Audiobooks vs print - how do you choose

[ca06c]

How do you choose which books to listen to vs which to read aloud? Do you buy a print copy of a book you have on audio? 

[Jackie]

We have a nightly family read aloud. I hate actually reading aloud, so I’ve switched those all to audiobooks. 

Books that either my daughter or I read independently are typically hard copy books.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

If it's a book I want to be able to refer back to- homeschooling, parenting, fitness/health related, I definitely get it on kindle, or print.  

After that, for "fun" reading, I just tend to get a new audible book any time I finish one, so that way I always have one going.  I have hd good success getting through some of the harder books or more boring book by using Audible... things I probably would have dropped if I had to read them myself- a translation of Beowulf, Norse Myths, and The Aeneid come to mind.  I also enjoy audible for books with hard-to-pronounce names.  

 

Additionally, we listen to an audio book every day at lunch, so I also just get a new one each time we finish one.  We have the subscription where we get 2 books a month, and that's about perfect for us.  

[Mommyof1]

DD6 we do daily read alouds with books. Sometimes after her bedtime stories she request audiobooks. Audiobooks also take place on car rides and on days when Mom's voice can't.

Classics like  Wizard of Oz, Mr. Popper's Penguins and My Father's Dragon worked better with audio.

We utilize the library and there free online service Hoopla.

 

[HomeAgain]

I love reading aloud.  Many of the books I choose either have a wide range of characters to get into, interesting word play, or illustrations that are as much a part of the story as the text is.
I outsource the stuff I'm not interested in. 😄  Fantasy (like the Hobbit) which can be done really well with a soundtrack accompanying it, or ones where I might struggle slightly with the language because it takes a bit to get into something that archaic (like versions of Beowulf) or really, my voice isn't the most appropriate because the story is told from a first person pov - those are audiobooks.

[lulalu]

I picked based off of what books in print I can find used or at a great price. I like reading aloud and find audio at times to move too fast to stay with. But I pick audio books I want my ds to read that I haven't found in print at a reasonable price. 

[*****]

Most times, I picked audio cd's from the library simply for car rides to lessons and things, which are about 45 min. away.  We had many great reads and I am glad we did them this way due to the narrator's style.  Especially: Neil Patrick Harris for the Henry Huggins series, Mr. Popper's Penguins, Cricket in Times Square (a must!) and Pictures of Hollis Woods (another must!).  There were so many, and I thoroughly enjoyed them myself.  

I also chose Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn or Shakespeare as audio, due to dialect, it made it more real. 

I enjoyed reading them bedtime stories, so those were read aloud.   The first 2 Story of the World books were read by  me, but  the others were mostly cd's as we could use them in the car as well..

Try some audio, they are a fun change...

[shawthorne44]

For me that is easy, if I can get access to the Audiobook for free, then audiobook.  Occasionally we have access to both and we read along with the book. 
Reading aloud only happens at bedtime for DD, but bedtime is long.  Reading aloud comes first, then the lights go off, and audiobook time starts.  Audiobook also happens in the car, of course.