Clueless Gent’s Read Along with Audio Books Response

I’ve only listened to a few audio books, but I’ve never tried to read along with audio books. Audio books are at the bottom of my preferred book formats. When asked if I’d like to review an audio book, I almost always answer negatively. The sad thing is, if someone were to ask why I don’t like audio books, I don’t know that I could provide a good answer.

I suppose I feel like this because I really like the words! In every single book I finish, I read every single word. I look at it this way: if the author wrote it, I’m going to read it. What reward is there to finish a book quickly by skimming, and thereby possibly missing some of the unique flavoring that the author mixed into the words? I imagine, in a way, that an audio book would ensure that no words go unsaid, but I like to add my own accents to the characters and decide how they would say their dialogue. There’s a whole lot that goes on in my head when I’m reading. I understand that the author may want dialogue spoken a certain way by their characters, but once the words get into my head, I take liberties. If the author is so adamant that dialogue be spoken a certain way, then the author should add enough description so my mind will interpret it the right way. Am I right?

I do know that some authors produce audio versions with their own voices, while others hire professional VO (VoiceOver) talent.  And the audio books that I did listen to were very good.  However, I think I’ll just stick to the unspoken versions of books for now.

I’d like to thank Elizabeth @ Silver’s Reviews for coming up with this question for Book Blogger Hop.