Audiobooks

Recently I decided to expand on the types of media that I use to get my book fix. I thought that the audiobook would be a great idea. My first plan was to look up free audiobooks online. It didn't really matter to me what book it was because I just wanted to get a feel for listening to books as opposed to reading books.

I was unable to get into the few books that I found online. My belief or excuse was that I just really don't like classics. I just needed to find one that I liked. So I went to Overdrive to see if they had any good books on audio. I wanted something that I had read before that I had liked so that I could not blame the subject matter on the reason that I did not get into the book. However, the audiobook really bugged me.

What I had once thought of as a strong character was now a stuttering maiden who sounded like a complete idiot. I began to doubt the IQ that the author had frequently commented on and shown in a variety of ways. I really disliked her because of the speaker. I disliked a lot of characters that I once loved because of the really bad voices that were used. On one hand I was thankful that it was so easy to tell the characters apart because of it, on the other hand when a supposed young adult sounds like an old lady it is really hard to enjoy the reading.

I decided that while I did not like that one I just needed a few more audiobooks and then I would make a final opinion about them. So I checked a few out from the library. I still had problems:

1. I could not tell who was talking,

2. The book had huge leaps in time without warning,

3. I could not stay focused on the book,

4. I forgot that the audiobook was not background music and missed huge chunks of the plot,

5. I could not skim ahead of the book and then go right back to my original place,

6. I could not multitask while listening,

And

7. It was an all-around crappy experience.

I know that there were more reasons but I don't want to bore too many people. Do you like to listen to audiobooks? When do you listen to audiobooks? What are you doing (if anything) when you listen to audiobooks? And finally, if you are like me and you can't/won't listen to audiobooks, why is that?
Please leave your answer in the comments section.