# Impact of audio books vs reading **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [March 7, 2024, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-of-audio-books-vs-reading/998583 "2024-03-07T19:28:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2024, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-of-audio-books-vs-reading/998583/41 "2024-03-08T20:47:28Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > I tried listening to a few on the way to work but I found them difficult to enjoy just because of the slow pace. I tried an audio book and the slow speed drove me nuts. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2024, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-of-audio-books-vs-reading/998583/42 "2024-03-08T21:36:01Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I tried an audio book and the slow speed drove me nuts. Again, nowadays most audiobook apps give you the option to adjust the playback speed. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2024, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-of-audio-books-vs-reading/998583/43 "2024-03-08T23:26:44Z")
Not sure I’d like listening to the chipmunks. : ) ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2024, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-of-audio-books-vs-reading/998583/44 "2024-03-08T23:32:08Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Back in the old days, increasing the speed of an audio recording meant increasing the pitch, so that it sounded like The Chipmunks. Nowadays, though, you can increase the speed without otherwise affecting the sound much. If you still don’t believe me, go on YouTube and watch a video of someone talking with the speed set at 1.5x or 2x. It’ll sound faster, but not any chipmunkier. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2024, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-of-audio-books-vs-reading/998583/45 "2024-03-09T00:00:58Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > Another example, one book had a lot of the dialogue in short snippets, all in the form: > > “Dinner?” Bob said. > “Yes,” Dave said. > "Pizza? Bob said. > “Sure!”, Dave said. > > This went on for pages, and all those "said said said"s really started to grate. Grrrr! WHY would a narrator/audiobook director decide to just mindlessly read every word that’s on the page? Going to add in the page numbers, too, idiots? I _strongly_ believe audiobooks don’t need the “Dave said” because you can HEAR that it’s not Dave speaking (it’s Dave’s nemesis, Contessa Protagonista of Plotsylvania, with a distinct voice). > [@Horatius](#): > > > [@CairoCarol](#): > > > > That’s my long-winded way of saying that audio books, in addition to being wonderful if I’m doing mundane chores like cleaning or chopping vegetables, do have the advantage of making it impossible to skim > > And that’s something that I consider a downside of audio books. Every once in a while, you come across something that, in text form, I’d just blip over, but in audio, you have to listen to the whole thing. Worst example was J.K.Rowling’s “Ink Black Heart”. I love the Cameron Strike series (though the woman has needed a good editor since _“HP and the Deathly Hallows”),_ But that book was predominantly transcriptions of a message board. So the dates and email addresses before every single message, even single words, was laboriously read out. I could’ve skimmed over those in milliseconds with the print book, but I was on a solo cross-country trip and determined to finish it. Her latest, “The Running Grave” is much better (still needs editing, though, but I haven’t run into any of her horrid views on trans people yet). ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2024, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-of-audio-books-vs-reading/998583/46 "2024-03-09T01:09:56Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I don’t know… somehow audiobooks strike me as being for people who can’t read well. > [@bump](#): > > I just know a lot of people who flat out don’t actually _read_, but are totally into audiobooks (and call it reading), and I find it a little bit strange. It’s okay to say that you don’t like audiobooks, but judging people who do as less literate or strange or aren’t quite “reading”? I think you need to understand what other people are experiencing. Hint: they ARE reading. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2024, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-of-audio-books-vs-reading/998583/47 "2024-03-09T01:17:34Z")
> [@digs](#): > > I _strongly_ believe audiobooks don’t need the “Dave said” because you can HEAR that it’s not Dave speaking Yeah, but the printed text probably doesn’t need them either. At least not when there are just two people taking turns talking, and/or when what they’re saying or their manner of speaking makes it obvious who’s saying what. I’ve noticed that some audiobook narrators do a better job than others at making the “Bob said” tags unobtrusive. > [@digs](#): > > So the dates and email addresses before every single message, even single words, was laboriously read out. Yeah, that’s a good example of something that works a lot better in print. ---
**Author:** ![fedman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2024, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-of-audio-books-vs-reading/998583/48 "2024-03-09T13:39:23Z")
note that people say they "hear: you even when it’s written, not spoken ---
**Author:** ![fedman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2024, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-of-audio-books-vs-reading/998583/49 "2024-03-09T13:43:31Z")
I dislike audiobooks because there’s only 1 narrator, usually male, and I can’t hear a female voice in male voice, which detracts from flow. to me a good audio book needs at least 3 or 4 different voices ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2024, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-of-audio-books-vs-reading/998583/50 "2024-03-09T14:52:51Z")
I don’t know that I’d call listening to audiobooks “reading”. Maybe I’m being pedantic, but it’s right there in the words that are used. It’s like calling watching a videotape of a musical performance “going to a concert” in many ways. Or for that matter, listening to a live concert album and saying the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Capn\_Carl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Capn\_Carl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capn_Carl)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2024, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-of-audio-books-vs-reading/998583/51 "2024-03-09T16:25:28Z")
A good narrator uses different tones and pronunciation for different characters. I listened to _The Fellowship of the Ring_ with one narrator and it felt flat. For _The Two Towers_, I switched to the audiobook narrated by an actor in the movie versions (Andy Serkis). I’m impressed with how many distinctive voices he can do. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2024, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-of-audio-books-vs-reading/998583/52 "2024-03-09T16:49:51Z")
