All ears

I am not ashamed to take part in the ancient tradition of oral storytelling! Audiobooks are books, too!

But they are not all made equal. Here are my rules:

-Not all actors are voice actors, Streep. Stick to film!

-If it won a serious literary award (Nobel, Pulitzer, Booker, National Book Award, etc.), read it with your eyeballs first

-if it’s nice, absorb it twice. Sometimes you have a different/complementary experience reading vs. listening

-Nonfiction is almost always better as an audiobook

-Unless the author reads it

-especially if the author is actually a journalist. That means you, Michael Pollan. Let the pros handle this.

-multiple narrators usually don’t work

-magical realism doesn’t translate to audiobooks

-animal protagonists also don’t translate well to audiobooks

-please don’t use Audible