"The stigma of listening to audiobooks as somehow lazy or 'cheating' needs to stop."
Via Reddit....
As I'm sure for most regular readers and those who aren't, the act of reading a book is a large part of the enjoyment. Relaxing in bed, on the couch with your feet up, as it rains outside and you're warm inside, you feeling cool in an air conditioned living room on a blazing summer day and just being engrossed in a book. The smell of the book and the sound of the pages being turned can almost be ritualistic.
That being said, the primary act of reading is to enjoy the story. People often complain about not having the time to read when I mention a good book. So a little back story, I had brain surgery 5 years ago and while the results were good I've been left with vision and neck problems (parinauds syndrome and double vision) which makes reading more of a chore than a pleasure. So I turned to audiobooks, I've read over 60 books that I've kept track of (possibly more) on Audible and old school CD based books; books that even with perfect vision and no neck pain I'd never have read. It works great for me, I can 'read' while cooking, cleaning or enjoy it like a normal book and lay back in bed or on the couch, close my eyes and engross myself.
However whenever I tell people this I often find myself defending it when they say I cheat.. as if reading is some competition and you only get credit if you physically read the pages. Yes I can and do use my condition as an excuse but I shouldn't have to defend myself because I read my books in a different way.
Reading should be shared, great stories should be shared, no matter how it was consumed.
Top voted comment....
I wasn't even aware it was a stigma. What other people in regards of how you choose to enjoy stories should be of no concern to you, the only thing that should matter is your enjoyment of the story. Read it, listen to it on audiobooks, hell, have someone dictate it to you like Lecturers used to do for Cigar Rollers in Cuba if that is your thing, it doesn't matter. Just enjoy it.
14 comments:
I prefer audio books because I have a neurotic need to always be doing at least two things at once, which makes me an awesome lover, but it also makes it impossible to read an actual book of any length, unless I'm making love at the same time, which requires being a bottom, which just isn't my style. Thus, I listen to books mostly while driving. I only actually read books when waiting in lines, which counts as doing a second thing in my book.
Someone needs to invent a text reader that sounds like a real person reading a book instead of some Borg escapee on Valium.
I still haven't tried an audio book yet. I love the act of reading, but I do realize that my time is becoming more limited, so I think I will try it. I just don't know which yet within my genre of Sci-Fi/Fantasy. I have to see what's new I guess.
But I never realized that audiobooking was considered lazy or cheating. How is that even a thing? Would you fault a blind person for listening to an audiobook because they didn't use braille? I swear we have it so good in this country that people are looking for the stupidest shit possible to complain about to make them feel better about themselves.
I think using audio books probably demonstrates the opposite of being lazy. Sitting in a quiet room with a bourbon and a book is not exactly a cardio workout.
Sometimes I read one book while listening to a different audio book. I'm that smart and not lazy. When I feel ambitious, I'll write an essay while reading a book and listening an audio book, while making love, with brownies cooking in the oven, and the Roomba running.
bagoh20 said...
Sometimes I read one book while listening to a different audio book. I'm that smart and not lazy. When I feel ambitious, I'll write an essay while reading a book and listening an audio book, while making love, with brownies cooking in the oven, and the Roomba running.
Okay, see, now you're just showing off.
I like to reread a sentence that really says something or that is climactic in a longer passage. If the sentence seems to me to be particularly true or even better, awakes me to a truth I didn't know prior to reading that sentence, rereading it may, if I make an effort, set it in my mind. This is lost listening to an audio book. Doesn't mean audio doesn't have its place and is even a great blessing. But reading is best when it's a start and stop and start and stop process. Which makes speed reading an obscenity. Now bags is going to tell us he's a world record breaking speed reader ha ha ha.
I almost broke the record once, but I refused to finish the book when the author's character development proved inadequate for my highly refined tastes. I mean why would a cat wear a hat?
I started with audiobooks to make better use of my commute time. It find books for more relaxing than music or news. Now, all my none technical reading is from audiobooks.
Meth: if considering audiobooks, I highly recommend Audible.
The stigma that needs to end never actually started.
Maybe the guy talks to his friends about enjoying audiobooks and his no-class having friends are calling him lazy.
I do no think about listening to audio books but I do think about reading for them. I've read several books for blind one-on-one and doing that leads naturally to thinking about library books, the popular ones are always late to the game and that's frustrating for blind folks who want them. Not in braille, not in audio yet, it's frustrating. That's why I read Vampire Lestat and The Handmaid's Tail, I meant to say Tale just now but that other word came out instead, what the heck the main character's a big ole ho anyway, the whole thing is about nun's tail. Very pervy, that Canadian writer, with a bug up her butt about Christianity causing her to misidentify her actual real threats and mischaracterize her misplaced targets of degradation. Mary the blind woman said Atwood is genius. So there ya go. Difference of opinion, right there.
And it is a very difficult book to read aloud. The meter is mental. Once you notice the meter is mental you can see ahead this sentence takes the whole paragraph followed by five or so snappy sentences. Utterly jerkily mental.
My point is reading an entire book aloud and doing it well IS a real challenge and very few people can do it well. Be special. Be that person. Be the person who reads it very well with foresight in reading and with inflection just so that contributes without distracting, speeds up when excited, slows down for important passages, read with a voice that understands the material so completely the voice melds with the story. It is a serious challenge, dry throat, chapping lips, breaking voice, all of it.
This is lost listening to an audio book. Doesn't mean audio doesn't have its place and is even a great blessing. But reading is best when it's a start and stop and start and stop process.
For those who are auditory processors, the ability to engage in a start and stop process is available at the touch of a button, allowing a listener to rehear as many times as needed, often to the point where what was heard becomes a remembered phrase.
A family member with dyslexia does most of his reading this way, and can quote phrases and messages from memory, or better yet, from heart.
Ya know, I thought of that after posting, MamaM. That you could relisten with audio. But it was too late. :^(
I shoulda said rehear. This a bad day!
iBooks actually has a 15 sec rewind button. I often wish my car radio had one of those.
Audio books are the best. They were lifesaver for my dad who had bad vision the last few years of his life. They make long car trips fly. For some reason it doesn't appeal to me to listen while doing housework, crafts, etc.
Meth, try Neuromancer, narrated by Robertson Dean:
http://comonocreerendios-lem.blogspot.com/2013/09/neuromancer.html
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