![]() ![]() They’re ideal for commutes too, which most of us have. Audiobooks fit around this busy lifestyle because you can listen while you do other things, or just grab five minutes of a book in between activities. Holding down a job, caring for family, keeping a home, and pursuing hobbies and charitable activities means we generally have far less time to sit down and read a book. So you can do extra activities with kids, or cook as a family while the audiobook plays in the background. However, again, you can perform other tasks and activities while you listen. Of course, you could read a whole book out loud, and that’s an option. Imagine being able to read all of Harry Potter with your kids, regardless of their literacy level. ![]() Connecting your device to a smart speaker, or just playing on a laptop or phone, means that you can listen along with your partner, or experience books with the whole family. One of the lesser considered advantages of audiobooks is that they can be played to an audience of more than one. You can easily experience them as a family They’re economical forms of entertainment, and perfect for vacations, long journeys, and business trips. They exist on the smartphone you’re already carrying, and can be streamed to smart speakers or listened to via headphones or your phone’s own speaker. The exception to this is eReader apps on your phone but… they’re far from a satisfying reading experience, and so are equally inferior to audiobooks.Īudiobooks, on the other hand, take up zero space. Sure, eReaders are far smaller, but they still take up space and they’re another electronic device to look after if you’re carrying luggage or going away from home. When packing a bag for a vacation, or just picking up reading for work, you’re carrying extra weight and volume when you choose a normal book. ![]() They take up zero space in luggageīooks? They’re heavy. Writer Dani Shapiro narrating her novel “Signal Fires.” Me Too founder Tarana Burke reading her memoir “Unbound.” British actors Imogen Church and Theo Solomon reading Rosie Walsh’s page-turner “The Love of My Life.” The voices made my brain come alive.(Image credit: Getty) 2. Some of the most divine experiences I had devouring books this year happened because I was listening to them - keeping me running or walking extra miles during both heat waves and snowfalls. Voices can represent cultures, accents, intonations in a way that you can’t do in your own head. And even when it’s not the author - there’s often a professional narrator for fiction - the right voices bring it to life. It’s why I read mine for the audio version of my book about honesty. I would argue that many listening experiences enrich the books themselves, especially when authors read their own work. They not only help people with blindness or low vision (which is how audiobooks started) and people who have processing issues or learning disabilities that make reading words on a page difficult, but also make books more attainable for the masses of book lovers out there who are easily distracted when reading or too busy. Second, audiobooks make books more accessible. Not only is this argument insufferable, made - and I’m just guessing - by insufferable people, it’s also the worst kind of ableism because it hides behind virtuousness and some pseudo-intellectual idea that listening isn’t “smart” enough. The argument, as far as I can tell, is that listening to a book is cheating because it means passively consuming a book. The idea that audiobooks don’t “count” angers me - as a reader, writer and human being. I might think this was limited to family squabbles, except I see similar arguments happening online, such as Facebook commenters wringing their hands over whether their audiobooks count toward their reading challenge and Reddit posts claiming that it's “like arguing that a toddler that gets read a book by his mother did indeed read it - which is absurd.” Another friend says that one of her immediate family members pointedly asks her whether she is “reading” or “listening” whenever she mentions a book - and clearly disapproves when she sees the audiobooks included in my friend’s “read” list on Goodreads. One of my friends reports that she continually argues with one of her parents who insists audiobooks are “shortcuts” and could possibly lead to a collective dumbing down of society. Except for some reason, there are people out there who think I haven’t succeeded at all, because audiobooks don’t “count.” ![]()
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