During college, I flew home to visit my parents in Louisiana about twice a year. Even though flying made my trip much shorter, I always found it pretty boring. I get motion sick so easily that I can’t read or look out the window without feeling nauseated, and staring at the back of the seat in front of you gets old, even while listening to music. A week ago, I flew to Louisiana again, but this time, I enjoyed my flight. The difference was that I spent the entire time listening to an audiobook.
The first time I ever heard an audio book I was riding in a car with my friend and her mom. They were listening to Peter and the Starcatchers, and though the book seemed interesting, I wasn’t too sure about the format. As much as I enjoyed reading books independently, the idea of listening to someone read it seemed odd. And since reading aloud is so much slower that reading silently, I thought I would find audiobooks tedious.
Because my friends knew I loved to read, several of them encouraged me to try listening to audiobooks over the years. Though I was grateful for their thoughtfulness, I didn’t think I could ever enjoy listening to books. Then, I changed jobs and started driving forty-five minutes to work each day. During the winter, it was still dark when I left my house, and no matter what I did, I was having trouble staying alert.
That’s when my husband recommended that I listen to one of his Star Wars audiobooks. Because I was desperate, I downloaded the Audible app on my phone and decided to give it a try. And I loved it. The reader did a great job of changing his voice to sound like the characters, and since I was driving, I actually needed the book to be read slower than normal in order to catch all of the details. Most importantly, I found the story so interesting that I stayed not only alert, but intrigued.
It’s been over two years since I first started listening to audiobooks during my morning commute, and I’ve listened to dozens of Star Wars books that I wouldn’t have had time to read otherwise. Some of my favorite have been the The Fate of the Jedi series and Star Wars Clone Wars: Gambit, which includes Stealth and Siege. During my flights to and from Louisiana last week, I re-listened to Stealth and enjoyed it just as much the second time.
Though there are audiobooks of all kinds, I’ve stuck with Star Wars books so far for several reasons. The biggest is that my husband and I are both huge Star Wars fans, so we both enjoy listening to those types of books. Why buy an audiobook that only I will enjoy if I can buy one that we both will?
The other reason is that with Star Wars, audiobook readers try to make the characters sound like the ones in the movies, whereas with other books, they choose what they believe the characters sound like. The problem with that, especially with books I’ve already read, is that the way they imagine a character’s voice might be different than how I imagine it. With Eragon, for example, the reader makes Saphira’s voice sound lower and more gravelly than I thought it would be. It contrasts so sharply with how I believe her voice should sound that I can’t enjoy the story.
If you enjoy reading, I encourage you to give audiobooks a try. They can make any trip, from your morning commute to a cross-country journey, much more enjoyable. If you decide to try a Star Wars book, I do have one piece of advice: make sure the book you choose is unabridged. Many older Star Wars books were shortened when they were made into audiobooks. Last year, I listened to the abridged version of the Legacy of the Force series, and I could tell that a lot of important details were missing. While I still enjoyed the series, I enjoy unabridged books a lot more.
I already mentioned some of my favorite Star Wars audiobooks from the Legends timeline. If you prefer the Disney timeline, I recommend Thrawn and its sequels, Master and Apprentice, and the Aftermath trilogy. Do you have any audiobook recommendations? Let me know in the comments.
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