I'm Not Listening

Why I don't listen to audiobooks

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I have never listened to an audiobook and I’ll fully admit to having a bias against them.

First, let’s get the science and studies out of the way. From what I’ve read, listening to a book versus reading it are both good for your brain and most experts believe that listening to a book is the same as reading it. There are a few studies that reading instead of listening does increase retention and understanding, but it seems, for casual readers this is of little consequence. And so, with that, I am acknowledging that what I am about is to say is my opinion and not necessarily fact.[i]

Reading as Relaxation

Most people I know who listen to audiobooks do so when they are multitasking. They are driving, folding laundry, and cleaning their house. A few even admit to reading while they are working or studying.

While I listen to the occasional podcast while doing mundane chores, I typically work and do chores in silence and when I read that’s all I do. In world where our attention is constantly being assaulted, I use these times to rest and recharge rather than multitask.

When I am doing boring chores, I let my mind wander. It’s one of the times when I come up with my best creative ideas and solve problems. Sometimes, I practice mindfulness. When I fold laundry, I note the warmth of the clothes, admire the colors, run my hands over the fabrics. This reverie in the mundane grounds me and quiets my tendency towards overthinking. If I was listening to an audiobook, I wouldn’t have that experience.

I give my reading time the same single-minded attention. I typically find a comfortable spot, pour some tea and read. I highlight sentences and paragraphs that touch me. I read deeply and dissect a writer’s style in order to become a better writer myself.  I run my hand over the cover the book, smell the pages, or hug my eReader to my chest. I put it down, take a sip of tea, and think about what I just read. I wonder if the author’s repetitive mention of cheetahs has a symbolic meaning. I can’t do those things when I am listening to an audiobook, especially if I’m doing something else at the same time.

Voyeurism and Reading

Then there’s the issue of my experience of reading. When I read, I don’t see the words. I mean, I do at first, but at some point, I drop into the story and stop being conscious of the act of reading. The best way I can describe it is that it’s like I pull up a chair, on the outskirts of the action of the book and become a voyeur. I see the action, hear the conversations of the characters.

When I’ve talked to other people about this experience of reading some people have similar experiences and some don’t. Interestingly, I’ve noticed the ones who experience this love to read, while the ones who don’t, the ones who are constantly aware that they are reading, usually do not like to read.

I suppose some people, when listening to an audiobook can also reach this voyeuristic state and maybe, some of the people who can’t visualize the scenes when reading a book, can experience it when they listen to one. Which is a good thing for them. But I would hazard to guess that it’s hard for anyone to enter a story if they are carrying a laundry basket into the scene with them. Maybe I’m wrong. Can you put your body on autopilot for folding sheets and then let your mind wander into a good book? I don’t think I can, but I am a very single-minded gal.

A Different Interpretation

A few weeks ago, I was listening to a podcast and I heard a snippet of Tom Hanks reading Ann Patchett’s book, The Dutch House. It is one of the audiobooks I’ve heard is good. I hated it. It seemed to be a completely different story than the one I read. Hank’s inflections, his cadence as he became the narrator was foreign to me. That’s not to say it was bad, but it did make the reading experience become Hank’s reading experience and not mine. The protagonist was the not the same man I imagined when I read the book.

I wonder, if we all listened to the same book, being read by the same person, would we all come out of the experience in a similar way? Would our interpretations of what happened, what the message was, be the same as the person reading the book? Alternately, if we each read it on our own, would it be different?

I know, from book clubs that I’ve been in, when we have all read the same book, we have both similar and different interpretations. If we all listened to the book, would we agree more?[ii]

The Loneliness Epidemic

When I was younger, there were often volunteer opportunities to go to nursing homes and read to elderly patients who could no longer read. There are stories and movies[iii] about the special bond the develops between the lonely elder and the awkward child. I wonder, do audiobooks take away this connection?

What other opportunities for human connection, reading to one another are lost when you need only press a button to hear a story? These are probably too deep of questions to ask when simply writing about listening to books, but I can’t help but wonder if it is another way our use of technological advances seem to be driving us apart.

Conclusion

After writing this, I think maybe it is less that I am vilifying audiobooks and more that I don’t like the speed of life they represent, the lack of attention, the perceived need to multitask when doing anything these days.

Maybe, if I sat down and just listened to an audiobook, I would find it enjoyable, as if I was a child again, cuddled up with my siblings on the living room floor as my father read us Through the Looking Glass.

Perhaps it is better to question why we use audiobooks. Are they to recapture that childhood joy of being read to? If they are, wouldn’t it be nicer to cuddle up with a loved one and have them read to us instead of a stranger?

Audiobooks are excellent tools for people who have vision problems or reading challenges like dyslexia but are many of us using them because we are speeding through life? Do we use them to avoid thinking about our lives, because we can no longer tolerate boredom?

These are the questions I ask myself, in this second act of my life, as I try to slow down in a world that seems to spin faster every day. Now it’s your turn. Tell me your thoughts about audiobooks. There are no wrong answers. We are merely exploring. I’m open to your opinions and hope you are open to mine.

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[i] Sources: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00892/full, https://www.wellandgood.com/reading-versus-listening/, https://time.com/5388681/audiobooks-reading-books/

[ii] It might be interesting to note that I often find that people who listened to the book in the various book clubs I’m in, usually have forgotten large swaths of the book, or can’t remember the names of the characters. Whether this is due to the difference in reading vs. listening or just the multitasking that typically occurs with audiobooks, is unknown.

[iii] Mr Harrigan’s Phone is one of the movies about a boy reading to an elderly person I’m thinking of, and he, in return teaches the man he’s reading to how to use modern technology.