Jen at Crazy for Books restarted her weekly Book Blogger Hop to help book bloggers connect with one another, but then couldn't continue, so she handed the hosting responsibilities off to Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. The only requirements to participate in the Hop are to write and link a post answering the weekly question and then visit other blogs that are also participating to see if you like their blog and would like to follow them.
This week Billy asks: Do you believe audio books are the future and why do believe?
For me personally? No. I simply can't pay attention to a spoken rendition of a book well enough to use audio books. I'll be consuming my books via the written word for the foreseeable future.
Overall? I doubt it. Audio books have been around for decades, and while they form a substantial submarket within the book publishing world, they probably won't ever supplant paper books. For all of their faults, paper books have the advantage of being an entirely self-contained product. It is ready to read the moment you pick it up off the shelf. An audio book, by contrast, requires a device upon which to play it: A CD player, an MP3 player or other audio file player, or for older books, a cassette player. Without that, an audio book is just an inert piece of plastic or an inaccessible collection of electronic memory. Audio books are an effective adjunct to printed books, but I don't think they will ever achieve primacy in the publishing world.
Previous Book Blogger Hop: 144 Is Twelve Squared and the Twelfth Fibonacci Number
Subsequent Book Blogger Hop: New Horizon's Flyby of Jupiter Slowed the Planet, xkcd's "what if" 146 Works Out How Many Such Flyby's Would Be Needed to Stop Jupiter Completely
Book Blogger Hop Home
It is true that it requires devices. I hate when I forget my ear plugs. Thus I have several pair. One in my sewing kit, 1 in my car, 1 in my purse one in my suitcase, and 1 in my briefcase. Yikes I just realized how much I have in money on those crazy thing :(
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@Teri Lloyd: Earbuds are another reason I don't use audiobooks, because I basically cannot wear them. They simply bother my ears too much. I could use headphones, but they are harder to carry around and not much better as far as my ear comfort is concerned.
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