February 2020 Reading Thread

[Teresa Edgerton]

so.... has there been already as discussion about this...?
Is listening to an audiobook considered reading, here...?

I can't think why it wouldn't be. Especially in the context of this thread, which is really about the books we've ... experienced ... in the last month, not about the format in which we experienced them.

 

[williamjm]

I read Martha Wells' Rogue Protocol, the third of her Murderbot Diaries stories. Like the previous two it was a lot of fun and had some decent characterisation for the lead character as they slowly (and somewhat reluctantly) get better at interacting with beings who aren't cyborg killing machines. The main plot about exploring the abandoned terraforming station was decent, although I think I probably found the plots in the first two stories more compelling.

 

[Galactic Bus Driver]

so.... has there been already as discussion about this...?
Is listening to an audiobook considered reading, here...?

I've always considered it reading. Whether it's eyes on page or sounds through ears, it's the same info going in.

 

[williamjm]

I read Martha Wells' Rogue Protocol, the third of her Murderbot Diaries stories. Like the previous two it was a lot of fun. It had some good character development for the lead character as they slowly (and somewhat reluctantly) get better at interacting with beings who aren't cyborg killing machines. The main plot about exploring the abandoned terraforming station was decent, although I think I probably found the plots in the first two stories more compelling.

 

[The Big Peat]

Finished purging myself from The Traitor feelings with a re-read of the Elenium. How something so bad can be so fun is almost beyond me.

Now searching for a new book to read... or, you know, a book to finish out of my 10,000 books on the go.

 

[Bick]

Is listening to an audiobook considered reading, here...?

Not by me, to be honest.

 

[Danny McG]

Not by me, to be honest.

Ditto. I've tried a couple of audio books but not my thing.
I need to read a paragraph while my subconscious gestalts the page it's on

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I have never tried listening to an audiobook, because it seems to me that the experience would be completely different and disorienting. I imagine myself hearing a character's name, or some such reference, and not remembering who or what it referred to. With a book, I can flip back and remind myself what that was all about. How would one do that with an audiobook?

 

[Bick]

I've always considered it reading. Whether it's eyes on page or sounds through ears, it's the same info going in.

Its the same info obtained perhaps, but by one method that's achieved by reading, and the other by listening. Reading and listening are quite different experiences. I enjoy the former, I don't like the latter (for books). Reading isn't just about absorbing information, it's an activity that opens and engages the mind and soul with the text. Listening only offers some of that, and is a lesser experience that doesn't enable one's own 'voice' to influence the enjoyment of the book - its one-way only. (If Extollager see's this thread I would expect him to have grander thoughts than mine on it). I think there should be a separate forum for listening to audio-books as opposed to actual reading, but there you go.

 

[Extollager]

Its the same info obtained perhaps, but by one method that's achieved by reading, and the other by listening. Reading and listening are quite different experiences. I enjoy the former, I don't like the latter (for books). Reading isn't just about absorbing information, it's an activity that opens and engages the mind and soul with the text. Listening only offers some of that, and is a lesser experience that doesn't enable one's own 'voice' to influence the enjoyment of the book - its one-way only. (If Extollager see's this thread I would expect him to have grander thoughts than mine on it). I think there should be a separate forum for listening to audio-books as opposed to actual reading, but there you go.

That sounds about right to me. I might be distracted, if I listened to a book, because I could feel that the reader was giving his or her interpretation (e.g. of characters’ feelings, when reading dialogue) and, moreover, might be trying to make the text more appealing to the audience he or she assumed was listening, by playing up to them, by, say, hamming up Dickens passages, and so on. However, some of the old Shakespeare actors & those types could be well suited to some books.

Probably, with a lot of books, there wouldn’t be a difference that mattered much, whether read or listened to — some pop thrillers. But I could imagine a reading-aloud of The Turn of the Screw being spoiled by a reader-aloud — one determined to convey the idea that the governess (who tells the story) was an emotionally crippled spinster. That sort of thing.

Michael Hordern reading M. R. James could be all right.

Offhand I’m not sure I’ve listened to a complete novel read by someone. Maybe a set of tapes of one of Charles Williams’s novels....a long, long time ago.

Anyway, I’d suppose that listening to someone read a book could be good, and reading it silently to oneself good, but they would be different experiences. I’m not going to get started this late on false notions of “equivalence” as a modern bane.

 

[Extollager]

Just finished Heinlein’s Tunnel in the Sky, now well into Arthur Koestler’s autobiographical Arrow in the Blue.

 

[Galactic Bus Driver]

Its the same info obtained perhaps, but by one method that's achieved by reading, and the other by listening. Reading and listening are quite different experiences. I enjoy the former, I don't like the latter (for books). Reading isn't just about absorbing information, it's an activity that opens and engages the mind and soul with the text. Listening only offers some of that, and is a lesser experience that doesn't enable one's own 'voice' to influence the enjoyment of the book - its one-way only. (If Extollager see's this thread I would expect him to have grander thoughts than mine on it). I think there should be a separate forum for listening to audio-books as opposed to actual reading, but there you go.

Thanks for expanding on that. I wanted to ask, but couldn't seen to frame a proper request without coming off as rude, and that certainly would not have been my intent.

