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Audiobooks vs. Printed Books: a debate as a reader and an author

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Re: Audiobooks vs. Printed Books: a debate as a reader and an author

#41

Post by cyberpunk »

cladopa wrote: post #27
zeristor wrote: post #2

I’m curious as to what people think about Audiobooks? They just seem so expensive to me, and the concept still feels like cheating to me.

As someone who has read thousands of books in his life, and always asks about the books on the shelves on the houses I visit, I would say that there is a so much people that do not read books with intrinsic and genuine interest. They buy books as a status, intellectual symbol, but they couldn't care less about its content. It's an ornament, like a flowers' vase. I like audiobooks too. It can only be cheating if you b…

I’ve never actually seen that in the wild. Plenty of houses with no books at all, which always makes me feel rather sad for the people who live there, but I’ve never seen one of these “status” bookcases.

What do they even fill it up with? How is it status when they don’t even know the contents?

Re: Audiobooks vs. Printed Books: a debate as a reader and an author

#42

Post by alok-g »

As such, both print and audio have worked well for me.

Lately, font sizes for printed books has become an issue. I getting old and cannot read with small font sizes.

Meanwhile, publishers seem optimizing for lower prices (less paper) and younger people it seems.

Someone recently told me that hardcover editions tend to have larger font sizes.

Re: Audiobooks vs. Printed Books: a debate as a reader and an author

#43

Post by fnordian_slip »

_glass wrote: post #28
wintermutestwin wrote: post #23

Why is there no Spotify for audiobooks? Audible’s pricing model is stupid. I guess the bean counters know better than I, but I imagine there are a lot of people like me who just shrug and listen to what I can get for free through my library’s Libby access. I would gladly pay 15$ a month for unlimited.

They do though: https://www.spotify.com/us/audiobooks 15h per month at least.

15h per month? Even without heavy listening, this sounds really low, doesn't it? And if you want to listen to a series if books, like Malazan book of the Fallen at 388h, you wouldn't know anything about the start by the time you are finished, as it's been two years. I would expect that most casual listeners who only listen to half an hour of content a day instead listen mainly to podcasts?

At least that's what I do when I don't have the time for audiobooks. But maybe I shouldn't generalize from my own experience, as everyone is different. For me, audible + the occasional torrent works quite well, and I wouldn't like to use the Spotify interface for audiobooks anyway, considering how bad it is for that use case.

Re: Audiobooks vs. Printed Books: a debate as a reader and an author

#44

Post by cyberpunk »

constantcrying wrote: post #39
cyberpunk wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can’t believe (well; okay I actually can) than in 2025 I still can’t save a bookmark in apples “books” app when listening to an audiobook… You fall asleep with it on? Better hope you remember the timestamp…

Good audiobook players have an auto stop feature, where you can slightly move your phone to continue playing. At most I have to go back 15 minutes with that feature, so even bookmarks are unnecessary.

Yep, I use “bound” on iOS which also does that. I still want bookmarks in apple books though. I guess it’s just too hard to persist a timestamp somewhere…

Re: Audiobooks vs. Printed Books: a debate as a reader and an author

#46

Post by shelled »

You don’t "read" audiobooks. You listen to them. Big difference - not better or worse, just not the same. When it comes to listening, I Love podcasts - esp. with multiple hosts/guests. Solo ones work too, if they feel like conversations and not recitals.

Audiobooks are not for me. I’ve tried. Reading hits different. But sure, for self-help, productivity, coding and shit you need to use them, so you use them. Interestingly, the biggest audiobook junkies I know are also heavy readers. They know the difference—and they don’t mix the two.

Re: Audiobooks vs. Printed Books: a debate as a reader and an author

#47

Post by pnutjam »

I don't see anyone else saying this, but I don't like audiobooks because of the voices and over production. If I want to listen to a book, I use TTS, it's gotten very good. I can pick the voice and I just hear the story. I can also switch back to reading without trying to figure out where I am since the Text to speech is using the same epub I'm reading.

Re: Audiobooks vs. Printed Books: a debate as a reader and an author

#49

Post by willis936 »

wintermutestwin wrote: post #23

Why is there no Spotify for audiobooks? Audible’s pricing model is stupid. I guess the bean counters know better than I, but I imagine there are a lot of people like me who just shrug and listen to what I can get for free through my library’s Libby access. I would gladly pay 15$ a month for unlimited.

Libby is great, but the wait times for popular books is heavy.

I use libro.fm. It doesn't have a subscriber model, but they give you DRM-free audio files.

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