Intro
For the past two semesters I have written about all the different audiobooks I have listened to, so its pretty clear that I really enjoy the medium as a whole. Unfortunately, this will be my last blog post on this site, and so as to wrap it up I will give my overall thoughts on audiobooks, what I look for, and a number of things I haven’t talked about.
What I look for in audiobooks
While I had already outlined what I look for in audiobooks on the home page of this blog, I feel like my preferences have somewhat changed/developed since the beginning of the year.
Just as I had written at the start of the school year, my favorite genre and the one I listen to the most continues to be LitRPGs, however, I have been leaning more and more to a more modern fantasy type book, where all the tropes and standards in the fantasy genre are combined with modern civilization in unique ways. These books focus on a completely different aspect of that Fantasy genre that I had previously not explored and have now grown to love. Examples of books in this vain that stand out would be Monster Hunter International, He Who Fights With Monsters, and even Harry Potter to a lesser extent.
In addition to me developing new interests in genres, this blog has caused me to really think about what parts of the books I listen to that make them good. This has made me realize that the main aspect that makes books in the fantasy genre (specifically LitRPGs) stand out is well defined and unique worldbuilding. With every new series I start I always look forward to the author’s take on the fantasy genre, how they will implement and expand on previous tropes in the genre. As an example, all my favorite series have incredibly distinct worldbuilding to the point of it seeming like almost entirely different genres, however they all fall under the same fantasy genre.
Map of Middle Earth from Lord of the Rings
Random details on audiobooks
I know I mentioned this on my home page (and it sounds like a sponsored message), but I completely recommend audiobooks and distributor, like Audible, to everyone as you can listen to them just like music, but you still get the entertainment of experiencing a story without the monotony of listening to the same songs you always do. Audiobooks also sometimes have the added advantage of having different voices read each line for each character in addition to the narrator so, in my opinion, the dialog is much more coherent when listening as you learn to distinguish each character by their voice. A lot of books even go the extra mile in production to make sure that the voicing for the characters really conveys the emotions of the characters and makes the overall experience much better as a result.
My overall thoughts
Overall, I can say that this blog has made me dive into the realm of audiobooks much more than I would have ever imagined and I have had a lot of fun doing so. I would recommend everyone to at least try audiobooks once in their life to see if they might enjoy it, because I personally have spent hundreds of hours listening to audiobooks and I know I would have never put aside that much time to sit down and read books but with audiobooks I was always doing something else at the same time, so it didn’t feel like a was wasting my time on it.
If I want to read, I tend to reach for physical or e-books because I like have something for my eye to concentrate own, which helps me stay focused on reading the actual book. But, I like how you mention that you can multi-task while listening to audiobooks; one of the biggest problems I faced with reading is that I was always to busy doing other things and couldn’t dedicate time to sitting down with a book. It’s definitely something I want to try and get into this summer when I go to the gym or drive around!