Book Blogger Hop ~ Do you think listening to an audiobook instead of reading the print version makes it more difficult to write a review?

The Book Blogger Hop is a weekly book-related prompt hosted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer. If you’d like to join the hop, head on over to Billy’s post and get started in the fun!

This week’s prompt submitted by submitted by Elizabeth @ Silver’s Reviews.

This week’s Book Blogger Hop prompt for March 18th – March 24th is:

“Do you think listening to an audiobook instead of reading the print version makes it more difficult to write a review?”

Answer:

It really depends on my engagement level with the audiobook. If it’s got all the right elements (great narration, captivating story, favorite tropes, etc) then I can do anything while listening and still pay close attention to the story. However, if I’m not super invested in the audiobook, then I have to really work at listening and even go back and relisten to areas I zoned out on.

I do prefer to read books when I want to annotate. It’s way too difficult by audiobook, and trust me, I’ve tried. For most books, I wish I could just read them all but I’m sort of a slow reader (I don’t even hit 300 WPM), I deal with ADD focus struggles, and there are just way too many books I want to experience. If I only read every book that interested me, I’d never actually catch up and it would make me sad to miss out on so many amazing tales.

So for writing reviews on audiobooks, I try really hard to focus and understand the story. If I’m not super interested in it, it’s usually a ME problem and not the author’s fault so I try to give those books a fair, middle-ground rating. And rating audiobooks has a different aspect to consider, as the story is not being told in just the author’s voice, it’s being told with the narrator’s perspective on the story. The performance is an element that has to be taken into consideration. I’ve seen great books completely ruined by poor narration so I try not rate a book down because the narrator is terrible, if that’s what is going on.

I went off on a tangent, I’m sorry. To answer the question: It depends on several elements of the audiobook including story and characters, but also narration performance. If the book doesn’t pull me in, then reviewing it becomes way harder because I have a difficult time staying focused on it (boring books become background noise).

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