Some Audiobooks Are Better Read Privately
Before I begin this week’s discussion, I have to mention that author James Patterson just signed a deal with the Hachette Book Group to produce 17 new books between now and 2012. You may remember my disappointment with Patterson’s penchant for using co-authors.
It looks as though this practice will be continuing – how else could he possibly write the equivalent of 6 books per year? I hate to say it, but I’m taking him off of my audiobook must-read list.
I have a question: When you read an audiobook, do you use headphones or do you listen out loud? This may seem like a silly question, but an experience this week made me wonder. Housework is boring. I love to listen to books while I clean. It’s distracting and makes the work more enjoyable. My current selections required more careful listening (nothing worse than losing track of what’s going on in an involved mystery) so I put on an old favorite, The Time Traveler’s Wife.
Listening to Audio Books
I have said before that this is one of my favorite books. It’s a gorgeous love story that unfolds in an unusual way. It’s haunting and beautiful. It also has quite a few love scenes. So… I’m cleaning away, listening along and not realizing what time it is.
Suddenly, the door pops open and in troop my teenage sons – just as the audio hits a love scene. It’s not that the scene was something they had never been exposed to in literature (these are my older children), but for some reason I was uncomfortable.
I quickly turned it off, asking about their days at school. I know that people listen to audiobooks in a variety of genres, romance included. I have been pondering the issue and I have to ask: Do people listen to those kinds of things out loud or with headphones? I imagine myself in the car with the windows down and a book playing. If I stopped at a light and pedestrians or passengers in other vehicles heard a sexy scene being read from my car, I’d be mortified. There’s nothing to be ashamed of, yet I’d want to hide under the seat.
Just to clarify: I’m not a prude. If it is pertinent to the plot and characters, sex scenes don’t make me uncomfortable… if I’m reading them from a book… or listening via headphones. But out loud? That’s a whole different story.
By Dorothy Distefano
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