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English Audio Request

asad100101
663 Words / 1 Recordings / 0 Comments

As a first-time commuter, I soon got sick of spending 2 hours a day listening to the same music and radio deejays day after day. You can only hear "Who Let the Dogs Out" so many times before before you just want to bang your head on the steering wheel.

Since I couldn't figure out how to get my computer in the car, and reading a real book just seemed unsafe, I decided to try some audio books. For those who are unfamiliar with audio books, let me explain. An audio book is a tape recording of someone reading a book out loud. As you can imagine, this can be a wonderful thing, or your worst nightmare. A lot depends on who is actually reading the book.

For example, imagine listening to Fran Drescher reading War and Peace. Sure, her voice was perfect for her character The Nanny, but after six hours, it would be like nails on a chalkboard. That is one thing to think about before you buy an audio book. Some of the readers may be people you have never heard of before. What if you buy the book, and then hate the voice? It will be a VERY LONG six hours. You may want to start out with books read by famous and familiar voices.

If you carpool, or plan to listen to audio books with other people in your vehicle, I would be careful in my selection of books. These are read word for word from the text, and they are not censored. I was mildly surprised to hear the "f" word several times while listening to my first audio book. My first thought was, "geez, glad there aren't any kids in this car." I would not recommend listening to any Stephen King novels while carrying out your duties as "soccer mom or dad."

These books are by no means inexpensive. I find the price to be comparable to a hard cover novel. For those of us who generally wait for the paperback, this may seem excessive. There are a couple of ways around this. You can check your local library. They often offer several bestsellers on tape, and this would be a good way for you to find out if you like audio books, before you drop a ton of money on them. You can also sign up for the Audio Book Club. Similar to the music clubs, like Columbia House and BMG, you get several audio books for a small amount of money, while agreeing to purchase a couple more at regular price over the next few years. I chose to do this, and it works well for me. I get a better chance of finding books I want to hear than at the library. After you fulfill your original commitment, you can cancel membership in the club, wait a couple of months, then join again.

I must admit, I would much prefer to read a book myself than have it read to me. Even the best reader has a difficult time developing distinctly different voices for each character. This can make it confusing to follow parts of the story that are heavy in dialogue. The reader may also emphasize dialogue in a different way, or use a tone that changes the meaning of the words. If you are an avid reader, you will understand what I mean. Part of the joy of reading is in making your own interpretation of the story. When listening to an audio book, you are allowing someone else to interpret the story for you. But this is an excellent way for me to constructively use the 2 hours a day that would otherwise be wasted.

Some people have a hard time reading for extended periods of time. Others may not enjoy it, or like me, may have large blocks of otherwise wasted time. For those people I would definitely recommend audio books. It definitely keeps your mind off road rage!

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