Anonymous wrote:Having someone read a book to you is a very positive experience, often soothing, relaxing, enlightening, entertaining and educational. That's part of why good parents read to their children, often well past the point where the child could read it themselves.
As an adult why deny yourself this pleasure? It is especially enjoyable if the audio reader is good at it and I really like it when the reader is the author. Listening to books does not have to take the place of reading actual books and depending on the book it definitely falls into the category of "serious reading."
Huh, that is how my DC with dyslexia gets his and I think it’s great!Anonymous wrote:On a related note, would you want your teenage kid to mainly get their literature from audiobooks? Because I wouldn't.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I love that the “serious literature” you had not yet read as a, what, 30something or 40something are books I read in middle school, high school and college. It is hilarious to me that you are trying to lecture and look down on people. Most of us read “serious literature” in or before college. You’re just now catching up, and this is your attitude?
Not only did I read “Anna Karenina” in high school, but my mom, sister and I recreated dishes from it. My reading list for my graduate exam had 200 works, and I had no idea ahead of time which works would be on the essay exam. But sure, sneer at audiobooks. I enjoy them frequently, along with hardbacks and paperbacks.
What did you understand about love and marriage and relationships in high school? Have you read it again?
Or the political economy of Russian agriculture or pan-Slavism.
The idea that great literature is something you "get done in high school" is very philistine.
Anonymous wrote:On a related note, would you want your teenage kid to mainly get their literature from audiobooks? Because I wouldn't.
Anonymous wrote:Hence "in my opinion."
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I realized that they take more time and the level of comprehension is actually lower. I had fallen out of the habit of reading literature - hadn't read that much great fiction since college. I decided I wanted to read serious literature - books like Bleak House, Middlemarch, Anna Karenina. I was a bit rusty and intimidated, so I decided to use Audiobooks (and read along with the text) as a "crutch" of sorts.
I realized it's ultimately a passive experience. Every line is delivered with equal weight, so a particularly profound passage that you want to think about passes you by. The voice of the narrator and the emotions of the scene are set by how the reader says them. You're not having your own dialogue with the text.
So Audiobooks are fine if you're cleaning or on a long plane ride, for something that's not going to really to have a longlasting impact. And maybe after reading a great work yourself, it would be interesting to hear an Audiobook performance. But you can't say you've "read" AK if you had in the background while you were cleaning the kitchen, IMO.
Have you actually ever listened to an audiobook? A narrator imparts more emphasis on certain words than a book where they're all in black and white and in the same size font...
But that's part of the problem, no? Someone is telling you "listen here, this part is important." Rather than your own independent evaluation.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I realized that they take more time and the level of comprehension is actually lower. I had fallen out of the habit of reading literature - hadn't read that much great fiction since college. I decided I wanted to read serious literature - books like Bleak House, Middlemarch, Anna Karenina. I was a bit rusty and intimidated, so I decided to use Audiobooks (and read along with the text) as a "crutch" of sorts.
I realized it's ultimately a passive experience. Every line is delivered with equal weight, so a particularly profound passage that you want to think about passes you by. The voice of the narrator and the emotions of the scene are set by how the reader says them. You're not having your own dialogue with the text.
So Audiobooks are fine if you're cleaning or on a long plane ride, for something that's not going to really to have a longlasting impact. And maybe after reading a great work yourself, it would be interesting to hear an Audiobook performance. But you can't say you've "read" AK if you had in the background while you were cleaning the kitchen, IMO.
Have you actually ever listened to an audiobook? A narrator imparts more emphasis on certain words than a book where they're all in black and white and in the same size font...
Anonymous wrote:I realized that they take more time and the level of comprehension is actually lower. I had fallen out of the habit of reading literature - hadn't read that much great fiction since college. I decided I wanted to read serious literature - books like Bleak House, Middlemarch, Anna Karenina. I was a bit rusty and intimidated, so I decided to use Audiobooks (and read along with the text) as a "crutch" of sorts.
I realized it's ultimately a passive experience. Every line is delivered with equal weight, so a particularly profound passage that you want to think about passes you by. The voice of the narrator and the emotions of the scene are set by how the reader says them. You're not having your own dialogue with the text.
So Audiobooks are fine if you're cleaning or on a long plane ride, for something that's not going to really to have a longlasting impact. And maybe after reading a great work yourself, it would be interesting to hear an Audiobook performance. But you can't say you've "read" AK if you had in the background while you were cleaning the kitchen, IMO.