A Reader’s Guide: 5 Tips for Listening To Audiobooks

Are audiobooks considered reading? How does it work?

I will tell you now, listening to a book is still considered reading. And the experience you get out of audiobooks is up to you. It’s all about engagement. In this reader’s guide, I’m going to share my top five tips for listening to audiobooks that will enrich your experience.

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Top 5 tips for listening to audiobooks to enrich your experience

1. Choose the right book

2. Choose the right narrator

3. Focus

4. Over-ear headphones

5. Time

There is a saying: all writers, read. And that doesn’t exclude listening to audiobooks. There is controversy out there as to whether it’s actual reading, but I’m going to debunk that claim. Why? Because you’re still engaging with a story.

The keyword here is engage, which is the theme of my advice.

I use Audible audiobooks, but I’ve heard countless people who love free resources such as Libby. However you get your book, take these tips with you when listening to your next audiobook, and I guarantee you’ll enjoy the experience.

1. Choose the right book

   There is a lot to unpack here. Choosing the right book is a similar process when you’re at a bookshop; you want to browse the aisles and pick your interests. I’m going to take this a step further and share a hack I’ve learned.

   There are two types of listeners; active and passive. If you tend to be a passive listener, you’d be better of leaning into fiction or fantasy. If you’re an active listener, you’d get a lot of benefit from most books, but you can dip into non-fiction because your mind stays engaged. Now maybe this depends on the day, but you know how you’re feeling, listen to yourself.

   You could give me any physical book and I am actively engaged but, I fall into the passive listening category with audiobooks. This is what I do:

   If I’m driving, working out, or cleaning, my mind can fall into fiction rather than non-fiction (with the exclusion of memoir). Otherwise, I may get tripped up on words or miss an entire paragraph because I lost focus on data. Also, I prefer to buy physical non-fiction books because with those novels, I’m trying to learn something. I’m a visual learner, so I stay engaged through annotations, highlights, and other notes I may take.

   This is also why I prefer not listening to classic literature on audiobooks. I LOVE classics, but I’ll be the first to admit they’re not easy to listen to on audio.

   Lastly, you may want to avoid books with complex timelines or structures. This may connect back to the active and passive listening; I have gotten confused, and thus didn’t enjoy the experience. Instead, read the physical copy of books that jump through time or have unique structures. As passive listeners, we need to see the format to understand and interpret the story just as much as the words on the page.

   I’ll give you an example, All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr was a book I did not enjoy the audio version of because the structure was too complex. I restarted this book 3 different times. You can read more of this experience. I look forward to the day when I re-read the paperback that’s sitting on my shelf because it did explore compelling themes.

   But this is not the rule, everyone is different. One of our contributors, Alex Graff, is an active listener. He is more engaged listening to a book, podcast, lecture, or YouTube video, than sitting down for long stretches with a book.
   

2. Choose the right narrator

   When it comes to audiobooks, you’re listening to someone else read the story. A poor performance can change your reading experience in both negative and positive ways. Before I get any audiobook I preview a sample of the story because if the narrator is too monotone, it will be an unpleasant experience. Don’t skip this advice, trust me.

3. Focus

   Choose when you’re going to listen to a book. If you’re cleaning, doing a puzzle, or working out— those are the perfect opportunities to listen to a book. While we move our hands to monotonous tasks, our mind is wildly engaged with the story. That’s why executing the first two steps is crucial for this step; you’re setting yourself up for an immersive reading session.

4. Over-ear headphones

   Personally, I believe that the surround sound blocks the world out, and gives me the opportunity to focus the book. My mind isn’t allowed to think about other things because the sound is so effective. You can use any other headphones, but speaking from experience, everything is more crisp and immersive.

   These are my favorite headphones:

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5. Time

Similar to which book you choose, one of my biggest tips for listening to audiobooks is to choose a book that doesn’t go over 15 hours.

Let me explain a few reasons why you want to avoid longer books: for one, it can feel intimidating because of the number—it’s just psychological. Two, it might be overwritten and you could be sitting through a dull book. Finally reason three, it’s more than likely a complex book that you should be reading a physical copy of.

For example, The Lord of the Rings is 19 hours and eight minutes long. I’ve been dying to read this book, so I downloaded it (against my own advice), and I haven’t listened to a single minute of it (aside from the preview which was narrated by Rob Inglis!)

How could I resist? Because it’s a large book with complex themes, characters, unknown languages, and so much more.

Pros and Cons of Audiobooks

Pros: 

• More reading— obviously! 

• Immersive experience through amazing performances with over-ear headphones.

• Flexibility & Productivity— reading while doing mundane or miscellaneous tasks around the house will become exciting. This includes, cleaning, cooking, puzzles, organizing, or working out.

Cons: 

• Nostalgia— there’s nothing like the feeling of holding a book.

• Can’t multitask.

• Engagement is crucial— you must focus on the story or you will get lost, and have to rewind.

Recap:

These five tips for listening to audiobooks will enrich your experience.

They are:

1. Choose the right book

2. Choose the right narrator

3. Focus

4. Over-ear headphones

5. Time

We hope you take away rich hacks that you will take with you when choosing your next audiobook.

Tell us what you’re listening to in the comments below!