Was watching an episode (number 1 of only 2) of the short-lived and now history Paul Reiser Show when a commercial for audible.com provided welcome relief. Unfortunately, the relief was very short-lived too. *sigh* The commercial touted audible.com as a way to catch up on one’s reading.
Roll that around in your head for a bit. Some bubbleheaded blonde sitting at her ease on a patio supposedly listening to a recorded “book” as a model for catching up on one’s reading!
If you are behind on your reading, the solution is to pick up a book on your reading list (you do have a reading list, don’t you? Hmmm?) and READ it.
*sheesh*
Note: while listening to someone else read a book pretty much bores me to tears, I can see its value for some folks, but representing that sort of thing as “catching up on one’s reading” is just stupid. For one thing, even assuming a rather slow rate of reading speed, how many people can listen at 500-700 words per minute? Heck, it would seem to me that listening to someone else read a book would result in falling behind on one’s total consumption of books in whatever form, quite apart from the fact that listening ain’t reading!
BTW, after about 10 minutes, I couldn’t take any more of the Paul Reiser Show. NBC did the right thing to kill it early. Just not early enough, IMO. Killing it before airing would have suited it better.
They tell me its a good cure for insomnia. Not that I ever get the full story, because listening to “they” usually puts ME to sleep before “they” are through. But…back in the late 70’s I did happen to record some reading for a grandmother who’d lost her vision so such technology at least has some place in the scheme of things.
Exactly, Fits. Reading to folks who cannot themselves read for physical reasons or because they are not–yet!–literate enough to handle the task on their own, like young children. When I became able to read books for myself, the only reason I had left to allowan adult (or anyone else) to read to me was the “cuddle factor” that we enjoyed when Mother read to us.
That was eventually put away with other childhood memories, though. The primary demographic for “audible books”–I think–is probably those people who are just too lazy to read on their own and need a crutch to manage the task. Sure, some people listen to books read to them while driving, but I can’t stand even that. I can listen to music (though rarely the radio in any format) while driving, but even then I need to be careful or I start envisioning the scores and analyzing while appreciating the music and that can be a bit distracting.
Happy Easter to you and yours David! 🙂
And a happy Resurrection Sunday to you in return, Layla.
I saw just the other day that there was a Paul Reiser and thought, “No thanks.” I didn’t know it was cancelled already.
As for catching up on your reading by using audio books, I think the idea is that you can listen while you do other things, such as driving or maybe working out, whereas you can’t read and do other things, really.
Just a thought – I’ve never used an audio book, myself.
“…you can listen while you do other things, such as driving or maybe working out, whereas you can’t read and do other things, really.”
Exactly. And you’ll get just about as much out o fa book you’ve paid half a mind to as you’d expect. Besides,as I point out, at least for people who do read well (which takes PRACTICE), listening to a book read will take at least twice to three times as long as simply reading it and devoting more than minimal attention to the thing.
And then there’s the old saying taught me by one who is wiser in the ways of the mind than I’ll ever be,
“What I hear, I forget; what I see, I remember; what I do I learn.”
Granted, reading isn’t doing but I challenge anyone who merely listens to a book to get as much out of it as someone who reads it, no matter how much attention they’re paying to the process.
Of course,true learning requires drilling something in with doing it, so even simply reading a non-fiction text (math, history, chemistry, whatever) isn’t sufficient for learning (and how does one do “history”? Oh, there’s a way to really learn its lessons… ). Simply hearing a thing is, I submit, the weakest way to experience a book, by far.
(BTW, by both training and inclination, I was once a pretty darned good listener, able to relate conversations verbatim pretty easily, but still, written notes are better. So too with reading versus merely listening–for various values of “listening”–IMO.)
Aside: taking this from a slightly different angle, as to hearing/reading/doing: think poetry or even music. Lots of folks erroneously think they know a piece of music from having heard it. Most are really, really wrong about that. OTOH, someone who is a really good listener and who also has the training can listen carefully and actually transcribe what’s performed. Value? Others can then perform the same, learn it correctly–as the composer intended–and the piece is then passed on to others with errors at least minimized. And learning a new piece? While a few (really few) exceptionally talented people can listen to, understand and then reproduce (and even improve upon) a performance of a piece of music, most musicians do far, far better being handed a chart to read from until they have learned the piece. I think this has application to reading vs merely hearing a book read.
And poetry, as I alluded above… poetry IS meant (well, the good stuff) to be spoken aloud, but… almost everyone who’s memorized much poetry knows that reading it aloud is better for memorization that hearing it read aloud. That’s because listening is a much more passive activity than reading, whether aloud or silently. And that is another key: since no matter what is being read, the reader is very naturally more of a participant than a listener, more is experienced, more gained.
I guess part of it is modern man’s penchant for being constantly entertained. Since we’ve been convinced we’re SO BUSY and HAVE TO sneak in some fun now and again.
On a related note, I’m getting a Kindle for my birthday next month…Lisa finally asked me to refrain from buying toys so’s she could get me something I wanted…and intend to blog on the experience after taking some time to let it sink in.
“I’m getting a Kindle for my birthday” Good!