Friday, November 1, 2013

Filipino Friday 2013 #4: Going digital


It's Filipino Friday again, dear readers, the weekly meme in line for this year, Filipino ReaderCon. This year's ReaderCon is just a few days away, so better clear up your calendars!

This week, it's all about reading books in other formats. Hmmmm. . . Tough. I love paper too much. I love touching it, smelling it, and even tasting it. I haven't read any books outside work that are in electronic format. The though of reading an ebook gives me goosebumps. Anyway, let's proceed with this week's Filipino Friday questions.

Do you read (or have at least tried to read) books in other formats aside from print?
I'll say it upfront—my preferred format has always been print. And my favorite print format is the hardback. I don't care that hardbacks take too much shelf space. When someone mentions a book, my mental image of it has always been a hardback.

But other than print, the only format that I've tried is audiobooks. Ebooks? I'd rather die.

How was your experience with this different book formats?
I've grown to love audiobooks. Listening to an audiobook takes longer than reading the print version though, but the experience is totally different. Listening to an audiobook is like hearing a musical performance, especially if the narrator has a dramatic voice.

I've read lots of audiobooks through the years. My favorite ones, interestingly enough, are those read by the authors themselves. I finished David Sedaris's When You Are Engulfed in Flames and Naked in audiobook format. Hearing Sedaris's squeaky voice just made the essays funnier.

Neil Gaiman is a wonderful narrator too. I finished the audiobooks of his Anansi Boys and Neverwhere.   And Chelsea Handler too! Handler's dead pan narration of her hilarious sexual escapades were a riot to listen to in My Horizontal Life and Are You There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea.

So that's it! Not much variation in reading formats for old KyusiReader. It's like 99.99% print and 0.01% audiobooks. Still, I enjoy "reading" both. I guess I should find more audiobooks to go through, yes? And they do make the terrible commute just a little bit bearable.

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Join us next Saturday, 09 November, at the Rizal Library of the Ateneo De Manila University for the 3rd annual Filipino ReaderCon.

4 comments:

Louize DG said...

Ooooh, Anansi Boys. Lenny Henry did a wonderful job doing that one. :)

Peter S. said...

Hi, Louize! Anansi Boys was really funny! And it was doubly funny in audio!

Lynai said...

What?! You don't read ebooks? I'd rather die! XD Just kidding, Peter. :D

I'm hesitant about audio books because I tend to be easily distracted when I just listen to something. Maybe, I will try it but only for a "reread" so that it won't be difficult for me to follow the story. :)

Peter S. said...

Hi, Lynai! I hope you do get to try audiobooks and enjoy them!