The audio book and when it can be useful

I was never really a fan of the audio book until I had the opportunity to listen to one. I was with a friend in Canada, and we were driving from Regina to Calgary. The journey between the two cities is seven hours. Now throw in the fact that it was winter and was snowing. Canada has a reputation for its snow. I leave the rest to your imagination. Listening to "The Luckiest Guy in the World" was nothing short of wonderful. Apart from the wintry conditions, the book was a breathe of fresh air. I thoroughly enjoyed the narration. It also made me appreciate the audio book in the sense that some books look like a right handful to read. 

However, there is one thing we must not forget, bad narration really does ruin a perfectly good book. Let me give an example (here comes the controversy), Seth Godin is a great public speaker and very interesting to watch in action. For those of you who don't know Seth Godin, he is one of the co-founders of Squidoo, and bestselling author of books such as "Unleashing the Idea Virus" and "All Marketers are Liars". I must complain though that when Seth narrates in one of his books, well, it is not enjoyable. His voice was monotone and frankly boring. Many of you might disagree but why not head on down to Audible.com to download his free audio book "Tribes" and see (hear is what I should say) what I mean. I can also think of some other books such as Adam Khoo's Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires and narrated by Adam could have been better. I am sure Adam would not agree with me just as some of you but hey, you be the judge. Oh, and by the way, Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires is a very interesting book. 

Criticism or not, good audio books are still really good value and should be enjoyed. I can only imagine how most of you enjoy your audio books. Maybe you are one of those people who lights up a cigar and listens to one of Arthur Conan Doyle's books or you put the kettle on for a cup of tea while listening to Oscar Wilde, you can not argue that audio books are useful and here to stay.