It’s Called READING a Book For a Reason

Some things just smack my gob. In a recent blog, Literary Agent Nathan Bransford poses the question:

Does listening to an audiobook count as reading?

He has a poll going on his site and as I write this there are 1,236 votes with the split being 50% yes and 49% no (obviously there is some minor rounding going on). Are you seriously trying to tell me that half of you think listening to a story is the same as reading a story? Do you not understand the definitions of the words?

Let me look at it from the other end, as a creator of those things that will be “read”. As much as I’m able, I write these words with my hands, via keyboard, pen, pencil, crayon, whatever. However, I’m also a chronic sufferer of RSI/CTS problems with my hands, which means that sometimes I have to give mis manos an extended rest. So, I fire up the old speech recognition program and continue on.

From my own experience, I can tell you that dictating a story is different from writing a story. When you speak the tale, you can’t “feel” the words in the same way as when you use your hands. Your brain engages the process a little differently. It’s sort of like being fluent in two languages, but having to choose one to write a story in. Even if you then turn around and write it again in the other language, it will never quite translate exactly the same.

And so it is with reading and listening. With reading, you are devoting your attention to the task at hand. The voice you hear is the one you create yourself in your noggin. The pacing of the words is colored by your own internal clock. You linger on words and phrases because perhaps they spark a memory.

When you listen to a book, no matter how neutrally it is read, the voice you hear will never be the voice you would have created in your own head. There is no lingering, as reading aloud sort of necessitates going ahead regardless of what memories are sparking in your head. Also, unless you are staring intently on your playback device with just as much focus as people used to do in the early 20th century when they’d “watch” their radios, you aren’t going to focus on the words quite as much as if you were using your orbs (or fingertips) and experiencing the world the writer created without a filter.

It’s a lot like speed readers who say that they “read” a lengthy novel in under an hour. No…they skimmed a book in under an hour. You can’t tell me that they noticed that passage where the author struggled for hours as to whether it should be “and” or “or”. No, I think it’s pretty clear that much of the nuance of the writer’s effort was lost in the haste of the process.

All that being said, I’m all in favor of audiobooks and speed reading and all those other things that make it possible to have an experience with a story when sitting down to read isn’t a reasonable option. I’m not trying to denigrate these other methods. The only thing I object to is the idea that listening to a story is the same as reading a story. It isn’t. Just as reading a story aloud isn’t the same as reading that same story silently to oneself.

Needless to say, I voted “No” in Mr. Bransford’s poll. I hope you all do, too.