My mom changed my mind about audio books after 10 years of hating them

I always told people audio books don't count as reading. My mom called me out on it last week while I was driving her to her doctor appointment in Portland. She said she listens to 3 books a month during her commute and remembers details better than when she reads print. I felt pretty small when she asked me what I got out of a book everyone says is great. She told me to try one on my next road trip so I downloaded a 12 hour book. Now I get why people do it, but I am still not sure if it feels the same as reading. Has anyone else had a family member push back on their book club hot take?

3 comments

3 Comments

drew69024d ago

she remembers details better than when she reads print" - I mean, is that really true or is she just telling herself that? your brain processes words differently when you're actually seeing them on a page vs having them fed to you. visual reading makes you slow down, re-read sentences, look up words you don't know. audio just washes over you like a podcast and you zone out every 10 minutes. I tried a Tony Hillerman book on tape once for a long drive and I couldn't tell you a single thing that happened in it after the first chapter cause I kept spacing out at stoplights.

thomas.tyler24d ago

And that's exactly why you gotta train yourself for it. I started with short stories on audio during my commute, like 20 minutes each, and forced myself to summarize them out loud when I got to work. Over time my brain learned to actually track the story instead of just treating it like background noise.

drew96524d ago

Man that's a solid approach. I feel you on zoning out though, its rough. I tried doing the same thing with full novels on drives but my mind just wanders after ten minutes no matter what. Maybe I should try your way with the short stuff first cause summarizing out loud sounds like it actually forces your brain to pay attention.