Audiobooks: Pros and Cons

Audible.com, a sub-branch of Amazon, is currently offering a free one-month trial and two credits (typically one audiobook = one credit) to all new users of the site. I had nothing to lose, so I decided to try it out. This was my first foray into audiobooks, so I also compiled a pro/con list of my experience:

Positives

• I listen on my iPhone, so I have a book(s) with me everywhere I go without having to carry anything extra!
• Great while doing mindless tasks that keep my hands busy: washing dishes, folding laundry, cleaning, knitting, etc. (This is a huge plus for me!!)
• Celebrity readers, such as Tina Fey narrating her book Bossypants, often read the story with their own natural inflection. I get to hear things they way they imagined it sounding when they wrote it. 
• Good during long commutes, especially on crowded subway trains where I wouldn't have space to hold open a book or eReader.

Negatives

• I don't always like the narrator's voice. I much prefer the imagined voice(s) I create in my head while reading. (this is something I got used to with time, as I got more engulfed in the plot of the book)
• Sometimes it's hard to create a strong mental pictures because my eyes are distracted by what is *actually* in front of me, whereas when I'm reading a book, the only thing I'm looking at are the pages, so it's easy to imagine the scene I'm reading about.
• Audiobooks can be expensive. 
• I can probably read faster than the narrator speaks ...it's also much easier to skim parts of a book than it would be to 'skim' through the audio.

Positive	Negative
Helps with pronunciation	Doesn’t help with spelling
Saves shelf space	No pretty book to display

Overall, I like audiobooks depending on circumstances. I would definitely prefer to hold and read a physical book or my eReader, but audiobooks seem like a nice options when I'm tired or don't have my hands free. 

I encourage anyone who hasn't tried audiobooks before to look into audible.com's free one-month trial, it's a great no-strings attached way to try out audiobooks without spending any money .... and for those of you who are already audiobook listeners, why not take advantage of the two free credits? Everyone loves free books, right? 

I'm also curious to know: what do you like/dislike about audiobooks?