On Audiobooks

Once upon a time, I was an avid reader. Then in graduate school, I started to feel guilty when I took time to read for pleasure; I always had so many research papers and textbooks and articles that I was behind on reading. And in the spare moments when I rewarded myself with something pleasurable, reading was too similar to read work. Movies and podcasts became the order of the day.

Eventually, after being inundated with Audible ads on literally every podcast I listened to, I decided to gave it try. All of sudden, I was “reading” again! I was commuting and cleaning and driving but I was also reading. Amazing. I even stopped listening to podcasts almost entirely; audiobooks became the order of the day.

Then the author does something I find annoying. He rightly points out that the study did not include paper books, just e-books. And he correctly infers that we cannot rule out the possibility that reading paper books is better than listening to audiobooks. But still, it is just: we cannot rule out the possiblity. We cannot rule it out. That doesn’t mean it is true. Or likely. Or even remotely possible. Just: we cannot rule it out. Apparently this shadow of a doubt is enough to launch an entire investigation. So he veers off-course and manufactures the case for “paper” books to balance everyone’s viewpoints on audibooks.

Luckily, this unnecessary detour is actually super interesting. Exhibit A is the fact that ebooks and audiobooks obfuscate how far into the book you are. Absolutely correct in my experience; I’ve occasionally been surprised to notice that I was only half way through a book that felt like was wrapping up. Or chapters that go on forever. Exhibit A is interesting but the connection to comprehension and retention is not made clear.

Exhibit B is that paper books create “spacial recognition” that effects recall. Also, from my experience, when I recall written text that I have read, I can often also recall the location it was on the page. Aside: this adds a new dimension to modern poetry that plays with textual layout. My Kindle preserves this however. Kindle pages have a layout and are not an infite scroll of text (although I understand this is a new feature). And maybe my brain is damaged, but I also have the following experience with audiobooks. Sometimes I listen to an audiobook while running errands, and then re-listen to it later to write down a reference or remind myself of some terminology. It is crazy, but as I relisten, I can remember exactly where I was when I originally listened to a particular passage: I was in the vegetable aisle or I was checking out or I was turning onto a particular street on the drive home. Less often, but occasionally, I have the inverse experience. I will revisit a physical location and remember what I was listening to last time I was there.

Exhibit C is that we don’t read linearly. We scan and rescan groups of words depending on how well they match what we are expecting to see. We can eevn raed wrdos taht are scrmaeblcd. Our listening modules work differently. But that is it: they work differently. Not necessarily less effectively, or more effectively, just differently. Exhibit D is that we zone out and this is a big hurdle for me for audiobooks. Skipping back 30 seconds in the audible UI is a favorite task but usually I just fault the book for being boring.

The article concludes with an expert quote: the differences between audiobooks and print books are probably “small potatoes…”

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