That sounds like quite the click-bait headline. But, it does express my enthusiasm for the number of books I’m reading lately. And let me not bury the lead. I’m actually not reading more books — I’m listening to them.
Some of the books I’ve been listening to lately
Time for listening but not reading
I have very little time to exclusively devote to reading. However, when I think about the times that I need to use my eyes for some activity but my ears and much of my brain are still available, I then have much more time to listen to books while doing something else.
I can easily listen to books while I’m driving, making and cleaning up after dinner, running on the treadmill, doing weights, going grocery shopping, getting things at the mall, standing in line at Starbucks, traveling on a plane, taking an Uber, etc. To be clear, I still occasionally talk to people and don’t just block everything out in order to listen to books.
Availability
It used to be rare for a book to also have an audiobook available. However, Audible changed all that. It’s now rare for a book to not have an accompanying audiobook. I tend to buy them on the Apple iOS Books app and occasionally on Amazon-Audible. If you don’t want to buy them, you can also get audiobooks at most public libraries using an app like Libby.
The experience
I find that it’s a more authentic and even intimate experience. Most authors now read their own books so it’s like you’re getting one-on-one dedicated time with the author and having them read you their book. And if the author isn’t a great speaker, the companies making these audiobooks then bring in a professional actor to do the reading. Some non-fiction books even have multiple actors playing the different voice parts. It’s like having a play between your ears.
Apple also recently introduced new AI generated voices to narrate the books that don’t currently have an audiobook so that any book can have one. And the voices are incredibly good.
I find that I can concentrate on an audiobook and it keeps my attention. I always only use one Airpod so that I can attend to my surroundings. And if I do get an interrupt, like someone cutting in front of me on the road, my attention then goes 100% to dealing with the situation. Afterwards, I just rewind the audiobook to listen to the section that was interrupted.
Someone on Instagram the other day suggested that I should read a particular book that she recommended. I ordered it and finished listening to it within a day and then discussed it with her. I could never have done that by reading a physical book or an ebook.
For books that I need to frequently reference, I also buy either the physical book or the ebook. You do have to pay separately for each form of the book but that’s still worth it to me.
The speed
I took speed-reading courses years ago and they helped somewhat with reading books faster. However, with audiobooks, you can select the speed. Depending on the speed the author reads at, I typically set the speed at anywhere from 1.2x to even 2.0x. If I’m re-reading a book, I’ll absolutely set it at 2.0x. The brain can comprehend text at about 210 words per minute which is about twice the speed that the text can be naturally spoken. However, if you artificially speed up the recording, you can comprehend at full speed.
I should point out that I don’t always turn up the speed. I mostly do that for books that I’d like to simply ingest into my brain. I’m not looking for a wonderful experience of listening to the book. However, there are other books, typically fiction, that I like to listen to at the speed the author is actually reading it.
What to call it
One issue about consuming books in this way hasn’t been resolved: What to call it. Purists take issue with saying that you read a book when you actually listened to it. But saying that you listened to a book also sounds weird and draws too much attention away from the content and toward to the way you consumed it. I generally default to saying that I read a book. I consider it to be like other modes of communication like having a video call using FaceTime and referring to it simply as a call or OTP. Video calls are for many people the way of having phone calls, the same may happen with the increasing popularity of audiobooks. And audio phone calls won’t go away because you sometimes prefer not to be seen just like physical books and ebooks won’t go away. I do at times still prefer to read a physical book, holding it and smelling it, and enjoying the feeling of turning the pages.
Your mileage may vary
Listening to books is an acquired taste and isn’t for everyone. A listener to my podcast in response to an episode during which I advocated for audiobooks said that he simply couldn’t concentrate when listening to a book. Clearly, there are individual differences in the preference for and ability to listen to audiobooks. People also differ in how much time they have available for books. I used to have much more time than I do now so audiobooks have now become my go-to way of consuming the content in books.
I’d appreciate hearing from any of you regarding your experience with audiobooks.