5typos.net
The Work of the Audiobook
Alexander Manshel, Laura B. McGrath, J. D. Porter, on Los Angeles Review of Books:
Audiobooks have become such a driving economic force in the publishing industry that they have spawned their own dedicated networks of promotion, circulation, and consecration. Audiobook rights are now a staple of book contracts, changing the terms of negotiation.
Had no idea how much weight audiobooks now had on the industry.
The promise of the audiobook is that reading time, leisure time, entertaining time, and edifying story time can all happen anywhere at any time. Whether you are riding the bus to work, doing the dishes, or nodding off to sleep, the hands-free audiobook allows you the freedom to read when you otherwise could not.
My audiobook consumption has dropped off a cliff without post-covid commute craziness. Still, I always try to have a couple non-fiction audiobooks around1. I’m able to think about what I hear, but fail miserably if I have to use my imagination. Which makes fiction books a no-go.
Currently listening to: Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer’s Guide to the Universe, by Philip Plait PhD.↩︎