I finally got around to trying out audiobooks. Downloaded the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" and Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea" from a community server. I had read the first one before, but never had the chance with the second. The first one has audio effects, like background voices on the street or the clatter of dishes in a dining room. Both have a great musical score. In "Picnic" it's - a classic eerie and "weird" ambient, sounding organic practically everywhere and not at all ridiculously pompous, as is often the case with this kind of music, especially when produced on Soviet synthesizers. In "The Old Man and the Sea" - some sort of folk guitar music (a relative of flamenco?), performed with moderate studio polish.
In "Picnic", they went with a rather controversial decision: each character is voiced by a separate actor, and the descriptions of the setting and commentary (indirect speech) are simply omitted in many places. Thus the book became more of a radio play, but at the same time lost part of its meaning. In the second book, the entire text and the characters' speech are read by one actor, but he does it awesomely. Goblin immediately comes to mind — the former plumber and now empty bottle collector, excellently "clowning around" in the voiceovers of his translations (his own expression).
Bottom line: you can and should listen to audiobooks, especially if you're an auditory person, the book is well-made, and you have time when you can't really do anything else.
Audiobooks
2006-05-25
, rejoicing. Then he sees another man—a local, but with a white-blue-red mess smeared across his face 
. They looked at each other sadly, then went their separate ways.