Anyone who plans to be a writer should read (and re-read) books in print. As a means of learning, too much is lost by merely listening to books on cassette. The greatest benefit to books on cassette is you can "read" while driving without crashing into unyielding objects - that is, if you don't distract yourself too much from your driving while doing so.
The only time I listened to audio books was at the gym. Didn't like it so I bought a mod-cart for my DS and now I read and exercise at the same time. The voice of the person reading it was a different gender than the main character and it was weird hearing his thoughts in a woman's voice, so it just turned me off from audiobooks.
Reading comprises of audio and written books,there is a linear relationship - both are books written initially,and while the written one is altered into an audio one.You need a blueprint,and which must be written,before it can be an audio one. The written book is the productive,befitting one which can be read directly.Direct stimulus is what I desire.
I love to read. I like to sit there in silence or with some celtic music and have a good read. You just can't beat reading a book. Audio books can be good especially for those who can't read plus they come with sound effects and the likes. But Nah Reading and re-reading a good book well Thats just me bit I love to read a good book somehow you can become more engrossed into the story. Were as Audio your thought pattern wiull waver away from the story.
I'm a reading junkie. If I'm driving I listen to audio. Or working, mowing the lawn, etc. If I can hold a book in my hands that's my preference, but I'll take the written word anyway I can. I've literally read until I couldn't see correctly the next day. Then I switch to audio.
I'll listen to the occassional audiobook. It was the only way I managed to get through Eragon when I was curious about it. But I only got through about an hour of Memoirs of a Geisha because the person reading it was not saying the names correctly and it got annoying.
Last year I borrowed the audio book, Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta. The reader was fantastic. I loved hearing her Australian accent as it made the story more real to me. A few months ago I read the book and did not enjoy it nearly as much. So I think sometimes an audio book with a good narrator can make a story much more than what it is in the printed form. The reverse is true too. One audio book that we own that I think probably is much better than the printed format is On Writing by Stephen King. I am familiar with his voice, and hearing him read the book just seems to make a much bigger impression on me than if I were to simply read his words.
I remeber listening to the book "Life of Pi" on Audiotape and even though i'd read the book (was on a car trip and wanted to re-live it) thought it was fantastic, even better than the read, i laughed so hard! (which i missed some of the jokes in the reading process).
Well, my aunt loves to "read", but she's dyslexic (not sure if I spelled that right), so she just listens to the books. I like listening to books if I'm in the car, or tired and in bed.
I personally like both very much. Audio is very, I'm gonna say easy to handle and work with while you're what--cooking dinner or something. But with reading, you can just go back to where you were to make sense of something again. But with audio on that, you have to do a ton of things to go back for whatever reason. I love both.
I prefer actual books. It's much more inspiring and well...it smells pretty good when the paper are of a good quality. The smell of the paper gives me inspiration too. And of course you can lose a lot of things in the audiobook. It's practically to know what's the book about or what happens there, not to get more experience about writing styles. Audio books, though, are good for multitasking or when you're out and don't wanna take a book with you. But still, not all audio books are good. Some narrators are bad enough to make you hate listening to audio books for starters.
I am in a unique position in my work as a clerk in that I can listen to my mp3 player while I work. This has allowed me to still enjoy "reading" while going to school and working full time. When I get home, I rarely have time to really get to read a book anymore, so it's good to be able to still get that even if it's through listening rather than actually reading. I still much prefer to read than listen to the book. In listening, I am missing a lot of detail that simply wouldn't be missed if I was able to read it with my own eyes. Sometimes the readers get a little ridiculous. I remember listening to a Grisham novel once where the reader ended up reading it as if it was a screeplay and read the name of the person talking followed by what they said. Went something like this "Bob, What are you doing?" "Craig, Looking in a box" "Police officer, get away from that box" It was so utterly distracting I had to basically ignore the whole section and hope I didn't miss too much.
I have a friend who can't see, but is such a smart guy who's a complete bookworm- the only limit being his eyes. So he listens to those all the time, but myself? Well, I usually have to shut it off after thirty seconds; it gets very annoying, extremely fast. Sometimes the voices make me want to throw something out my window, while other times it's so boring I'm being threatened to fall asleep... I can't stand audios.
I prefer reading the actual books. With audio books, its too easy to not pay attention and miss important details. But with the actual book, its a bit harder to ignore whats going on.
I listened to Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay once on a road trip. Needless to say, the guy reading the book did an awful job. I was laughing at the voices he made for female characters, and the exciting scenes were...not exciting. Brutal. Turned me off of audiobooks for sure. However, when I was a kid, my family listened to a lot of Louis Lamour western books on trips. Now those were awesome. It all depends on the reader for me.
I have never actually listened to a recorded book before, I don't massivly have the patience as the reading pace is generally quite slow. However, my dad has a habbit of listening to books being read on the car radio, and I quite enjoy listening to them while he drives. We were listening to Of Mice and Men the other night ... one of my favourite books, and it was interesting to hear the accents and that done.
I prefer to listen to audio books of poetry because I like the sound of the spoken words. If novels, I prefer to read the print because I'm reading to learn specific novel writing techniques.
I don't like listening to audiobooks. Well I don't think I would. Haven't had much experience with them. But I have found that when listening to music for long periods of time I phase it out and don't realize that the song has been over for awhile. I wouldn't want this to happen when I am listening to a book. That and I like to read. But if you enjoy audiobooks, I have nothing against them. Especially for those not big on reading. The reason I write is I love to tell stories. Why should I care if they read it or listen to it as long as they enjoyed it.
I think it just comes down to whether you're an auditory learner or not. My mind can focus on the spoken word for hours, but I actually get distracted with a lot of visuals. My favorite audiobook has been this special edition they did with a full cast for Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.
Reading and listening to audio book are two different forms of entertainment. I can not sit still in a chair and listen to an audio book for hours. I get too bored. As well, I can not read in a noisy/busy environment. I get too distracted. So, each has it's own merit. I listen to about 2 or 3 audio books a week on my mp3 player, whenever I am going somewhere on foot, cooking, cleaning, etc. For me, it makes tedious chores go more quickly. Even driving long distances, the time speeds by when I am listening to a good story. Reading, for me, needs to be done in a quiet and comfortable place, with good lighting. I can't read on the bus, or in public places with lots of people moving about. When I want to relax at home, reading is better. But when I'm doing something that doesn't require much attention to detail, audio books are great. In my life I've listened to 10 times as many audio books, as I have read books, simply because I do not have enough free time to devote to reading as much as I'd like. Finishing a novel does give me a better feeling, because there is a sense of accomplishment. And usually I feel that I know the story better when I have read it, as opposed to listening to it. No matter how carefully I listen to an audio book, other things distract my attention and I miss parts of the story, here and there. For example, if I see a beautiful girl walking down the street in my direction, my attention obviously is focused on how hot she is, and not on what is going on in the story!
I prefer reading books by far rather than listening to them. But, I have to say that sometimes if it's hard to get into a book, listening to it on tape/CD makes it a lot easier to then go and read it in print. I did that with the first Harry Potter, I couldn't get into it (probably because of my age or something) but after listening to it, I was able to read it with pleasure.
I wouldn't be able to listen to an audio book to save my life, seriously. The closest i have ever gone is listening to others reading out loud in class, even then i either read ahead, zone out and start day dreaming or just fall asleep. When i read i totally get absorbed ( only if it's interesting enough of course ) and i can see everything that is going on in my head (sort of), but because i have a bad attention span, then listening to an audio book would be more of a lullaby than a form of entertainment to me.