I do agree to a point. Reading as opposed to listening is certainly a different experience. I disagree that it's inherently superior, though, and really, they're both one way only. Books, by their nature, are not interactive. You may inject, or feel you're injecting, something into that stream. I know I do when reading print. But, the stream is still one way. Listening has benefits that reading does not, just as reading has benefits that listening does not. I have many titles that I have experienced in both formats. In some cases, I have immediately read a book I just finished in audio because I know there are probably details and nuances I missed. There are also many books where the details and nuances are missing, or at least not important. I've read "The Lord of the Rings" more times than I can remember. I own it in hard back, a couple versions of paper back, epub, and yes, even audio. I've never listened to it though. I've found books that I DNF in print that made wonderful audio "reads." I read the latest Toby Daye book in print before I "read" it in audio. When the Luidaeg (and I would never have known that's pronounced lou-shack, if not for the audio books) calls the conclave I shivered when I read it. When I listened to it, I was struggling, holding back tears.

I've read somewhere, and I'll try to dig it up as time allows, that the publishing industry is suffering in all formats but one. That one being audio books. They're perfect for a long commute (or a short one), time spent working on something that you don't necessarily enjoy (yard work, cleaning the garage, etc...), and really any time you can't devote your hands and/or eyes to printed pages but still want to get some reading in, and that part is the key part to me. I am a book junkie. A completely unrepentant one. I'm here at a sci-fi/fantasy site because it's got more traffic than the other fiction sites I've been to (and a seemingly decent crowd), but I read, as I think I've shown in my laundry lists of books I've read, just about anything I can get my mitts on. There are way more books out there than I could possibly read in 100 lifetimes, but I still want to read them all.

There's certainly room for both in the world, but it seems to me that dismissing audio books as a method of reading is akin to dismissing closed captioning as a method of watching TV.

Also (and on topic)...
Finished Pyramids, so that makes 56.

 

[Extollager]

Galactic, I could imagine myself thinking that some book was better than it really is because I enjoyed hearing someone such as John Gielgud read it. Conversely, I could imagine myself unfairly thinking a book tedious because of the voice qualities of the reader.

 

[Bick]

Thanks for the thoughtful counter-'argument', Galactic. I see how listening could be good for some books, and suitable for some over reading even. I suppose my line of thinking was that, whether one likes audio or not, reading and listening perhaps cannot be equated. I'd reserve your right to 'read' books in this way and call it reading, even if its actually listening, cause it doesn't hurt anyone after all, so I'm glad you enjoy books this way.

I tried to listen to an audio of an Alan Dean Foster book recently, and it was in an accent so distinct from my own, read at a more laborious pace, and generally so at odds with my own inner voice, that I had to stop after a page or two and it has actually put me off reading ADF for a brief spell until I can get that audio voice out of my head. I hate that. Now, that's only one example and different from many others I'm sure; I've heard some Nigel Planer reading Discworld, and it seemed very nicely done. But, for me, I'd still rather read it, and if I did listen and enjoyed the experience, I wouldn't feel I could claim to have 'read' the book somehow (which may be a bit OCD of me).

 

[Danny McG]

I think my issues with audio go back to my schooldays and reading in class.

The teacher used to randomly select the next kid to stand up and read a few pages....if it was a 'gripping yarn' book I would typically tune out the reader and forge a chapter or two ahead before my name would be called.
Then I was in trouble for not paying attention because I didn't know what place had been reached, I had to fumble back several pages while frantically asking the nearest desk kid.

This made me realise how much slower it is to listen than to read at one's own pace.
(I don't think the dull, uncomprehending monotones of some of my fellow pupils helped a lot either.)

 

[Hugh]

Peter S. Beagle "The Last Unicorn"
This was a little disappointing for me as others have recommended it so highly. I thought it was good/OK, and I can probably appreciate why it's so highly thought of, but it remains to be seen if it will stay with me in any significant way. The parts I liked best were the moments when magic and the magician came together.

 

[Hugh]

Reading and audio books. I'm reminded of the debate in Gulliver's Travels as to which end of the boiled egg to break open. It still seems like an egg to me.

 

[Toby Frost]

I read Stephen Palmer's The Conscientious Objector, which I enjoyed and will review once I've put my thoughts in order and, before reading a book by another Chronner, I read Slow Horses by Mick Herron, a novel about a group of failed spies. This was very good, with strong characters and a good sense of humour. It contains a remarkably prescient moment involving an MP, given that it was written in 2010.

 

[Azoraa]

I find that an interesting debate.
I myself don't really listen to audiobooks at all. I don't have the time for it, but I also don't make time for it.
For me, it's a different activity, more similar to TV maybe. It doesn't do the same thing for me, maybe it's about the temporality of things. It can be an immersive experience in its own right, but something about being fixed to a voice and a timeline... I can't re-read a sentence because I liked it, or didn't understand it, I can't revel in a certain wording, read faster or slower, lift my head and look around, look back down. Reading means to me I can't do anything else, I have to make that space and time to read.
Ok ok, maybe I'm conservative, but if I'm really honest I probably feel deep inside that reading is superior.
My husband listens to a lot of podcasts and audiobooks etc, and he learns a lot (which he also remembers) and is exposed to many different genres like this. But I always feel like he doesn't REALLY listen, or make the time - or it feels too much like consumption for me. But probably because I'm a backwards purist... ;-P

 

[Extollager]

What about listening to someone read to you — someone actually present? That would be different from listening to a recording.