A community to discuss Audiobooks
@audiobooks A Public Service Announcement
I respect audio books, and I enjoy them. It's great that others listen to them too, but it isn't the same as reading. It's a different experience.
Listening to a recording of someone reading a book isn't the same as reading a book yourself, just like listening to a recording of someone using the bathroom isn't the same as using the bathroom yourself.
The information is the same... I imagine the same image in my head in an audio book as I do in the real book. Your comparison is trash. But on the bathroom note I guess, a book is like toilet paper, takes time have to double check each wipe, fold it over. It gets done eventually. An audio book is like a bidet. Fast, clean, effective. Both get your ass clean.
Listening is not reading. If you disagree, try this. Start your favorite audiobook where you left off. Now, go back two chapters and "read" the second sentence of the fifth paragraph. Do it by feel because you've listened to it before.
i love audiobooks.
no, they don't count as reading.
And why not? Do you not enjoy the story on a similar manner?
Are you saying blind people have never read a book they’ve listened to before?
yes, they have listened to those books
Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication in which knowledge, art, ideas and culture are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. The transmission is through speech or song and may include folktales, ballads, chants, prose or poetry. The information is mentally recorded by oral repositories, sometimes termed "walking libraries", who are usually also performers. Oral tradition is a medium of communication for a society to transmit oral history, oral literature, oral law and other knowledge across generations without a writing system, or in parallel to a writing system. It is the most widespread medium of human communication. They often remain in use in the modern era throughout for cultural preservation.
I’m not here to gatekeep literature or the joy of reading. Everyone builds a story different in their heads. I think the important thing is that the two are equal in terms of enjoyment of books. It just depends on the person.
Better or worse could be argued, but they are not the same. I would have to find the source, but reading has a different retention process and neural response in the brain. When you read, you live the experience as your brain creates the characters/imagery/emotions/voices… etc. You are creating more of the story in your head. You also get better at reading as you do it more, not quite the same skill training as listening.
True. But only if you dedicate most of your attention to comprehension. Listening to books while working is bound to make you miss details. I listen while driving and walking, and even that is distracting enough to make me have to rewind occasionally.