Unpopular opinion of the day: Audiobooks are not reading. Audiobooks are *listening*. You're still obtaining information, but audiobooks are a different way of obtaining information compared to the physical act of reading. You use a different part of your brain to read vs. to listen. - ThreadSky

luminosity.bsky.social • 24 days ago

Unpopular opinion of the day: Audiobooks are not reading. Audiobooks are *listening*. You're still obtaining information, but audiobooks are a different way of obtaining information compared to the physical act of reading. You use a different part of your brain to read vs. to listen.

Comments

beckcentric.bsky.social•23 days ago

So would you say that reading braille isn't reading? It's feeling? I would say it's reading.

flockofwords.bsky.social•24 days ago

No, you’re quite right - although I have no truck with the “audiobooks don’t count as reading” crowd, but I don’t think that’s how you’re using the word reading, is it?

flockofwords.bsky.social•24 days ago

I was JUST NOW talking about how I have to grit my teeth to listen to the audiobook of KJ Charles’s “Spectred Isle”, & as a result hardly ever relisten to it, because I’d already read the book before listening to it, & I find the voice artist’s choices for one protagonist DREADFULLY jarring.

flockofwords.bsky.social•24 days ago

Absolutely not my reading of the character at all. Can’t stand it.

But had I encountered the audiobook first, his performance choices would SHAPE my understanding of the character.

flockofwords.bsky.social•24 days ago

(Other people LOVE this audio, & even specify that they love his performance of this character - meanwhile I’m sitting there all “omg you’ve turned him into a breathy 🥺 twink, & I have nothing against breathy🥺 twinks but SAUL IS NOT ONE ffs,

flockofwords.bsky.social•24 days ago

& I am 😬 that you seem to feel like one half of an m/m couple has to be like that?”

Which honestly is a testament to how influential the voice artist is?

Because performance DOES shape and inform meaning & impact.

luminosity.bsky.social•24 days ago

I agree, but that doesn't change my original stat-- wait. You know that. One is not better than the other; however, one is not equal to the other either. They both have different attributes pertaining to the subject matter. Ooh, I have a book for you! I read it a few years ago, and it's fascinating!

luminosity.bsky.social•24 days ago

I have no argument that there are multiple ways to obtain information, but this argument (that audiobooks=reading) seems to be unnecessary/nitpicky. Baking isn't frying, but they both cook the meat. Bathing isn't showering, but you still get wet. Trains aren't planes, but...
:D

flockofwords.bsky.social•24 days ago

Most of the time when people make this “listening to audiobooks isn’t reading” argument, however, it ISN’T with a view to reflecting upon the nature of performance or the ways in which brains process information - it’s just as a form of gatekeeping & snobbery.

luminosity.bsky.social•24 days ago

Ahh. I promise you that I'm not gatekeeping.The more knowledge the better.

If I had my druthers, we'd be able to opt into brain zaps, a la The Matrix, and input all of it immediately. Just totally bypass the aural and the visual pathways entirely.

flockofwords.bsky.social•24 days ago

No, I thought I made it clear with my initial comment that I understood that wasn’t *your* intent.

flockofwords.bsky.social•24 days ago

However, you’re asking why people are “nitpicky”: the majority of the time when this conversation occurs, it is in the context of snobs asserting that using your eyeballs to engage with a text is a superior intellectual feat than using your ears.

coccoside.bsky.social•24 days ago

Why is this important to you? Seriously?

luminosity.bsky.social•24 days ago

Why is it important for you to ask me if it's important to me? Seriously?

I'll go first. My opinion is absent malice, and there's nothing about it that is subjectively or objectively in error.

Your turn. :D

coccoside.bsky.social•24 days ago

Unpopular opinion means that you do have feelings about this. I’m asking because I personally don’t care how people consume books and if it counts as “reading” or not. It’s a completely irrelevant fact for me.

At end of the day we can both discuss the contents of the book.

luminosity.bsky.social•24 days ago

It's relevant enough to you for you to ask me why it's relevant to me?

Basically, I agree with you. I don't care how they get the knowledge in their brains either. However, I am pedantic enough to comment on the different modes of delivery.

Is this a meet-cute?
:D

coccoside.bsky.social•24 days ago

This argument has been used as some sort of status symbol by book snobs to gatekeep others out of reading. We should be encouraging more people to consume in whatever their desired format without tone policing them.

luminosity.bsky.social•24 days ago

You know what? I was gonna take that personally, but I won't assume that since you don't know me. I encourage the gathering of knowledge by whatever means works for you, which doesn't negate my original statement that listening to a book is not the same thing as reading a book.

themonocle.bsky.social•24 days ago

Thinking is listening as well.

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