/lit/ - Literature

Audiobooks aren’t reading, it’s simply a fact that people ignore. Listening is different than reading.

>>22469486
Yeah, something like poetry is way better listened than read.

>>22469314
Favorite audiobooks are when they are read by the author :)

>>22469314
Some old Star Trek books are read by Leonard Nimoy

>>22469314
Marvels Graphic Audio productions are fire. They took a lot of time in developing immersive sounds for listeners.

>>22469515
I dislike audible poetry even more. I am forced to listen to the reader's rhythm and emphasizations

>>22469314
>very vocal minority
imo it's the majority

also it's kind of obvious, the retention rate when listening is less than 50% and the retention rate when reading is over 90%

I can listen to podcasts while driving, working or whatever, because they're made for listening. Books are made for reading -- a time when your focus is increased. Books use a different language and expect you to scan some sentences with your eyes several times (even subconsciously when you're reading the line you can already see the lines below) and as such they're not suitable for listening.

>>22469948
A little pretentious but you have a point.

>>22469314
What’s your favorite audiobook OP?

>>22469948
I never understood the appeal of podcasts. For the life of me I can't imagine the entertainment in listening to a bunch of plebs having a plebian conversation.

>>22470000
History podcasts with only one guy is basically a form of documentary, which can be neat depending on the subject. Otherwise I agree.

>>22469314
How can you pay attention to an audiobook while working?

Because it's a different activity, and it follows a nasty modern pattern that I see myself and many others falling into; for brevity, it is the "George Costanza combining sandwiches with sex with baseball" pattern.
In short, a man notices that such-and-such makes him feel good, so he then tries to combine it with other activities to enhance the experience. Like an alcoholic toying with going to work drunk, this slowly diminishes the reward enjoyed from both the primary activity and the "seasoning" activity.

Examples include:
playing idle games on a second monitor
watching netflix while working
working while running on the treadmill
watching porn while studying (I've heard of people trying this)
watching asmr while playing games

>>22469948
>>very vocal minority
>imo it's the majority
>also it's kind of obvious, the retention rate when listening is less than 50% and the retention rate when reading is over 90%
For an idiot, maybe.

Let me ask (hypothetical you), do you watch TV or movies or listen to the radio or play videogames? In those hours of basically mindless consumption, you're suggesting that replacing that mindless consumption with Learning Stuff is somehow bad.

Nigga, if you want to understand ANY philosopher or book or whatever, you can pretty much do it in half a day by injecting the content directly into your brain via the spoken word. If the audiobook doesn't exist you can scan the text into TTS and make it yourself.

>>22469314
>>22469486
>Audiobooks aren’t reading
The people who say this are totally stupid and stuck in an extremely regressive mentality; where maybe a dozen books are all they know and they don't care to know anything else. Anybody who doesn't follow them at that snails pace will outpace them in a matter of days, by learning in that short space of time what has likely taken them most of their life to remember.

I also think the kind of person making this argument is a pseudo-elitist dunce a Is have never witnessed that kind of mentality ever being able to accomplish more than rote-recall the words of other people, possessing no grasp of the subject mater itself, even in spite of their apparent 'mega focus' on it. I only feel the need to kick these people in the face here because I encounter them from time to time on /lit/ and they're an annoyance and turn people away from reading full stop by making it out to be some big deal.

Text is a medium for ideas, it is not a 'thing' or 'hobby' in and of itself.


>>22469314
>your favorite audiobook
huff idk
the last thing i listened to, probably hahaha

RUN FOR THE STARS read by Harlan Ellison accompanied by the background score of Anno 2205.

>>22469314
because i guess, not everyone can do this

>>22470081
you know what i've found

If I'm writing something i'll get synchronicity all the time, inexplicably as I come to some phrase or notion, the same thing is said, in some other context, over audio at the same time.

It's not really very difficult. A good way to look at it as a junk content medium is that it allows you to scan an entire book to see if anything good catches, if it does then you obviously go study it properly, if not then you laugh at the people who call X philosopher some genius and consider the subject closed.

>>22470133
>Let me ask (hypothetical you), do you watch TV or movies or listen to the radio or play videogames?
I think the argument is absout reading vs listening, not listening vs nothing at all

>>22469314
Here's all the movies, discuss amongst yourselves which ones you want to make. Also I think The Apology is in the other room.

>>22470402
audiobooks an easy way to wean from garbage zoomer gamer podcasts to something else, the purist parchment anons are just ignorant about this ... plus it is faster anyway.

>>22470146
Oh I do this too. Reading is nice but words were spoken before they were ever written.

>>22470133
But listening isn't reading. They are two physically different acts. The reason you're getting offended about this is because you're putting reading on a pedestal. An active listener will get more out of an audio book than someone skimming the same print book. It is however, a different experience and an audio book does add an intermediary interpreter in the form of the narrator. Now this could be a good thing, and a quality narrator could be more engaging, but it isn't the same as the direct relationship a reader has with the text.

Reading and listening can both be ways of engaging with stories or ideas, but they are not identical experiences. Weightlifting and cardio are both exercise, but they do have differences, as well as respective strengths and weaknesses. I would probably also add that active listening is an even rarer skill than decent reading comprehension, but I don't really have anything to back that up with, it's just a feeling.

