Today I have a question for all of you who like to listen to audiobooks. I have only listened to one audiobook in my life and it was YEARS (probably over a decade) ago when I was a teenager. My great uncle had given me his audiobook copy of The Fellowship of the Ring. I don’t even remember listening to the whole thing. This year I won an ARC audiobook of Everybody Rise by Stephanie Clifford. I was a little excited to try something new. I started listening to it in the car on the way to work this morning but the woman who is reading the book has one of the most boring voices I have ever heard in my life. I had to stop listening! So my question is this:
How long do you listen to an audiobook with a boring reader before giving up on it? Or do you just suffer through the voice and push through?
The Worn Bookmark 
I always listen to a sample on iTunes or Amazon before checking an audiobook out. If I don’t like the readers voice, then I’m not going to listen to it at all. I would just be distracted by how I don’t like the reader the whole time instead of actually listening to the book.
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Thanks for the reply! I’m thinking I won’t be able to continue with this one unfortunately. At least it was free!
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If I don’t like the reader’s voice, I stop listening. I try to give it at least 30 minutes. There have been plenty of audiobooks that I just had to stop listening to because the reader was just so bad or I didn’t like their voice. I would focus so much on how the voice was so bad that I wouldn’t pay attention to the actual story.
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I’m pretty sure that I’m going to end up not finishing this. I really can’t stand the woman’s voice lol!
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I’m very picky when it comes to audiobook voices, so I return about 99% of the books I check out of the library. (I never buy them.) If you don’t like the narrator’s voice, I don’t think you’ll be able to concentrate on the story.
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I am not an audiobook person either, so I have no advice, but I do know you can listen to excerpts some places.
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I’m not too upset since I got this audiobook in a giveaway… no money lost on my part. I don’t really think I’m cut out for listening to audiobooks anyways. I would rather read it myself without a narrator coloring the scenes for me, if that makes sense.
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I must have really good luck because I almost never get a boring reader when I listen to audiobooks, and I listen to them A LOT. Driving, chores, work–they make everything a pleasure to do. (I wake up like, “Man, I can’t wait to get in the car!”–seriously.) I wonder if my luck is due to the narrowed selection of audiobooks at my fingertips. I don’t pay for them. Ever. All my audiobooks come through my library either on CD or through Overdrive. Librarians are choosey (usually) when it comes to audiobooks, and you’ll get mostly popular titles and authors that have passed the “eh” test. At least, that’s my experience. 🙂
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I LOVE audiobooks. LOVE THEM. It’s the only way I’m able to read as much as I do. I listen while I drive and while I get ready for work or bed. I haven’t run across too many books with bad readers. I can think of maybe 1-2 and I did slog through them because they were for a book club and I had to finish the book. Generally I like audiobook narrators because they do well with voices and sometimes add more to the story – especially if the book is about another culture. I like hearing a native speaker read the story. I appreciate hearing the accent and the words in their voice. The guy that reads the Harry Potter series is awesome. And I love the woman that reads all of Laurie Notaro’s book. Janet Evanovich audio books are pretty laugh out loud too. Don’t give up on audio! Not yet!!!
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I’m just going to give up on this one audio book. The woman’s voice just does not appeal to me. I’m still willing to try others!
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