Audiobooks, I listen while I’m working. I like paper books too, it’s lovely to sink into the pages. I don’t like reading stuff on a screen because I was born too soon.
I spend a lot of time driving, audiobooks are the way to go
I adore real life books, but I read at night whilst my partner sleeps. The backlit ereader is an absolute delight.
I also disagree with calling audio books “reading”.
I’m not saying is is a worse way to experience the content of the book, and I enjoy it myself, but it is a fundamentally different experience based on different senses and different mechanisms.
As someone who had an almost decade-long gap between Wheel of Time books because my ADHD no longer permitted book reading at a certain point, I would respectfully disagree. Audio books have been a God Send in the last few years, discovering I can still enjoy past pleasures in full by exploiting myself in circumstances that are beneficial. Audio books have me back part of my life I had accepted as lost forever.
Yeah, you miaunderstand me.
You can still enjoy the content, but the process isn’t reading that’s all.
I enjoy them too. Audio books are great. Several members of my family are blind and it is a form we can enjoy.
Interestingly the fact that several people can enjoy an audiobook at once supports my argument that it is not reading… A somewhat solo pursuit unless someone reads aloud.
So, respectfully, I think you’ve got the wrong end of this stick.
But I do want to say that it gives me genuine pleasure that you’ve found a way to enjoy those stories.
Would you say that someone reading printed out lyrics is listening to music?
Maybe if they were looking at a musical score? Is that listening to music?
I’d suggest it is a way of experience it. But it certainly isn’t listening to it.
I think reading is the same.
Audio books are not worse, not lesser, but they are different and that’s why I’d say they are not reading.
As someone with hearing issues (I lose speaking tones completely) I prefer books. Nothing better than curling up with a good book and hiding from the world for a while.
Paper, but I love the convenience of e-books on my phone; I’m never without a book.
Edit: And since my phone is waterproof, I can read in the bath, or while washing dishes!
e-reader were a gamechanger for me.
on one side they are super convinient, because of the backlight alone.
on the other side: piracy
on the other side: piracy
I just want to point out that there are libraries full of physical books that you can also get for a significant amount of time and you don’t have to pay for them. And of the library doesn’t have the book you want, they can probably get it for you from another library.
(They also often offer ebooks and audiobooks, but that’s another issue.)
Unless you want to keep the book with you, one of the nice things about paper books is that you don’t have to pirate them and you can get far more obscure titles than you’d probably ever find on a pirate site.
I’m not criticizing you for pirating books, I totally get it, I’m just very pro-library.
libgen is awesome
It makes me proud that my gf used to have (I think it is busted now) a telegram bot to download books from zlibrary, as an iPhone user that was very convenient, but now she doesn’t.
My Android app works pretty fine though, so I just sent her the books there.
the telegram bot is not available anymore but there’s a workaround, if you make an account on zlib website and go to “edit profile” page there’s a button at the bottom to get a personal telegram bot
on the other side: piracy
I understand and encourage this, but I wonder, is there any “Steam” for books? In the meaning of “oh, this service is so good that actually I don’t want to bother to pirate them!”
amazon on kindle is very convienient. But I don’t want to support jeff bezozs, which is why I like piracy. Also amazon makes it really easy to pirate. You just send the pirated copy to you kindle email-adress, and amazon uploads the pirated ebook to your kindle. I have done this for about 10 years, and I like to image, that Jeff sheds a single tear each time I do this.
On the other hand there are many public libraries with a steam-like service. e.g. you pay your regular library fee (2€ iirc) and you can download all the books you want to your e-reader. The catch is, that you can only keep a certain number of digital copies at the same time for some reason. The other down side is, that the initial setup takes some time (but I guess that depends on the library? idk it was >5 years ago when I did some research in that direction).
If someone knows more about the public-library-ebook-service, please let us know.
Amazon has about 1.5 million employees.
When you buy something from them, you’re also supporting those people, as well as the stockholders, and the book’s author.
If you’re looking for the human effect of buying something from Amazon, focusing on Jeff Bezos is somewhat arbitrary.
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When you buy something from them, you’re also supporting those people
I am sorry, but this take is just insane. You do not support amazon workers when you buy from amazon.
trickle down does not work. Companies like amazon will not use additional revenue to increase the conditions of their worker.
