I have recently been getting back into audiobooks and was discussing them with a friend when this question came up. Obviously picture/comic books, manga and the like would not work in the format, but what other kind of books would not work in an audio format?
I was thinking House of Leaves for the obvious reasons, but is there a book you can think of that narratively or otherwise would not be well translated to audiobook?
OR a book that would need to be read in a certain way in order for an audio format to work?
Comics can and have been formatted into audio - Gaiman’s Sandman is excellent.
Where’s Waldo, House of Leaves
Finnegans Wake. How do you faithfully pronounce “fàç’e” and “xxoxoxxoxxx”?
Probably Big Swiss
Mort(e) has a chapter that really does not translate into audio form at all. It’s very unpleasant.
i listened to “horrorstor” by grady hendrix instead of reading it and i think it contributed to it coming across a lot differently than it would’ve if i’d seen all the pictures/presentation. as it sits. it’s not a very good audibook. i purchased the ebook for my wife and i on our kindle account and may try to reread eventually to give the book more of a chance, though. my wife really wanted to read some of his books.
Any of the old Goosebumps books. They tend to be overdone.
House of Leaves is exactly what came to mind when I saw the question.
Coloring books 😀
Anything with smut in it tbh. SO awkward read aloud imo.
Idk I think it makes great audiobooks lmao 😂
Finnegan’s wake
Gravity’s Rainbow
Why’s that?
It’s a famously difficult book, with sometimes really long run on sentences, weird grammar and punctuation, and it’s just hard to follow and often requires you to reread closely to decipher what’s happening in a scene.
Childrens’ books where animals talk while also making animal noises. My library used to do that… you could call them and there was an option to listen to a recording of a guy narrate a book for children. There was one where he would make hilarious growling sounds for a bear character and it was too funny to keep listening to.
That’s sweet 😫
I read a fair amount of rom-com and romance. Modern-setting romance with texting or emailing is ATROCIOUS on audiobook. Because they will read. Every. Last. Word.
To: femalecharacter123@madeupdomain.com From: malecharacterXYZ@diffdomain.net Subject: what the fuck Content: [im dying by this point and have already lost a minute of my life]
I straight up just stopped listening to an audio book that had 2 pages of dialogue of a Twitter exchange.
The Dictionary would be boring as fuck.