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?
Personally, anything really dense and thought provoking. I like being able to more easily kind of stop and think for a moment, and I think this really often allows me to understand and follow the story in a deeper way. Like rather than just waves landing on the beach, I can get a better idea of the water beyond the waves, out in the ocean, and following what’s happening out in the ocean makes the waves hitting the beach much more meaningful and I better appreciate them.
This is a very thoughtful answer. Being able to take your time often makes the book more engaging for me. Letting myself read lines multiple times and think of them multiple ways without having them structured by narration.
I also like to make note and underline things, and mark off certain pages to get back to that. Listening is more passive for me, that’s when I listen to comedy podcasts
To me it’s the exact opposite. If I stop to think about stuff, I lose where I am in the book and make myself more confused. Plus, if it’s words on a screen, it feels much more passive to me.
With audiobooks, it feels like it’s someone talking or explaining something to me, and I naturally pay more attention to that than to stuff I read, so even if I do have to pause to reflect a bit, it’s much easier for me to pick up where I left off with an audiobook.