Can You Read With Your Ears?

Hola amigos, I’m here to answer that question that’s been burning in you mind, that question which burdens you daily, that’s driving you crazy, threatening your entire conception of reality… that question, of course, is whether or not listening to a book is the same as reading it.

Hmm…

…

Yes, basically.

If you had asked me a few years ago, I would have answered the opposite. Before I gave it a chance, I thought of audiobooks almost like cheating at reading, believing that one could not engage with a story or the writing on the same level as you can by sitting there holding it in your hands, focusing on it with your whole face, the rest of your body undistracted.

But then again, I knew that written text was a relatively recent invention of humankind, and that stories had been passed down by oral tradition alone for the vast majority of human existence. Still, I figured that oral and written storytelling were two separate artforms, and that the experience of reading versus listening to a novel must be significantly different.

Homer of ancient Greece

Which is kiiiind of true but, I will argue, it doesn’t matter.

I only began listening to books a couple of years ago, and I finally started for kind of a dumb reason. I was a latecomer to the Game Of Thrones craze, but when I did start watching the TV show I became almost obsessed with it. I watched the full series multiple times, and still found I wanted more. I wanted to know more about the world, to follow the characters through yet more of their horrible, brutal lives.

So of course I wanted to read the books, but the books are loooooong and I am a sloooowww reader. I didn’t want to spend all that time reading a story I already knew--for the most part--while neglecting all the other great books on my list. And I figured that, since I knew the series so well already, I could enjoy the story much more passively than, say, a dense stream-of-consciousness prose-poetry classic.

And by the time I got through my first audiobook, I found that I had envisioned and remembered the story in more or less the same way as if I had read it.

There were some differences: I was less aware of the actual prose, I didn’t remember specific lines or passages. Plus there were a lot of moments where I only got a vague image of certain plot points or character moments, instead of the complete picture I usually get when reading.

And on the other side, I found that by listening, the action and imagery of scenes can be more vivid and visceral; perhaps because you can focus more on the mind’s eye without having a text in front of your physical eyes.

On another note, listening is the ideal way to absorb ancient mythology--whether it’s a telling of the actual myth, or academic non-fiction about the mythology--because, of course, oral storytelling was how those stories were made to be experienced, how our ancestors experienced them for untold generations.

In conclusion, audiobooks have been the perfect way for me to dive into mythology, fantasy, and sci-fi epics, as well as crush some other daunting books that would have sat on my reading list for years otherwise.

I’ve listened to most of the Song of Ice and Fire series, about half of the original Dune series, two retellings of classic Greek myths, and a bunch of non-fiction about spirituality and mythology. All of which is literature I think I would have skipped over for years or maybe forever were it not for the audiobooks, and meanwhile I’ve continued eye-reading more prose-heavy, poetic literature.

So if you’ve been hesitant to read with your ears for fear of ‘cheating at reading’, fear not! It may be a little different, but it definitely still counts.

But what do you think? Do you listen to books? Are you against it? Let me know in the comments!

Peace,

Gibbo

To be continued: ebooks vs. book books