In fact, the opposite is true: the more market power amazon has, the worse it will treat its worker (and also the 3rd party sellers, and even the buyers)
Yes but if everyone stops buying from Amazon, those people lose their jobs.
This isn’t “trickle down”. This is “paychecks”. And yes it does work. That’s why those people work for Amazon.
If everyone stops buying from Amazon, those people could get jobs at any of these companies, where people buy from instead.
Amazon has replaced a lot of jobs. When amazon goes away, it in turn will get replaced by something else.
some publishers don’t use DRM so there’s that, otherwise I guess there’s overdrive which is… not that good, and requires library card but it’s free
Is that how you are supposed to read paper books?
Lol I read all three formats. I have shit ton of physical books in my home and I have a serious buying issue where always buying more books and read them. And thanks to my library I have a Libby account and so far read over 26 books just through my kindle alone. Lastly I listen to audiobooks anytime I behind the wheel commuting to work or just driving. I just love to read and also love to write.
Interesting diatribe that doesn’t answer the question at all lol
Clearly you don’t read enough books… Like, bro, she’s clearly absorbing the contents of the book through diffusion. If you don’t know how to do this then you’re clearly not in our league.
I read exclusively through diffusion. Two years on and I’m on page 22 of the first Harry Potter book.
Yes.
My wife and I both identify with this comment. The best kind of reading.
For me it depends on the circumstance. If I’m on the road, an audiobook is great. And hard copy, or digital for all the other times. Tho’ I did come across a study that physical hard copy works better for memory. As in, those words exist in a physical location, so one’s brain can more readily find the memory.
Also Eric Bibb, has a song, Turning Pages on his album Booker’s Guitar, which you might enjoy. (https://invidious.fdn.fr/watch?v=SKvq-mIOooo)
Ever since moving abroad, it’s been e-readers for me. Couldn’t haul my book collection around, and didn’t feel like buying it all again.
I like the first two and use both regularly.
Audiobooks are torture because the human voice doesn’t read at even hald the pace of the human eye so it. feels. like. being. drip. fed. Even when you speed it up to x2.
I usually listen to audiobooks when doing something else like riding my bike or waiting, where I don’t have the conventration ability for actual reading which works quite well although it takes a bit longer than normal reading
I will die on this hill: listening is not reading. And I love listening to audio books when I have a long drive or something. ereader is what I use 99% of the time though.
Why not out of curiosity?
Reading:
n 1: the cognitive process of understanding a written linguistic message; "his main reading was detective stories"; "suggestions for further reading"I don’t think one is better than the other. Just listening is different than reading. It uses different parts of the brain.
Is reading aloud by someone else still not reading?
I would argue that you are still understanding a written message but the delivery medium is different.
(Wired vs wireless analogy but data is the same)
I can at least agree that audio dramas are different than reading.
I think there is a similar effect with speed-reading v slow-reading. Slow reading gives me time to mull over and digest what I’m reading, while speed can be good to skim for information.
My favorite is paper. I love the smell of old books, but also, I download a ton too because it is easier to carry them around this way.
Ereaders. They’re light, have adjustable font size, can hold an extensive catalogue of books and have less distractions, in comparison to using a tablet with an ereader app on it.
Moreover, they allow me to escape international shipping fees which have really risen over the years.
On the other hand, nothing compares to the smell of a book and the sensation of holding one in your hand. I wish I could had hardcopies of some my ebooks for times when I want to get away from tech.
My preference has changed over time.
Originally I went through stacks of books. Even when ereaders came out I didn’t like them. I built two massive floor to ceiling bookcases to hold them all. It’s full with most shelves doubled up.
Then I started traveling all over the globe and I couldn’t pack enough books for two weeks and 20+ flights. So I got an ereader and eventually transitioned to a tablet. Last I counted I have around 10,000 e-books.
Recently audiobooks have been my go-to. I drive a lot for work now so I listen to them on my trucks speaker system. When I am home I am always doing something else like cooking dishes, yardwork, etc. I have gotten use to listening to a book through my earbuds as I do other things. In the evening I often relax and listen to a book while playing a video game. I will go through 20-30 audiobooks per month.
I prefer paper books but listen to more audiobooks because commute time is down time already.
