Pro and contra of audiobooks

PRO

1. The physiological -- giving the hands a rest from holding the kindle while reading.
2. Hearing how words and names are pronounced.
3. Hearing professional speech as opposed to the people or person in our lives

CONTRA

1. You could be ending up multitasking too much that you aren't following along all too well.
2. You neglect that which demands time with reading words with your eyes.
3. It can, along with reading in general make you not want to allow real life to happen within your immediate vicinity.

It is just after 1am, my wake period is under way, listening to Dan Stevens reading Frankenstein, a really good performance!! This classic book is very different from the movies, on a higher plane it is. Mary Shelley and her band of poetical siblings and friends, how illuminating it would be to learn more about them, not just their work, but any behind the scenes stuff, I heard about Mary going through some woe while she wrote this bleak bone chilling classic.

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helenS · 36-40, F

So-called "audio books" make sense only for the most trivial stuff, in my opinion.
There's no point in reading an audio book on linear algebra, or quantum mechanics.
When you are reading a book, you can stop and re-read a sentence you didn't understand the first time. Typically, when I read Hegel, I will have to read the same sentence several times, and maybe even think about it for a couple of minutes before I can go on reading. Hard to imagine how that could be done with an audio book.

MrAlmostCrazy · 46-50, M

@helenS Good points there, books like that would require constant rewinding. But for classic fiction and more straight forward literature it can work like a dream .....:)

helenS · 36-40, F

@MrAlmostCrazy Yes I have the Iliad as an audio book, and enjoyed listening.
(The Iliad, by the way, is the starting point of all literature.)

MrAlmostCrazy · 46-50, M

@helenS And it makes sense that Homer was for a long time a vocal tradition. :)

helenS · 36-40, F

@MrAlmostCrazy We don't know. All we have is the book. Yes there may have been oral traditions which preceded Homer's book, but we don't know about it.

MrAlmostCrazy · 46-50, M

@helenS Thanks for weighing in my learned friend, I also just wish to add here that audiobooks alone are insufficient for plumbing the depths of most great works, but they can be a blessed supplement for the appreciating of them.