this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2023
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Audiobooks are the solution, not perfect but better than nothing. I "read" my books while cooking, while cleaning, in the bus, while walking around, in the car and at the fitness club.
Audiobooks are also great if distraction keeps you from reading. Similarly, they help if you have trouble staying interested during the boring parts of a book.
Both apply to me, and I've gotten through hundreds of audiobooks since I started ~11 years ago. I listen while traveling, cooking, cleaning, doing puzzles, and even while playing some videogames. I often listen alongside my wife or kids, making it a much more shared experience than a regular book. Audiobooks are great.
I've tried dozens of times and in many different contexts and settings. For the love of me, if I'm trying to do something else while listening to an AudioBook, not a single word is registered by my brain. I would make it through chapters and suddenly realize I have no clue of what is happening in the plot or who the characters are.
It needs to be an activity I can do on autopilot. I'm not listening to books while cooking a new recipe, driving somewhere I've never been, or playing a game that still requires any thought. Even when I can do it on autopilot, I have to pause and/or rewind occasionally (but not terribly often). Regardless, I know not everyone can easily split their attention for this.
No hate for audio books, but I think it's not comparable to reading. They are fundamentally different ways to get things in your brain, and they are handled differently. It's a different thing. Granted, if you want to experience a narrative or story, fine. But it's not reading. If you want to read, you look at words on a page. If you want to listen to an audio book, you do not want to read.
That is why I wrote "it is not perfect". I agree that reading is different. Not really for the reason you mentioned though. For me it is mostly, that reading is relaxing for me, audiobooks aren't. But one takes what one can get. Maybe when the children are bigger I start reading again.
Different strokes for different folks. You do what you gotta do to enjoy life, and if you want to read or listen to audiobooks, I wish you all the best! My particular neuosis centers around definitions, and it's insane, and I know it is. For me, the whole "I want to read more so I listen to audiobooks" statement just hits me like "I want to eat bacon so I eat lettuce". Sure, they're both crunchy, but it's like... A totally different thing. If you want something crunchy (a metaphor for a good story or something), then say that, then the format doesn't matter! This is a strange hangup to have haha I'm going to bed.