One area where this is not entirely true is foreign language study. Learning what words look like and how they are spelled is very useful information because there are homophones (especially with verb tenses that sound similar). Personally, I prefer to be able to read rather than depending only on speaking/listening for safety reasons (and greater independence) when traveling.
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My experience with that was horrible, because I had to take notes on what I was hearing. Unfortunately, the book was only available audio format, with narration that was slow and somewhat repetitive. Speeding it up helped. Also, there were lots of references to themes and topics in other chapters of the book. Thank goodness the reference materials were published on the author’s web site, because if someone read a list like that to me, I’d probably quit after the first five minutes.
Taking notes meant that I would only have to go through the listening process once, and could keep what points were relevant or useful for future reference. The book was about foreign language study (see below), and had a lot of great ideas. I probably would not repeat the audiobook experience for something needed to study, though, because it was more work than if I’d just read it in the first place and used bookmarks.
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I personally can’t recommend it. It may be the way my brain is wired, but I read two non-fiction books during a walking commute, and I have only the barest recall of their contents. Full disclosure: I suck at reading non-fiction, so I have to read in 10-page chunks, then write up a short summary, to have any hope of retaining the information therein.
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Thanks to both you and @abides . I’m also a note-taker, so my results would probably be the same.
That’s interesting. My memory is more visual, which is probably why things I’ve heard don’t stay with me as long as things I’ve read. I had to take notes in school to retain what a teacher or professor said. In my mind, I can see and read back things from books read years ago. Even when I hear something interesting or unusual, it might not be retained for a day, unless it is converted to text.
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I went thru an old time radio plays phase a while back. Is the trend in audio books moving more towards that - with different people reading different characters? Seems like a very different experience than one person reciting the whole story.
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This is interesting, is it wrong to think the fact ebooks and audiobooks are popular in the US in part because of a lack of bookshops ?
And I’d be curious to know if they count comics has books or not (a quick research in the methodology PDF give no result).
I love audiobooks. I color comic books for a living, something that seemingly occupies only part of my brain and leaves me free to absorb stories in audio format. I think I may have a bit of ADD or something and anyway I work so much, reading is not something I have a lot of time for. Thanks to audiobooks I get through dozens of books a year. Something I was barely doing before.
Another great thing about modern audiobooks is that many are read by the author… think about that… it’s an amazing layer of intent we didn’t have before. Like the difference between reading sheet music and hearing the songwriter sing it themselves.
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That reminds me of the player piano rolls recorded by Gershwin:
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I mean we didn’t have that before the modern era… I actually have a record of TS Eliot reading his poetry. And a CD of Jack Kerouac reading his work. In the later it’s so great to actually hear the joy and emotion and musicality in his voice as he speaks. Something that is only hinted at in the words themselves.
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I’d have to look that up but guessing those were “recorded” rolls, as opposed to programmed rolls. I know they had a sort of inverse player piano that would capture the changes in tempo and even flaws as they were played, rather than being a direct midi-like transcription of the sheet music.
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Differences make the world go aro7nd :).
But is it possible you remember it better since you’ve effectively gone over it twice when writing it down?
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For me, that almost never works well. Unless the author is an experienced speaker or actor, an author reading is usually inferior. It’s a different skill set than writing. Christopher Hitchens reading God is Not Great was great, but he was both a professional writer and a professional orator. And The Golden Compass read by Phillip Pullman and a full cast also worked. But I think those are exceptions.
And as far as fiction goes, I’d literally rather listen to text to speech than a bad human narration. Maybe for poetry author readings are a great thing, but for everything else…
I’ve listened to at least a hundred audio books, and the quality of the narrator makes a huge difference to me. To this date I’m still not sure if I disliked the text of the Handmaiden’s Tale or just the narrator I heard years ago. And conversely, I’m not sure if I actually like American Gods or if I just really love Lenny Henry’s wonderful narration.
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It’s true that taking notes forces me to go over everything twice, but it’s the image of what was written down that I remember. I used to buy used books in college. If they had been marked by a previous owner, I’d even see the highlights or notes someone else wrote in the margins.
The only time I really remember sounds alone comes from listening to music. When trying to recall a song, I can hear it like tuning into a radio station. During the years when I played in a band, sometimes we had to memorize from a score. The ability to close my eyes and read the notes while playing helped a lot.
I think Sarah Vowell does a great job with her books (of course she IS an experienced voice actor and of course kinda rose to fame doing audio segments on This American Life) and several recent comedians who have penned memoirs were pretty entertaining. On the other end (non-author-read) Stephen Fry’s Harry Potter audio books are definitive. The only time i complained to audible was when a book’s quality sounded like it was transferred from a 3rd generation audio cassette and was sort of unbearable. I think they gave me an extra credit and have since come out with a better quality version.
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I’m amazed at people who have that sort of visual recall. They say Teddy Roosevelt would recite passages of author’s books to them that they had forgotten because he would see the pages in his memory and re-read them… I’m actually a visual artist and I can’t even do the least bit of that. I have to look at a phone number 3 times to type it all in. Ha.
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When I was a kid, I just thought that’s how memory worked!
This is how I got through poetry recitation in school and speeches for various groups. I had a French professor who used a copy of the poem she’d selected for each student in the class, so that she could mark our mistakes on the page (along with deductions and final grade). Whenever I messed up the pronunciation of a word, I could picture her circling it with a red marker. It’s too bad song lyrics in that language are slightly different, because turning a poem into a song could help link the sounds with the words on the page for easier recall.
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I have to say I was disappointed by Fry’s reading. Not bad, but I prefer Jim Dale’s reading, even though it lacks the British quality that Fry brings to the table. The ability of good narrators to switch characters, and keep track of them all, continues to impress me.
The only time i complained to audible was when a book’s quality sounded like it was transferred from a 3rd generation audio cassette and was sort of unbearable.
Yeah, I’ve definitely heard a few that sounded like they came off of old Recorded Books tape masters - and I wouldn’t be surprised if in some cases only the duplication master, if that, is still around. I think the Robin Hood story I listened to on Audible was like that. Some of my favorite readers were probably mastered on tape, though, and I’ll put up with some less than perfect audio quality to hear them again. Patrick Tull’s performances of the Aubrey–Maturin series are great and there is a great narrator for the old Rumpole of the Baily books who’s name I can’t recall at the moment who really made the books come alive for me. I liked the late Frank Muller a lot back when I listened to spy novels and thrillers, though he wasn’t so great reading female characters. He was amazing for certain kinds of books.
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nice in concept - but after listening to Stephen King read the last book in his Tower series (Wind through the Keyhole), and having heard the other 7 books in by George Guidell and Frank Mueller…there is literally no comparison. Narrating a book is a true difficult art form and it can transform a book. The books I liked that were read by the author (like Hitchhiker’s Guide) were by author’s who were also already voice actors. I never managed to get past a chapter or two of King reading his own work (other than On Writing, which made more sense read by him)…I will wait for it to be redone by a real voice actor.
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I get that. I guess I’m thinking more of personal memoirs and books by comedians that I’ve listened to than fiction.
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