Recently, I posted a question in a Facebook Group as well as on my Facebook Page. I thought it would be fun to get your answers too.
The question:
How do you like to consume the books you read? Print? Audiobook? eBook reader?
By far, most of my reading is done via audiobooks (at least 90%), and most of those are via the app on my phone. I love audiobooks! After about 20 years of membership, my Audible library has over 1,000 titles in it. I can “read” while putting on makeup, fixing a meal and eating it, driving in my car, walking on the treadmill, doing yard work, taking out the trash, etc.
Some books get double duty; meaning, I buy the Kindle version and the Audible version together. Amazon calls it “immersive reading,” listening to the audio while following along on the Kindle or in the Kindle app. The line being read aloud is highlighted in the ebook. Some books are especially made for this type of reading. I’m more apt to do this for non-fiction, books I want to study. But when a novel is on sale for the Kindle for $2 or $3, then it is easier to spend the money to add the audiobook version.
A few non-fiction books demand paper. Especially my Bible and Bible studies, but other books too. Ones I want to be able to flip back and forth through the pages. Books that need studied.
Side note: I get a kick out of people who say they only like to read “real books.” They mean they want their books in print form, but I always want to tell them that the ebook and the audiobook are real books too. It is the same book, just in a different format.
Your turn:
What’s your reading preference? Or do you mix and match like I do?
~robin
PS My Boulder Creek Romance Box Set (Kindle edition), regularly $7.89, is only $2.99 US from July 8 through 12. Also on sale in Amazon UK, Canada, and Australia.
Robin Lee Hatcher
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I prefer print books. I rarely read e-books or listen to audiobooks. I find it difficult to go back to reread or relisten to a part previously read and wanting to revisit.
Connie, I totally get what you are saying, although ebooks isn’t quite as hard to go back as it is with audio.
Ebooks are easier on my eyes. So that is my preferred reading style these days, especially for fiction. I can’t do too much audio, maybe because I’m a HSP? I don’t like too much noise. Lol. However, I have done the immersive reading with some non-fiction books. By the way, I love the cover to the book you featured – “Wishing on Mistletoe.” It’s beautiful!
So glad you love the cover of Wishing for Mistletoe (releasing in November). I love it too. And my tired older eyes much prefers reading ebooks so I can make the print larger. As for audio, I had to train myself to listen. At first, my mind wandered all the time. But little by little I learned to listen better. If my attention begins to wander, I’ve learned to stop the book until I’m ready to focus again. But it took time.
It’s print books for me.
I do love looking at print books on the shelves, and I remember when I said I would *never* read on a machine. LOL. But because of pain in my wrists, holding print books has just become too difficult. And I do love how I can turn a page with a light touch of a button on my Kindle Oasis. Again, no pain.
Definitely print and then ebooks. Very rarely an Audible book. I have never been able to get into listening to a book.
Yvonne, I get it about the audiobooks. I had to “learn” to listen, and it took awhile. But the beauty is, I can listen when I can’t read a print or ebook (like when driving or out doing yard work). So it was worth learning for me.
Print for me. With e-books close second. I usually have one print and one on my kindle. I’ve never been much for audible.
👍🏻
I prefer print because I often have to turn back. Have never read an audio book.
My daughter always has an ebook and audible going at the same time, and seldom reads a print book.
I’m more like your daughter. But the turning back in paper is so true. Just easier.
I mix and match. It took me a while to get used to the Kindle app, but now I love it. It’s easier to hold. I can enlarge the font. I can find the definition or translation of a word or phrase just by highlighting it. I can see all my highlighted texts and notes at the push of a button. And I can store thousands of books in the app on my iPad mini.
I started listening to audiobooks when we moved and I had a longer commute to my mother-in-law’s assisted living place. I chafed at what seemed like wasted time in the car. Audiobooks transformed the drive. Now I listen to them while curling my hair, putting makeup on, dusting, etc. I can only listen to fiction or biographies or memoirs, though. With instructional nonfiction, I have to be able to pause, reread a section, underline, make notes, etc., to get the most out of it.
I love the feel of print books, especially classics. But our bookcases are stuffed with no room for more. I even have boxes of books in closets that I haven’t been able to get make myself get rid of. Because of that, I rarely buy print books any more unless it’s something I know I will want to keep and pass down to my family.
I very much agree that they are all real books!
Yes, yes, yes!
I’m an eBook reader all the way. Love my Kindle! It’s easier for me to hold than print copies. I know that might sound like an odd reason, but that’s one of my main reasons for reading off a Kindle. Plus, it’s way easier to carry a 1000 books. Lol!
Exactly, Nicole. And every book reader needs 1,000 books with them at all times, just in case. LOL!😃
Hi Rob:
My preference is a paper book but I LOVE audiobooks and always have one going. Audiobooks definitely makes my commute to and from work much more enjoyable as well as constitutionals around the block or in my neighborhood.
I probably split my time fairly equally between a paper book and an audio book. I rarely read an e-book, but do have those available for when I’m donating blood or waiting for a doctor appointment.
Hope you had a wonderful Independence Day celebration!
Thanks, Joyce.
I like to read print books. I buy or check out them from the library. I usually write comments in non-fiction books as I read them.
I also read online articles from magazines and newspapers as well as chapter excerpts from forthcoming novels.
Since I work in a library, I need and take breaks from the computer screen during the day. My optometrist said it was great that I did that whenever I have my annual eye exam. (I wear contacts and glasses)
Ah, working in a library. What a great way to have books at your fingertips.
I, too, am a huge fan of audiobooks! I do most of my reading in that format these days, though I also always have a different ebook going on my Kindle and a different Bible study going in paperback. As a reader and an author I love that all three formats are so accessible these days!
Amen, Becky. I remember when it could cost $80 for an audiobook and I had ten or more disks in my car. Much prefer the easy download to my phone!
I perfer Paper and ink books. Sorry I call them real, if the electronics fail they remain! Of course fire will destroy all!🙃
Absolutely true. I think of power outages and what that could mean to my library!
I read probably 80% ebooks, 10% audio and 10% paper. My eye issues make ebooks and audio easier, but I prefer to read than listen, unless I am driving or on an airplane or maybe in the tub. i collect physical books and wish I could still read them as fast as I used to!
D’Ann, I never got into reading in the tub. Water cooled too fast. LOL! But audio would definitely be better there for me.
I like ebooks. My daughter and I share our Kindle Library, as a household account and we both buy books. I do buy audio books for when I am working, walking, etc. I have found that Chirp has good deals. I do borrow from the library in ebook form via Libby and plan to borrow audiobooks as well.
Hoopla is great if your library subscribes to the service. Mine used to but doesn’t now. For Libby, my library doesn’t have many of the books I want in audio, so that hasn’t worked for me. Great that you can share with your daughter!
I’m a paperback-lover first & foremost. I like to feel the book in my hands, smell the newness, & turn the pages. I put off reading ebooks for a long time because I just didn’t wanna read from a screen. But then I got a bigger phone, I got Kindle Unlimited on Amazon, & I started connecting with a lot of Christian fiction authors through FB. Lots of free giveaways & cheap special deals later, I also have quite a good-sized library of ebooks. I LOVE my paperback collection most, though!:) I’ve never been a fan of audiobooks & haven’t listened to any. I would have a hard time not becoming distracted.
Print, without question. I do read some ebooks, but all that blue light before sleep is not good for anyone and keeps me up longer than. I should be!