Number Five: Story Time!
Hey, call me childish, but we all loved story time when we were kids, didn’t we? I remember my dad reading the Magic Faraway Tree one chapter at a time, while my sister and I sat on the edge of our seats, wondering if Moonface and the Saucepan Man would ever escape from the Land of Spells…
Anyway, I may have moved on from the Faraway Tree these days, but I still LOVE that feeling of snuggling up on the sofa, making myself comfortable, waiting for the story to begin…
I know, I know! Some of us NEVER grow up…
Hey! That reminds me of another story I know…
Number Four: Two-Timing!
I have to say that, as a rule, I DON’T believe in two-timing… But we are talking about BOOKS here, okay? So, is that’s so wrong?
As an ex-librarian, who used to issue STACKS of books to each person for just 28 days, I know there must be LOTS of people who can read more than one book at a time… but, I hang my head in shame as I admit, I am NOT one of those people…
When we’re talking about the sheer mechanics of reading, I mean, ACTUALLY reading, I’m a one-book-at-a-time kind of girl, otherwise, my storylines get a bit MIXED-UP, if you know what I mean!
However, audiobooks must work on a different part of my brain or something, because I seem to be able to… well… TWO-TIME the book I’m reading with the book I’m listening to, without any strange mix-ups…
Just, please don’t tell the books…
Number Three: Whenever, Wherever!
As I may have mentioned in a previous post, thanks to my less-than-perfect vision, I am the kind of girl who can’t read a book without some sort of heavy-duty reading light beaming down on me… but with audiobooks? Lighting REALLY doesn’t matter. You can do it day or night! Hey, you can even CLOSE YOUR EYES if you want to!
Admittedly, closing my eyes does bring with it its own challenges… You’ve guessed it! SNOOZEVILLE! But my solution? Don’t choose a boring audiobook and crank up the volume to the max… Problem solved!.
Number Two: From the Author’s Mouth…
Okay, I’m going to admit something now… I know this might make me sound a bit FUSSY, but, in my humble opinion, audiobooks are only as good as the person who reads them.
Hey, I mean, I’m not talking about those perfect actor-voices necessarily, but the voice has to go with the story, it has to FIT… And what voice fits a story better than any other? Of course, the one that comes from the mouth of the AUTHOR!
Here is a person who knows the story back-to-front, side-to-side and inside out… AND, most importantly, THEY WROTE IT, so they know EXACTLY what they meant and how they want the story to sound.
I have to say, I also feel a strange and wonderful connection with an author who has just been reading me their story for, I don’t know, maybe somewhere between 8 to 12 hours…
Number One: Multi-tasking Magic!
And YES! Here we are again at the Number One spot in my countdown of the top five things I LOVE! (Yee-ha!)
This one gets the most votes because, for a girl who almost NEVER has enough time for reading, audiobooks don’t mind if I do the dusting, ironing or washing up while listening… Hey, I can even drive to the supermarket, do my shopping, even go for a 10k run, all the time enjoying the plot twists of my most recent crime thriller…
Problem is, if the story gets TOO exciting, my dusting/ironing/washing up/shopping/running, etc. may take a BIT longer than usual because, whatever I’m doing, I don’t want to stop…
Hmmm… is that what we call efficiency? Maybe not…
