On the face of it, audio books (e.g. standard novels read aloud and played using audio cassettes, CDs or maybe even MP3 files) sound like a great idea.

But although they’ve been around for many years now, and are a natural extension of books being read aloud on both radio and television, they don’t seem to have taken off to the extent you might expect.

I fully accept that for certain people, such as the blind and visually-impaired, they probably provide access to literature and entertainment that would otherwise be denied them.

But for those, like me, who are fortunate enough not to suffer from such disabilities, I’ve always found there to be something sadly missing when listening to an audio book.

Firstly, and perhaps least importantly, there’s the time thing. If you spend hours a day travelling (e.g. commuting to work on the train), then they may be a great way to pass the time.

But for me, my daily drive to work, back in the days when I had a regular job, was only 15 minutes or so each way, and that was not really long enough to make listening to an audio book a worthwhile exercise. (That’s the same reason I stopped listening to Radio 4 and swapped to a local radio station instead.)

Secondly, I am often distracted in movies when “big names” are cast in leading roles where I don’t feel they’re the right people. Some movies seem to be created with certain actors in mind, and if those actors aren’t in sync with the mental image you may have already created for the character(s) concerned, then this detracts from the movie in a big way for me.

A good case in point is the movie Wilt, which is one of my favourite books by one of my favourite authors, Tom Sharpe. But casting Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith in two of the leading roles ruined this film for me, as they were nothing like the images I’d already created in my mind. (This isn’t to say they’re bad actors – they simply didn’t match my interpretation of the characters Wilt and Inspector Flint.)

Back to audio books, many are often read aloud by famous actors, and, albeit to a lesser degree, I find the same type of distraction is present. I’d much rather the book be read by an unknown with a largely neutral voice / accent.

But perhaps the biggest reason why audio books don’t work for me is because they fail to recognise one of the biggest attractions of reading – the power of your imagination.

The human brain automatically converts the thousands of words on hundreds of pages into images. It is this internal imagery that a good writer stimulates and that creates an experience like no other.

In fact, when I have finished reading a work of fiction, it’s often as though I’ve just watched a movie inside my head.

This is why most movies that have been derived from books you have already read fail to satisfy you – unless, and this is very rare, the director has somehow managed to capture something very close to what you have already built up in your own mind.

The same is true, for me, with audio books, although I accept it is to a lesser degree.

But having somebody else read aloud a book is still overlaying their own interpretation of the words, even if it’s more subtle, such as the intonation or stress that the reader places on specific words and phrases - it is up to them to decide what is important and what is not, not you.

The speed at which they read the book also has a bearing on how it all comes across. I am a naturally fast reader (maybe too fast), and the speed at which I read, especially with thrillers, helps to create the mental movie that is playing inside my head. (I also speed up towards the end of a good book, as I rush towards the climax – or maybe denouement would be a less sexually-charged word.)

If you’re listening to somebody reading a lot slower than you would yourself, then it creates two problems.

Firstly, the dissonance between their pace and your own natural pace again alters the overall atmosphere of the book.

And secondly, it’s been a proven fact for many years that the human brain can work about seven times faster than most people talk. This leaves huge amounts of time during which the brain can wander and be distracted – I should know, I’m a master at this!

But seriously, this difference in speaking and listening speeds is another way in which books that are read aloud to you can have a very different impact than books that you read yourself, at your own pace.

So, for me, I’ll stick to the written word as much as I can, because that is what works for me.