You know, as much as I love the Jurassic Park movies, I’d never read the books [gasp!]. Not until the Jurassic Park audiobook was suggested buy one of the guys in my small group’s book chat—he listens to it every year.
Of course, I’ve never been into audiobooks, so I drove down to my local library to renew my card that had been expired for six months (to be fair, they never had any of the books I was looking for, so I never had reason to use said library card), and immediately checked out the Jurassic Park ebook.
We’ve all seen the movies, right? So, I’m not going to lay out the plots of these two books. I will say the books are better than the movies. But aren’t they always?
We, in this little corner of the internet, know by now that I will shirk all my low-priority responsibilities to read through a book I enjoy. And while I made sure not to neglect any high priority work, I did put aside several tasks and read through Jurassic Park in about four days. I was hooked.
Now, here comes the confession (and if you follow me on IG, you’ve already read my confession):
I don’t have any memory of being read to as a child (not to say it didn’t happen), and I’ve never particularly cared for the sound of someone else reading to me—I prefer the voices in my head🙃—so I’ve always disregarded audiobooks (I know, I know).
That was until I promised (the same person who recommended the first book) to give The Lost World audiobook a try. And not only did I get through that book in two days, but I did it while also checking off my to-do list—shopping, laundry, going for a walk, job searching, designing posts in Canva, and cooking dinner!
And to top it off, actively listening to the audiobook kept my brain from spiraling and I was able to get a lot done without the constant overthinking that usually occupies my day.
So, I offered an apology to the audiobook listeners on IG, and now I’m offering an apology to you audiobook listeners here: I’m so, so sorry for every time I disregarded your Audiobook.
Now, I must also say this here as well: listening to an audiobook is not the same as reading a book (reading vs listening is akin to writing vs speaking). It’s still a valid form of book consumption, it’s just not reading.
There are some books I just want to consume—I want to get through it, know what happens, and check it off my TBR list—and there are other books I want to indulge in and enjoy.
For the books I just want to get through, I will gladly turn to the audiobook version and listen to it while I’m working, walking, shopping, etc. As a matter of fact, if I can access the audiobook for How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents through my local library, I will absolutely listen to the second half of that book so I don’t have to read any more of it! That way I can get through the rest of it quickly and move on to something I actually want to read.
Back to The Lost World. I know I saw this movie (I have a JP DVD set that I’ve watched more than once), yet it all seemed totally new to me listening to this book. While I was reading Jurassic Park, I could visually see scenes from the movie in my head, but with this one, my brain was forming its own visuals because there wasn’t a reference available to draw from for some reason.
Then I rewatched the movies and realized why… The Lost World: Jurassic Park (movie) was basically a completely different story than The Lost World (book). There were so many missed opportunities with these movies (like how truly delusional Hammond was)!
With both books, I found myself reacting out loud, rolling my eyes at people not listening, being annoyed with the kids, and being in awe of Ian Malcolm and his rants about self-serving scientists (also wondering why he ends up in a pain killer-induced haze in both novels).
The bad guys always die and the kids always live (except for some baby dinos), and it seems to be how we want the world to work. Honestly, if they would’ve only kept the herbivores for the park and destroyed any carnivores that resulted from their experiments, none of this mess would have even happened (Malcolm would probably find reason that it would have happened regardless) and the park may have actually been a success. But, of course, people always want a shock factor because they think it’ll attract more business. Well, the business went under because of Hammond’s shock factor. Way, way under.
Anyway, if you like the movies, you’ll love the books. I love the movies and I loved the books even more!
What’s next? Garcia Girls… because I did, in fact, find the audiobook through my library and will listen to the second half instead of reading it.
Happy Reading!
🖤
Christine Gabriélle 