Audiobooks vs. Printed Books: a debate as a reader and an author

On Monday morning this week I started a dot point list of notes I wanted to hit in this week’s bad review, then I looked up and it was lunchtime and I was 1200 words into something much, much bigger. It was going to be about the first few chapters of the audiobook of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. I had stopped listening after about an hour but when I spoke about to a couple of friends about the book they replied that they had loved reading it and I trusted them enough to gave it another go. After pushing through my frustrations, the Tomorrow world opened up to me, I loved it, and it got me thinking about audiobooks. I have some opinions and feelings. But my opinions and feelings turned out to be different depending on whether I had my Bri-as-reader hat on, or my Bri-as-writer hat. This isn’t about whether or not listening to an audiobook is ‘real’ reading (it is) or whether it ‘counts’ (it does). I appreciate the valid arguments about ableist attitudes toward ... Read full article.