Joel Swagman (Reviews / TESOL): New Audiobook Project

Index

I've gone through several different opinions on audiobooks over the years. When I first started my book reviewing project, many of the books I reviewed were audiobooks. (e.g. In 2006, a full 3rd of my reading list was audiobooks.)

I've gradually moved away from audiobooks over the years for a number of reasons. Partly for lack of access. (When I was living abroad, I couldn't get free audiobooks from the public library). Partly because I worried I wasn't absorbing audiobooks as fully as I did when I was reading words off the page. And partly because I discovered the wonderful world of podcasts, and podcasts quickly took over my listening time.

So, for the past 10 years or so, I've only been listening to podcasts, and haven't been doing any audiobooks.

The past few months, however, I've begun rethinking my relationship to audiobooks. Partly this is the influence of booktube--there's an ever present debate on booktube over whether audiobooks constitute "real reading", and so people are always making videos on the subject of audiobooks. Some of these videos have been praising audiobooks, and mentioning who a talented voice actor on an audiobook can help to bring the book to life. It reminded me of how much I used to enjoy a good audiobook.

I also within the last year caught an NPR program talking about audiobook narrators and their craft, and it also made me think it was time to start revisiting audiobooks.

And yet, I still do worry that when I listen to an audiobook, I might get distracted and miss stuff.

So, I've decided a good compromise is to enfold audiobooks into my rereading project.

The idea is partly stolen from booktuber Dane Cobain who once mentioned to me that he only does audiobooks for rereads.

So, here are the rules:
* I can only do audiobooks for books I've already read and reviewed on this blog. (If I haven't read a book since high school, then I'll need to physically reread it once first before I can do it as an audiobook.)

* For books that I've reviewed on this blog as audiobook, I'll need to read them first physically, before they are eligible to do again as an audiobook.

* The goal will be to listen to each audiobook twice before I review it. But in cases where I can only get through it once before it's due back at the library, I'll be flexible with myself on this.

* I'm going to try to alternate audiobooks with my podcasts. However, because most podcasts are much longer than most audiobooks, I'll do 2 audiobooks in between every podcast. (i.e. podcast, audiobook, audiobook, podcast, etc.) All of this is contingent on my having continued access to free audiobooks. (i.e. If for some reason I lose access to audiobooks at the public library, then I'll just go back to only podcasts.)

* As a general rule of thumb, I'll try to wait 5 years between when I read a book, and when I revisit it on audiobook. (The book needs a little bit of time to fade in my memory before I revisit it, otherwise what's the point of revisiting it?) Exceptions can be made to this if I have a good reason--e.g. if the book ties into a current reading project.

* Back in 2023, I announced that I would do video reviews for the first time I read a book, and a written review for the second time I read a book. But for the purposes of determining written review status, audiobooks won't count--i.e. I still have to physically read a book twice in order to qualify it for a written review.

* As I complete audiobook rereads, I'll review them, and then index those reviews at the top of this post.

Video version of this post here:

New Audiobook Project (and my rambling thoughts on audiobooks in general)

Playlist HERE:

Addendum:

Here are the books that I've already reviewed on this blog that I did only as audiobooks. (These were obviously before I created these new rules for myself.) I may try to make it a reading project to go through and actually read some of these books properly--the classics in this list, at any rate. But as always, reading time is limited, so we'll see how many I can get around to.

* Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky January 26, 2006