Let’s Listen to A Book
From eyes to ears — transformation of books and their impact on “reading”
If there is one thing in this world synonymous with knowledge and stories for ages, it is a book. Books are more than just bound pages. They contain tales that can entertain us, enrich our minds with information and knowledge, and expose us to new perspectives and ideas.
With their simple and silent words, books have the power to take us on voyages to new and unexplored horizons. The physical form of books has come a long way, from clay tablets to papyrus scrolls to printed and bound editions.
Evolution of Books — From Feasts For Our Eyes to Melodies For Our Ears
For the longest time, books have been a physical thing — words and images printed and bound on paper. Nonetheless, with the advent of technologies, books have also upgraded themselves. They have become digital, giving birth to e-books.
Books worth hundreds of pages can fit seamlessly into our computers, smartphones, and e-readers. You can carry multiple books in your pockets, making books, their stories, and their knowledge much more accessible. Even though e-books lack the feel of paper and their distinct earthy odor, they do not hinder the capability of a book to have our eyes glued to its words.
And now books have evolved again. The words on their pages are no longer mute. Stories have been vocalized to give birth to audiobooks. Audiobooks are what they sound like — books in audio format. The tales are recounted by a narrator (or multiple narrators), and all you do is listen.
Audiobooks have not just made reading more accessible, but they have birthed an alternative manner of reading.
With the advent of audiobooks, the stories and the knowledge within the books are no longer just a feast for your eyes but have transformed into a melody for your ears. It is no longer necessary to immerse your eyes in the pages of a book. Your ears can do the job for you.
Although e-books have made it easy to carry books around, they have not done anything to change how books are “read”. Audiobooks, on the other hand, have not only increased the accessibility of books but have also birthed an alternative manner of “reading” books.
All you need to do now is to download an audiobook on your smartphone, tablet, or computer, and you can start listening while your eyes are free to do other things (or even rest for a bit). Whether you are commuting on a bus or train, cooking, doing household chores, taking care of your newborn, or just taking a walk, you can plug your earphones (or not) and listen to the stories in the vast world of books.
Audiobooks allow you to incorporate “reading” into different aspects of your lives. They have made “reading” much more convenient, and it is no longer necessary to “read” a book to engage with its contents.
What Can Audiobooks Aid Us With: Multiple Things Actually
Apart from the ease of consuming books, audiobooks also help improve the pronunciation and comprehension ability of the listeners. I devour fantasy stories, and trust me when I say they have some of the weirdest names for characters and places. But when I hear someone speak these names, I know how to pronounce them.
Especially while reading a book written in a foreign language, listening to someone say the words makes it easier to understand their meaning from the context in which they are spoken. Interestingly, this is how I first started using audiobooks.
Few years ago, I was reading some English Classics, and with English not being my first language, it was an extremely slow reading experience. I had to do a lot of back and forth to understand what was happening in the narration. That’s when I came across the option of “listening” to the stories instead of reading them. What I did instead was to read the story along with listening to it, and it changed everything for me.
Suddenly I could follow the narration without much back-and-forth. I didn’t need to read the same sentence multiple times to understand what was happening in the story.
Afterwards I realized that “listening” to these stories allowed me to expand my “reading” time which was no longer restricted to a single activity of sitting down with a book. Needless to say, I have never looked back ever since. I have always been an avid reader, but with audiobooks, my reading has become voracious.
Different Narrative Styles for Different Genres of Book
As there are different types of stories, there are different styles of audiobooks. One of the ways to categorize audiobooks is based on the narration style.
The whole narrative can be performed by a solo narrator who does different voices and accents for different characters, or they can keep a neutral tone throughout the entire narration. Many-a-times, the authors themselves narrate the audiobook. Such a narration becomes more compelling in cases of memoirs.
Apart from these, audiobooks may also have two or more narrators where different perspectives of the story are narrated by different voice actors. Full-cast narrations are especially amazing to listen to. Apart from the narrators, many audiobooks include sound effects and background scores that make the experience more immersive.
Why Not Give Them a Try?
Even though audiobooks come with so many benefits, I think people still hesitate to accept that they have “read” a book when they listen to the story via an audiobook.
I consider such a mindset to be unreasonable and unwarranted. In the end, listening to a book still allows us to consume its content, and I trust that consumption and enjoyment of a book’s content should matter more than the manner it is consumed.
A few trials here and there will help you understand if audiobooks are a thing for you.
I also agree not every book can be successfully converted to an audiobook, especially when the book is filled with visual clues. A story that heavily depends on drawings, diagrams, and maps will not be lucrative as an audiobook. But that’s much the same as the case where not every book can be successfully converted into a movie. But that does not stop us from enjoying movies created based on books.
Every voice actor has their own style of narration, which impacts the enjoyment level. Naturally, there will be scenarios when you do not gel with the book because of the narration. If you do not enjoy the voice and tone of the narration, you will not enjoy the story.
The narration pace of some audiobooks is also something that people can struggle with. Although most audiobook apps allow the listeners to adjust the “listening speed”, it might take a few attempts to find the perfect match. So, just as you watch the trailer of a movie before deciding whether to invest time in it, you can listen to a sample of the audiobook before actually renting/buying/downloading it. This will allow you to make a balanced decision regarding whether to commit to the audiobook.
Are Audiobooks Flawless: Well, Not Really
Audiobooks do have their drawbacks. Going back and forth between chapters and finding or re-reading (re-listening in this case) a section of the story is a huge pain. Many-a-time, you read a scene in a story and want to re-read it immediately, either to better understand what happened in that scene or just because you love that scene. Achieving this with an audiobook is quite taxing.
You can’t just flip back to an earlier chapter or page as you can with a book or even an e-book. More often than not, it is easier to move on with the story with partial understanding than to search for a particular incident/detail in the audiobook.
In addition, audiobooks, so far, do not have the capability of bookmarking. So, if you annotate and decorate your books and stories, then let me tell you that audiobooks are not for you.
However, I also believe that with some effort you can identify what works for you to make the most of the audiobooks. I love listening to contemporary stories — romances and thrillers — on audio, and I prefer to read along with a fantasy or sci-fi audiobook. There have been situations when I have put down a book because I disliked the narration of its audiobook, but that has not stopped me from going back to the book and reading it traditionally.
I still believe that books will always be “read”, but audiobooks do help us include more books and reading in our lives. They surely have augmented my love for reading by allowing me to lend an ear along with an eye to the wonderful tales contained within the pages of a book.
What are your thoughts? Do you enjoy audiobooks?
Let’s discuss in the comments.
Note: This article was published here. Republishing on Substack with minor edits.