Audiobooks vs Physical Books
My First Audiobook
Last week I did a post comparing eBooks to Physical books. Following up on that post, today I’m going to be
comparing audio books to physical books. The first audio book I listened to was
the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. As
I was moving through the youth classic list, I
constantly ordered books from the local library, as I wasn’t sure whether or not they were a classic and didn’t want to purchase them unless I actually
enjoyed reading them. I ordered it through
the interlibrary loan by mistake and I wasn’t willing to wait for the physical
book to arrive so I just spent my time listening to the audio book.
My Experience
Since then I’ve listened to 3 more audiobooks:
Stuart Little, ordered by mistake, Welcome to Night Vale, the book not the
podcast though I do love the podcast, and 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, which I did a post on acouple of weeks ago. Listening to each audiobook was a unique experience, not
only because the narrators were different for each one, but also because all
four that I have listened to have been from a different genre: autobiography,
children’s book, fiction, and self-help. Therefore, I like audiobooks depending
on the genre. For example, typically I despise reading autobiographies. I get
distracted way too easily and don’t remember much of what I read. However, with
the audiobook, I could stay focused on what the person was saying and complete
other tasks on my to-do list.
Audiobooks Stats
In fact, according to Survey Monkey, most
people listen to audiobooks while doing other things such as commuting,
completing housework, or exercising (1). However, despite how they can make
mundane tasks more tolerable, surprisingly over two-thirds of young
professionals surveyed hadn’t listened to any audiobooks in the last three
months (1). Maybe it’s because of the
popular myth that audio books don’t have the same benefits as physical books,
but studies going as far back as 1985 have found that listening comprehension
correlates strongly with reading comprehension (2). Similarly according to
cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham, if decoding or “figuring out words from
print” is your goal, then you should be reading physical books (3). “But if
appreciating the language and the story is the point,” then audiobooks are just
as good as physical books (3).
Intention
I think it also depends on something else
Willingham mentioned, the author’s intention. For instance, when I listened to Welcome to Night Vale the novel, the
narrator was Cecil Baldwin, the same narrator for the Welcome to Night Vale
podcast. Therefore, it felt natural to listen to the entire book in his voice,
since I’d been listening to 100 or more episodes of the podcast in his voice as
well. On the other hand, when I listened to 12
Rules for Life an Antidote to Chaos, I found myself struggling because I
couldn’t go back and reread things if they didn’t make sense the first time as
easily as if I was reading the physical book. Plus the audiobook was over 12
hours long and reading it, for me at least, would have been easier to make time
to consume the book.
Unlike with ebooks, my ultimate opinion
on audiobooks is that I personally prefer physical books. It easier to find
time to consume them, and I can reread things easier, but I will make an
exception for autobiographies. Audiobooks are excellent for autobiographies. Although
I still have time that I could be reading audiobooks, like driving or putting
away laundry, I like to spend that time listening to podcasts. Let me know if
you want me to write a post on what podcasts I listen to. Do you listen to
audiobooks or do you prefer physical books?
Notes:
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