Susan Reimer's away, so I'm subbing on the topic of audiobooks -- sort of. I confess that I've only listened to one: Cuba Libre by Elmore Leonard. And though it did make the utterly boring drive between Baltimore and Pittsburgh go faster, I found it hard to follow the thriller's action and plot. Since then, I've stuck to paper.  

But eager to please in Susan's absence, I found a captivating article about an early, albeit non-mobile, version of the audiobook. Cigar Aficionado (I don't smoke, I just read the magazine for the articles) described the Cuban tradition of bringing readers into cigar factories. For more than a century, they have read newspapers and books to workers rolling cigars at long tables.

Apparently the workers are a responsive audience. They would tap their chaveta (a semi-circular blade) on the worktable as a sign of thanks to the reader, or throw it to the floor as a sign of disapproval, according to the article.