Monday, June 25, 2012

Audiobook Week: 2011-2012, Your Audiobook Year

Devourer of Books is hosting Audiobook Week, for June is Audio Book Month. There are daily discussion topics and giveaways for participation. Check out her blog for linky lists of participants.

Are you new to audiobooks in the last year? Have you been listening to them forever but discovered something new this year? Favorite titles? New times/places to listen? This is your chance to introduce yourself and your general listening experience.
I've been listening to audiobooks for a while, but only in the last year have I been using them to discover new titles. In high school, I tried some for the library for the required summer reading lists, but these were cassette tape times for audiobooks, and the ones I found were selection from books, and not even an abridged copy. When Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince came out, I started buying them for the books I already had read, and enjoyed. Not long after I heard about Librivox and downloaded a few from there. But it was this past fall and winter when I started borrowing titles I had not read before from the library.

I can drive a lot for my work, anywhere from half an hour, to two hour one way commutes. I also tend to focus on my work better when I am listening to something. So instead of my current music playlist, I started listening to audiobooks during my drive and research trips. They are great for get a little reading in while having to do something else, and many times the wait for the audiobooks were much less than the ebook copies. Some had been books I'd been waiting for. Some that I've checked out are ones I heard about on blogs, or sounded interesting, so I just figured What the Heck... and checked them out. This randomly trying various books has let me try various authors, or genres I don't really read (contemporary, for example).

I'll be posting more discussion topics, and a few audiobook reviews throughout the week, so I hope you check them out.

6 comments:

Kristin T. said...

I find that I now always have to have an audio going in the car and I don't even have a long commute. I can't remember the last time I listened to the radio and even my husband knows if he gets into my car the first thing he needs to do is turn off the cd player.

I get the majority of my audios from the library and luckily we can reserve from any library in the county, so the selection is pretty good.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.
Kristin @ Always With a Book

DevourerofBooks said...

I have a hard time even listening to NPR in the car anymore, but I REALLY can't listen to anything else. Audio is basically the only option!

Sarah Williams said...

My moods vary, and sometimes I just need whatever will keep me alert enough to get where I'm going. So sometimes I go with the audiobook, and sometimes with music.

Sarah Williams said...

I only just recently decided to sign up for Audible. I have a good selection from my three library systems on Overdrive, but some times they have gaps. But I'm a big music fan, so sometimes I will alternate between music and audiobooks

Tanya Patrice @ Girlxoxo.com said...

I choose my audiobooks a bit randomly too - usually just scrolling through what's available at the time, but I've found some good books that way.

Sheila DeChantal said...

Multi tasking... its all about the listening and doing ;) I love it!