tapes of the cassette variety

I recently decided to reread Harry Potter.  At the same time, Joel decided the same thing!  So we've been going through them together, with me reading it aloud.   We're on the fourth book right now, and while we were home for Christmas, we decided to take advantage of the fact that my parents own the fourth book on tape.  I love Jim Dale.  

We had to leave before we finished, and Joel suggested that we look at buying the audio files to listen at home.  He also loves Jim Dale.  So I checked, and the audio files cost $40-$60!  WHAT!  Well, when they're read by Jim Dale.  Less famous readers obviously cost less.  But the Jim Dale tapes only cost $10.  

At first I thought it was sad and wondered if it would be worth it to buy the tapes instead.  They're obviously lower quality... I don't really care about that, actually, especially as far as books are concerned.  But people say it.  But then I actually thought about it.  Tapes may be outdated.  They may not be the "coolest" way to listen to stuff.  BUT.  Think about it!  For an audiobook, I think tapes are the best option.  If you're listening to an audiobook on CD and want to go to bed in the middle of the chapter, you have to stop it.  You can't leave it on pause all night!  So, you've lost your place.  If you're listening on an mp3 player, you can pause a track in the middle and leave it, but you can't listen to anything else before you finish the track or you'll lose your place again!  Tapes, on the other hand, you can pause in the middle and leave as long as you want.  You can listen to anything else afterward without losing your place.  If you want to listen to a sentence again, you can rewind it real quick without worrying about restarting the whole chapter on accident.  And there's the added benefit that the whole world doesn't know this [or doesn't care about audiobooks], so tapes are also cheaper.  

Guess who just bought Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on tape?

Well, not me yet, but I'm about to.

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“It won’t take long to stay an hour.”

Anne's House of Dreams