> [@fedman1](#): > > I dislike audiobooks because there’s only 1 narrator, usually male, and I can’t hear a female voice in male voice, which detracts from flow. to me a good audio book needs at least 3 or 4 different voices I can’t argue with what works or doesn’t work for other people, but comments like this, or complaints about audiobook narrators who don’t “do the voices,” have never made sense to me. When I’m reading a printed book, I have no trouble telling who’s saying what, and it’s not as though the dialogue of different characters is printed in different fonts. I grew up being read to by (and being told stories by) parents, teachers, etc. So it always seemed completely normal to me that the person reading me the story would tell me what the characters said, with their voice which, of course, didn’t sound like that character’s actual voice. I will go so far as to agree that, ideally, a first-person-POV story should be read by someone whose voice matches the POV character. There are audiobooks, albeit a small minority, that are narrated by a “full cast” and have different people reading the dialogue of different characters. There are also audio productions of plays, and audio dramatizations of books, where all the parts are played by different actors. But the latter _is_ an adaptation and not the original book. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2024, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-of-audio-books-vs-reading/998583/53 "2024-03-09T17:22:20Z")
> [@bump](#): > > but it’s right there in the words that are used. Kind of like reading the room, reading braille, or reading my mind? ---
**Author:** ![JackieLikesVariety](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackielikesvariety/32/296_2.png) [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2024, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-of-audio-books-vs-reading/998583/54 "2024-03-09T17:26:08Z")
I used to only like audio books for nonfiction, when I am doing something else while listening. Driving was how I learned this: I don’t like to do something else if it’s fiction. but not too long ago I had the chance to check out both the book and the audio book for an English novel and I went chapter by chapter, first reading so I knew what happened and then listening so I could hear the dialog with wonderful accents done by someone with talent. I enjoyed it so much! I learned from friends on goodreads that who the narrator is really matters. **TLDR: audio books can be great!** ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2024, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-of-audio-books-vs-reading/998583/55 "2024-03-09T21:23:06Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I don’t know that I’d call listening to audiobooks “reading”. By definition, of course, listening to audiobooks is not reading. Obviously, one doesn’t have to know how to read to listen to a book. > [@bump](#): > > It’s like calling watching a videotape of a musical performance “going to a concert” in many ways. Or for that matter, listening to a live concert album and saying the same thing. I don’t know what the correct analogy is for describing listening to an audiobook as ‘reading’ that book, but I don’t think it’s either of these. Nobody I know has listened to a live album and then said they were at the concert. But some folks I know have listened to an audiobook and then said they have read the book. Heck, I’ve been guilty of that phrasing. ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2024, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-of-audio-books-vs-reading/998583/56 "2024-03-09T22:32:19Z")
Could you imagine this same thread 600 years ago? Are you really getting the meaning by reading it off inky pages? You’re missing the storyteller’s interpretation. > [@CairoCarol](#): > > Left to their own devices, such precocious readers end up rushing through boringly easy books or vainly trying to read books that are too difficult, resulting in eyes passing over material without comprehension. Bad reading habits ensue. This is an interesting insight and I think it describes me. I tend to grind through the plot and don’t savor the prose. I ‘read’ Moby Dick as a young adult and didn’t get much out of it for that reason. With audiobooks it can be a different type of experience. It’s possible to relax, forget about counting pages, and enjoy the text. I remember when we would read Shakespeare in high school and I’d struggle with making sense of what is going on. Then we’d do a field trip to see a play – same exact words, but it would be as clear as day. Sure there were a lot of other context clues, but it’s also about using different parts of the brain. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2024, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-of-audio-books-vs-reading/998583/57 "2024-03-09T22:39:21Z")
> [@digs](#): > > But that book was predominantly transcriptions of a message board. So the dates and email addresses before every single message, even single words, was laboriously read out. In the book Ready Player One, a plot point was some game leaderboards. Visually, you’d just skip over it or else look at the top two rows. In the audiobook, it was laboriously read out each time: “Tenth place, Superdude, ten thousand three hundred seventy-nine points… Ninth place, Awesomegal, ten thousand six hundred fifty-three points… Eighth place…” And, since the scores were important to the story and since they kept changing, they kept reading the scores over and over and over again… ---
**Author:** ![Orville\_mogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/aeb1de/32.png) [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2024, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-of-audio-books-vs-reading/998583/58 "2024-03-10T12:46:39Z")
Yes, I love reading. And for the reasons I mentioned, I don’t feel that audiobooks are true to the concept and value of words on a page reading. Curious, how would people feel about a very detailed description of a painting versus seeing the real thing? ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2024, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-of-audio-books-vs-reading/998583/59 "2024-03-10T13:56:24Z")
> [@Orville\_mogul](#): > > Curious, how would people feel about a very detailed description of a painting versus seeing the real thing? I’ll repeat myself: I don’t know what the correct analogy is for reading a book versus listening to an audiobook, but this also isn’t correct. Have you ever heard anybody say that they read (or listened to) a description of a painting (or a movie or a sunset or the Grand Canyon) and say that they ‘saw’ what was being described? I certainly haven’t. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2024, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-of-audio-books-vs-reading/998583/60 "2024-03-10T14:03:26Z")
> [@CaveMike](#): > > Could you imagine this same thread 600 years ago? Are you really getting the meaning by reading it off inky pages? Or 2000 year ago. “You didn’t ‘read’ that scroll! You had your scribe read it to you!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-of-audio-books-vs-reading/998583.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-of-audio-books-vs-reading/998583.md?page=4)