I love audiobooks. I used to have a 2.5 hour commute and audiobooks saved my life. The science fiction and fantasy books I was able to listen to were top notch as was the narration.

I prefer them. It adds a lot of extra time to my day to slide books in. The simplicity of paper/ebooks is great, but I rarely find time to only read

I love them, they’re great for listening to while going for walks, while cleaning, or just doing things that don’t take alot of mental effort. I think audiobooks get kind of shit on for being “lazy”, but if anything, they’re a “purer” form of storytelling than books themselves. Oral storytelling is probably one of the oldest art forms out there, and audiobooks are a sort of modern adaptation of this.

I can’t do them

I zone out and miss entire chapters pretty much any time I try. I also find pacing much too slow and most narrators just aren’t pleasant to listen to imo.

Know plenty of people who love them though, and as long as it increases literary reach then they’re only a good thing.

Here’s the thing about paper books; they’re like vinyl. I love everything about them. I love the feel, I love the smell, I love the sensation of running your finger down a page. Just like I love vinyl; the way you have to handle each disk with care, blowing off the dust and gently setting the needle in the groove. The pop and hiss as it turns.

But I can’t bring a record player in my car, any more than I can read a book while driving.

Life is busy, and complicated, and paper books are slow and simple.

For me, switching to audiobooks meant that I read more in weeks than I had in years before. That’s really all that matters. The words are the same, the box just isn’t as pretty. I love the pretty box, but I’ll give it up to get the words.

As someone with aphantasia (can’t visualize) and no inner voice, I prefer audiobooks, if the narrator is even mediocre. They also work well with my ADHD, since I struggle with mental tasks without multitasking - audiobooks help me do the chores and commute - even if I don’t remember the audiobook lol. I frequently have to rewind.

I commute two hours a day and have a fairly passive desk job so audio books are awesome for me. I just listened to The Martian and loved it, and also listened to the first 15 lives of Harry August. I also listened to Enders Game at my last job. I really enjoyed all of them.

I agree with some opinions that you don’t form your own voices in your head, but in some cases for me that was nice. For instance I didn’t really consider the ethnicity of some of the characters in both Enders Game and The Martian. That has an impact on the story that frankly I forget about once I’ve moved on a few chapters from it being mentioned.

I started listening to A Song of Ice and Fire audiobooks while doing yardwork. It’s a lot more passive than reading a book, but you get most of the same information.

Only criticisms, it’s not as obvious when someone is talking without seeing quotation marks and there’s some clever wordplay you might miss out on.

Example: I thought A Clash of Kings was saying Stannis’s banner had a hart (male deer)instead of a stag and I didn’t get what the distinction was. Obviously, it turned out they were referring to a heart.

Most of my “reading” is via audiobooks so I’m a fan. I’m busy and don’t have a lot of time to sit and read, but I spend hours every day on activities that don’t require my full focus. Audiobooks are a great way to make the time go by faster.

Listening to an audiobook feels different than reading, but a good narrator can create an engaging and immersive experience.

I have read hundreds of books since my ‘discovery’ of audio books about 15 years ago.

I have read books of genres I would never ever be able to physically read.

They have helped save my sanity - possibly my life.

I am a better human now because of them.

I suggest them to everyone.

I listen to audiobooks a lot, but mostly (like 95% of the time) I`m only listening to books that I’ve read as book previously. I love to dive back into these beloved stories again without needing to put in the extra time for reading them again. I hear them for example when I’m walking my dog (which is already like 1,5h each day).

I use audiobooks to fill in time when I can’t read, like driving and what not.

I used to have a boring data entry job and I listened to audiobooks every day. It was great. Now I mostly listen in the car or while doing chores. I kind of miss having those long lengths of time to listen.

I don’t retain as much when I listen. My mind wanders sometimes, or I get interrupted. Sometimes I listen while falling asleep.

For all these reasons I rewind a lot and replay the same sections more than once.

My wife and I have basically replaced TV with audiobooks. We get to read a book together and we can do something while listening.

I love them.