I’ve never really listened to Audiobooks personally but I’ve loved listening to podcasts for about 5 years or so now.  So when I got a chance to download a free audiobook thanks to Marc Secchia (who gifted me a copy of his book Aranya that I reviewed previously) I took it.  I’ve listened to about two hours out of fourteen so far and am actually quite impressed with the narrator.  She has a very pleasant deep voice and enough of an accent to emphasize the exotic nature of the story but not so much of an accent that I actually have to use all of my powers of concentration to make out what she’s saying.  In short, I think this was the perfect one to start with and you can check it out on Audible as well.

Will I make a habit of listening to audiobooks?  Certainly not.  I enjoy listening to Aranya because it’s a book I’ve read at least three times and thoroughly enjoyed but I don’t think I could concentrate enough for that long of a period of time to get all the nuances of a book I’ve never read.  It’s just not something that interests me.

But I want to hear your thoughts on this!  Do you listen to audiobooks?  If so, why?  If not, why?  What is one of the best audiobooks you’ve ever listened to?  Why?  Do you like it when narrators go full out with character accents or do you prefer a more calm reading of the text?