Have you ever thought of the advantages of an audiobook?

Since the 1980s, when narrated forms of books became readily available in public libraries and schools, audiobooks have been rapidly gaining a foothold in the reading market worldwide. With the development of a variety of digital formats for books, publishers and book retailers have joined in a concerted effort to make audiobooks more widely available and audiobooks have constantly gained in popularity.

Thanks to constant technological advancement, an increasingly new range of digital formats for audiobook recording have been made available, resulting in much less abridgement of texts and minimalisation of production costs. Audiobooks are less expensive to produce than hardcover books and paperbacks and the audiobook format is now often available simultaneously with book publication curtailing the need to wait for an audio version of a highly popular book. The increasing number and range of book titles available in audio format makes it possible for more and more people to discover reading as a new experience and enjoy it in a different way.

One of the biggest advantages of audiobooks for most of us is that they offer us an excellent way to make more effective use of our dead time: we can now enjoy and learn from an audiobook while doing others tasks, mechanical tasks which tie up the hands: painting/decorating, ironing, weeding the garden, clearing up the garage, or similar housework chores. Even while jogging, or travelling which can be long and uninteresting; or at places where it may be less practical to be reading a book, by the poolside, or the beach, no need to worry about turning the page of a book with wet hands; or in the dark, when camping, no need to try to find a source of light in order to read a book in the conventional way. The digital format of an audiobook preloaded on a small and simple player or mobile phone which is easy to carry and transport and hardly takes up any space makes it possible for everyone to enjoy their favourite read wherever they may be.

In that respect, the audiobook format is extremely valuable to anyone who has an illness or disability which makes it difficult to hold a book, turn its pages or read it in the usual way. It has been a vital medium for enjoying the content of a book for visually impaired or blind people who can now have access to a vast array of titles due to a quickly expanding audiobook publishing industry. Most major book publishers now actively participate in audiobook publishing and see it as a complement to their printed book operations.

The increasing popularity of audiobooks is not likely to take away from the interest in the traditional printed book, as audiobooks are not a substitute for the printed form but yet another medium for making book content accessible. In that sense, the aural form of the audiobooks preserves the oral tradition of storytelling. Narrated form of books, particularly of the fiction or drama genre, are often fully dramatised versions of the printed book, sometimes with the participation of a complete cast of narrators, mostly relying on extensive use of different types of voices, the sound of a single narrator’s voice speaking in a variety of accents, rhythms and registers. The narrator/reader addresses and interacts with the listener/reader in a whole new process of interpretation which sometimes is beneath the surface of the text, and is brought to life by the narrator’s acting, oral interpretation and performance. For the listener, such a process potentially enhances visualisation and can make the read exciting and enthralling fun. This can have a great impact, particularly on children and young adult readers, as it can make reading a book a totally new experience and offer a new way to develop their imaginative perspective on prose and poetry alike. For children and young readers, their own reading skills need not come in the way of enjoying a read; as the narrator does the reading, they can engage in absorbing the content and let their imagination picture what they are listening to. At bedtime, they can relax, enjoy and learn from an audiobook brought to life by an expert narrator without straining their eyes, freeing up the parents’ time for one night at the same time. In that way, it is also possible for young readers to access book content which may be slightly advanced for their reading age and enjoy it all the same and more. And with the list of audiobook titles constantly expanding, reading books of all kinds is brought into our lives as a fascinatingly different reading experience.