Years ago, I used to take public transportation into the day jobbe as I worked in downtown Toronto. So that meant train, subway, walking. It also meant a lot of time to kick back and read–somewhere around 3 hours a day. It was great. I read and read, polishing off one or two books a week (depending, of course, on how many times I passed out during the early morning train rides). Wow, did I build up a nice collection of books in this time period.
5 years ago I changed jobbes and started driving again–2.5 hours per day. But my reading stopped. I was now reading anywhere between two and five books a year. Gasp! I needed to fix this, so I started listening to audiobooks. What a godsend! I was now able to start reading, er, listening to a book every two weeks or less, plus what I’m physically reading outside of the car.
Now, this is all well and dandy–but I love books. I love the physical quality of books. I love how they feel, how they smell, how they look on my shelves, or stacked up on my desk, or sitting beside my bed.
I just love them.
So I started to realize that this audiobook gig posed a problem. I wasn’t adding to my library by listening to them in a digital format. Sure, my iTunes bookshelf looks rather impressive…but that doesn’t make me happy. Being surrounded by books? That makes me happy.
To remedy this I started repurchasing books I really enjoyed as an audiobook.
That’s right. I pay twice as much for some books that I love just to have them in their physical form. Call me crazy, but I feel like I just need to have them on my shelf.
A perfect example of this is The Lightning Thief, the first novel in the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series by Rick Riordan. I loved this book so much I had to have it. So I bought it. And that started this craze of repurchasing audiobooks as their physical counterparts. In fact, all of the Percy Jackson books are wonderful audiobooks, and I will be repurchasing them all to have on my shelf–to look at and to share with my kids.
Now, I surely can’t be the only person who does this, can I?
Do you repurchase audiobooks you love, just to have them in their physical format?
Or do you just move on and not look back?
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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I actually can’t listen to an audiobook if I haven’t read the physical book already; my mind wanders and I get totally lost. (I once bought a mystery audiobook for a long drive. I remember the finding of the body, and then suddenly there was all this discussion about a secret baby who was given up for adoption and whether or not Father Thomas knew about it and about somebody’s drink tasting funny, and I had absolutely no idea who any of those people were.)
I like audiobooks for big home projects though, like painting a room or whatever, so I’ll buy an audio version of a book I enjoyed and “read it again.”
Good point on the mind wandering. I’ve had that happen numerous times, thinking about this and that during the drive, and then–POW!–I’m 10 minutes or so further into the book and I have no idea what’s happening. Luckily, I can just skip back to where I faded out.
I recently started listening to audio books, which I discovered to be quite wonderful (with a good narrator, of course). If I do really love a book that I listened to then I will buy a copy of the book as well because then I feel like I really own it.
Yes, a good narrator is life for an audiobook; a bad narrator, well, you know. Death.
I love books, too! It makes me happy being surrounded by overflowing bookshelves. I don’t have any audiobooks, but I am tempted to get my favorite books on audio. I haven’t caved yet, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time!
I tend to go the opposite way. Audiobook first, and then, if I love it, I buy it in a physical format. I’ve never bought an audiobook that I’ve already read before.
You know? I WISH I’d thought of audiobooks when I used to commute 2+ hours a day. I would have smoked way less cigs and suffered from WAY less road rage… le sigh. As it is, I’ve actually never listened to an audiobook. I’d like to though, at some point =)
Audiobooks are not only great for commuting, but for the beach as well. Sometimes, when it’s a gahzillion degrees and you’re sweating and the glare on a book’s pages is too bright–even with shades–an audiobook works perfectly. That is, if you haven’t passed out from too many piña coladas yet.