What’s the Audiobook Experience?

Audiobooks are everywhere! The old idea of “tell me a story” found a new launching pad on the internet and suddenly everybody’s listening.

What is the draw? Why do people plug in those earbuds or get their Smart House speakers buzzing?

When reading a book, we do two things. We create: we give characters voices and looks according to our preferences and associations. My Sherlock Holmes does not resemble yours (however much Benedict Cumberbatch is the modern icon of that ancient sleuth).

And we experience. When Sherlock hunts through London’s darkest sewers, we feel the grime and squalour and our fake mustache itches our upper lip. Brain scans prove that, from our comfy cushions, we live out what we read as if we were really there.

When we watch a movie, all the creating part is done for us.  It lights up different parts of our brains and produces more addictive chemicals more readily.

With Audiobooks, people are marrying the literary with the cinematic of their own imaginations.  Your brain, helped by the narrator, gets a workout of creativity because the “pictures” still come from your own genius.

The experience is intimate, profound, and addictive!