March 9, 2020
Are audiobooks considered reading?
I don’t listen to audiobooks. I have, but only a few, and never while driving. I know myself well enough that it would be a distraction. Heck, the other day, I parked on a different floor than normal in the parking garage and didn’t realize it until I entered the building because I was so deep inside Harmony’s head. (For those of you who don’t know, Harmony Duprie is the main character in my mystery series.)
Now, I have listened to a few audio books in my distant past. I was devouring the James Bond books, and there were some the library didn’t have on the shelves. I found an audio download of the books and grabbed the ones I needed to fill in the gaps. (Back in the day when audiobooks were on cassette or CD.)
And quickly realized how big of a difference the narrator makes. And that listening just didn’t cut it for me. I didn’t get the same satisfaction from listening to someone tell the story as I did from holding a book in my hands and reading it.
When I read, I like to take my time and savor some parts of the story and rush through others. (I’m looking at you, sex scenes. The rushing part. Most of you are boring. I can’t imagine listening to sex scenes.) I can’t do that when someone else is reading the book and I’m listening. I have to move along at their pace.
But just because it’s not my preferred method of reading, doesn’t mean it isn’t a valuable experience to someone else. And if it works for them, I’m good with it. Different people learn in different ways, I see reading is the same way. I wouldn’t say that someone who reads braille isn’t reading, only that they use a different medium. Same with audiobooks, in my opinion.
So, is listening to an audiobook reading? I’ll come down on the side of yes. Information is being exchanged, just in a different format. The reader is being entertained or informed. In a way, it hearkens back to the days of the village bar, when most people couldn’t read and only the very wealthy could afford to own a book.
That’s my take on it, anyway. Now I’m going to hop on over to the other authors and see what they have to say. You can go too, by following the links below. And don’t forget to leave a comment and join in the discussion!
March 9, 2020
Are audiobooks considered reading?
Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.
Yes, I agree with you about the validity of the format. I think of the many people who, for whatever reason, cannot read. Audiobooks are really only an extension of tales around the campfire. On a personal level, I was amazed when I first heard someone narrating one of my books, I found it hard to believe they were my words, so I can understand where you’re coming from regarding pace and imagination.
I like your analogy of tales around the campfire. But are stories heard in isolation somehow different than those heard in a group when the listener can see how others react?
I was thinking only in terms of the exchange of information via the spoken word. I guess audience reaction is something else. I must also admit to cringing when I heard my narrator describe an “intimate” scene which had seemed so mild to me when I wrote it.
I wonder if there have been any studies done on the differences in the messages received in a group vs in isolation.
Listening to sex scenes! Lol, Ugh, you’re right. It’d be like audio porn!
I can’t imagine I could keep a straight face listening to some of the sex scenes I’ve read.
Cringe-making, aren’t they?
See my comment above 🙂
I dislike audiobooks. Tales around the campfire us good. But then you get into that whole Michael Row Your Boat Ashore thing and you really see them for what they are. Accompaniment for burnt marshmallows.
However, God forbid, the sex scene bits? Worked with a playwright way back in my avant garde arteest surrounded by theater people daze who would pay us to sit around and come up with colorful synonyms for anatomy and action as he wrote, like a pulp guy, for the nameless publishing companies porn paperbacks.
Audiobooks…not me. Until the material is edited for VO.
I’ve read sex scenes that read like that. The whole string of colorful synonyms. That’s why I tend to skip past those bits, even in paper books.
I have never listened to a sex scene. I’m all the lol thinking about it!
Somewhere out there on the internet (I didn’t go looking for it) there is a video of celebrities reading selection from 50 Shades of Gray. It’s hilarious!
I think the audio format is just as valid as the print or ebook format, but I can’t hold my attention to it and I find it difficult to build an image in my head, so it takes a lot of the pleasure out of fiction. I might do an audio book for a non-fiction book, but then I might miss critical information because I got really engrossed in folding laundry or something.
Pingback: Audiobooks #OpenBook Blog Hop | aurorawatcherak
I agree.There are some tasks I can do while multi-tasking, but I don’t know if listening to information I need to retain is one of them!
I enjoyed reading your article, Patricia. I love audio books and listen to a lot of them. I do agree about the narrator though, a bad just wrecks the book for me and I can’t listen to the story.