looking at the comically wide spines of books like the Malazan Book of the Fallen series and knowing that once I start, I'll be in that world for a long, long time. It's hard to get that same sense of scope when picking out a book on an ereader. There might even be books that are impossible (or at the very least pointless) to attempt to read on an ereader. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski comes to mind as an experience that is impossible to get in any form other than physical - the formatting, the color of certain words, the feeling of the book are all as essential as the words themselves. 

Overall, the addition of audiobooks and ebooks into our lives is a good thing. However, librarians and readers need to be aware of the unique appeals of each, and chose titles to experience in each format that does justice to the work itself.