Do you like Audio Books?
My experience is both limited and mixed.
I listened to a few books on long drives. I can firmly state
that they helped me get through the long commutes. I have a friend who swears gardening
and house cleaning are much improved with a good book in her ears.
But it is a different sort of experience. It is not reading, as the content and plot are absorbed, I suspect, by a different part of
the brain.
For one thing, the complete focus that reading while not
doing anything else is gone. Paying attention to the traffic or the weeds is
not trivial. For another, the emotional flavor of the words is colored by the
reading voice, and the reading voice is rarely the inner voice inside your
head.
In other words, (pun intended) the reader makes all the
difference.
Here
is a link to a good post about writers who are tempted to produce/read
their own audio books.
So far, my personal experience is that for less demanding commercial
books, audio books are fine. Especially with a good reader. Exquisite literary
fiction still needs my reading eyes.
I definitely process things better with reading than listening, simply because I can go back and re-read something whereas one has to manipulate a machine to do the same thing. But what's fascinating is that I pay attention to different things when I read vs. listening. I realized this because of the Bible so now I take the time to both read and listen to Bible stories.
ReplyDeleteIn some ways the experience sends us back to hearing our parents or teachers read picture books to us, doesn't it?
DeleteI love audio books although I agree a lot depends on the reader as to how much I enjoy each story. If I really love a book, I'll read a hardcopy, as well. I've read so many more books ever since I added audio books to my commute years ago. After looking at computer screens for most of the day, there's nothing better than to read with my ears. And when there are multiple readers, it's like live theater in my car!
ReplyDeleteI think I no longer feel safe to drive and listen to books, at least in city traffic. But it's fine for long distance commute.
DeleteMarcia, this has been my husband's experience. He's got a 20 min commute to work and in the space of a year he's listened to more books than he could've read. I suspect a big part has to do with eye strain reading physical books.
DeleteI've had very little experience with audio books. When my children were young, we used to play books tapes in the car on long trips, but that's about it. I agree that listening to audio books is a very different experience from reading.
ReplyDeleteSounds like (pun intended) your experience of listening to books involved simultaneous listening to kids :)
DeleteVery auditory, indeed.
I think I've only listened to one audio book — and it was while I was ironing, so I can't say it had my full attention. I really am a visual person. I love to have the book before my eyes.
ReplyDeleteThis got me imagining a sort of short story or a sitcom episode where a person is ironing and listening to a book so riveting they burn the clothes they are ironing... Divided attention, again.
DeleteI never buy audiobooks. I do use the text to speech feature on my Kindle though.
ReplyDeleteI've taken your advice, Kelly, to use the audio speech feature on WORD to read back PB texts to me so I can catch typos. But I wouldn't call it listening to stories. That mechanical voice is only good for typos.
DeleteI download audio books from the library when we're going on long car trips, and they certainly make the miles click by more quickly. I'm going to start using them while in the tub, too. I still prefer reading, but audio books have a place, too, especially if well-narrated.
ReplyDelete