Lovely to hear your thoughts! I've heard your gut feeling expressed before (also by someone who never even tried....). I don't think audio-books can ever replace the original, but they might add to it (or possibly in some cases, with a bad performance, detract from it!). For me, they are "handy tools" to cram in more reading (which already sounds disrespectful, I agree!). But once you get into it (training up your grounding powers in the here and now! for it takes some discipline to becomes a good listener) it starts to lead a life of its own. It's a niche thing, maybe.

I sometimes wish the writers out there would read more classics, though, for the chatty, cinematographic (bloggy!?) style they seem to be copying from eachother (reading eachother?) is becoming a drag.

I hope you're reading something good (for you!)