>>22470929
you make it sound like these authors wrote in english and went to penguin themselves to plead to be published by them, a book is just a medium; a film is an adaption, but an audiobook is just a medium. I truly see no difference and so it comes down to efficiency; it's easier and faster.

the only argument 'against' audio would be a shitty person reading it or fucking up the sentences or .. that kind of thing, that could fucking annoy me. but i can tolerate garbled TTS readings so.. idk

> I would probably also add that active listening is an even rarer skill than decent reading comprehension,
i strongly doubt this, for the genius argument made here: >>22470852
>eading is nice but words were spoken before they were ever written.
it comes down to verbal comprehension, in both instances.

>>22471073
I think arguably that if your concentration drifts while reading, you have to reread, but it's jot required to go back and register. Ultimately though, we're at the same place as far as their respective value, I just think that people equate
>listening to audio books isn't reading
With
>audio books are bad and reading is good.

They just literally are different things, regardless of anyone's qualitative judgement. I personally do read much faster than I can listen to an audio book though. The advantage of podcasts/audio books is being able to listen while doing housework, cardio, or doing boring things at work.

Some cultures have a written tradition, some have an oral tradition. You're not a fascist bigot, are you?

>>22471380
these """people""" are fucking monkeys
why the fuck are any of them still alive

codices > physical books > audiobooks > pdf reader > e-reader on a phone >>>>>>> kindle/kobo/chink spyware paperwhite

>>22471098
yeah i suppose we agree here

i used to do this more (audiobooks, lectures, stuff like that) when playing city builders - kind of mindless but requiring the brain to be in active constructive state - so that there was a sort of happy medium as an economic and infrastructure connection had been created and as some parable came from the book at the same time. maybe this could help for retention; something to keep the mind alert.

>>22469314
the ultimate minority is the ultimate psyop

if you sit and simply listen to an audio book and do nothing else it could be similar. but most people have them on while they do something else so you can't really get the full effect.

that being said I will skip paragraphs of a book if I'm getting bored at any point

>>22469515
Yeah, when I'M READING it. I also read all plays aloud.

>>22472548
"GODS TROUSERS, MR. WHITTLES," I shouted aloud, reading from the manuscript, "I SEE THE LADYS MERKIN HAS FALLEN FROM BETWIXT HER THIGHS AND LAYS MOTIONLESS UPONST THE BAREBOARDS, AS LIKE AN SLUMBERING RAT," I continued to shout, "WHAT SAY THEE, MR. NETTLESBROTH, TO TAKE A LOFT THE ARTIFICE AND PLAYETH AN MERRY JAPE! LAUGHTER," and I paused for a moment, and then decided to shout, "HO HO HO HO," and I considered myself most learned.

"What are you doing?!" roared my father, slamming his fists upon the table in the restaurant, "stop!"

>>22472534
>that being said I will skip paragraphs of a book if I'm getting bored at any point
This is cheating.

>>22469314
audiobooks and especially podcasts is a peak normalfag activity for brainlets who think they are 'learning' passively while doing other activities

>>22472652
ikr, highly advanced people laying drooling in their wheelchairs are superior to those normalfags and brainlets.

say, friend, would you care to exchange some theological quips about our lord and savior... :D :D :d

>>22469314
Audiobooks are for you if you are
>blind
>dyslexic
>illiterate
If you are none of these then listening to an audiobook is akin to using a mobile scooter instead of walking

>>22469314
I recon, because English audiobooks are bland monotonous shit. And even when they're not, the narrators still fail to breathe life into the peculiar parts of the text.
Here, let me give you examples, with timestamps at the points where the text reads "Vast, Polyphemus-like, and loathsome, it darted like a stupendous monster of nightmares to the monolith, about which it flung its gigantic scaly arms, the while it bowed its hideous head and gave vent to certain measured sounds. I think I went mad then", which is about the point the narrator in the book loses his mind.
This one is an example of the former, almost completely devoid of any expression, reminding more of audio materials for a foreign language course (10:59):
https://youtu.be/D0xK4lhDTNU?si=AF0btx56MZB1VtWf&t=659
Here's an example of the latter, with the narrator generally producing very decent and fitting voice throughout the audiobook, but completely failing to convey the necessary intonation shift and just keeping reading it in the same voice (13:30):
https://youtu.be/CDbyS4oOCWo?si=1xHznl04Awy-Znmy&t=810
And now compare it to the tone in which this Russian dude handles this part (18:19-18:52):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKB-14WQafY&t=1099s

>>22473358
The perfect "audiobook", of course, is the kindly grandparent who narrates the bedtime story to you while you're tucked in and comfy. Nowadays it's probably more of a cultural artefact but it's entirely possible that audiobooks became popular among non-blind people as a possible surrogate grandparent. I personally prefer audio dramas instead of pure audiobooks.

>>22473476
is that the guy who played Columbo?

>>22473358
friend you have to experience Microsoft Mary and Sam if you want the full experience of bland monotone ... pure unadulterated... data entering your head. But Sam always seems so sad.

>>22473476
>it's entirely possible that audiobooks became popular among non-blind people as a possible surrogate grandparent
That's definitely a factor, but I think that modern audiobooks are more of a progeny of radio plays.
>I personally prefer audio dramas instead of pure audiobooks.
Don't they tend to skip parts of the text? Like, using sound effects to convey what describes. Or am I thinking of something else?

>>22474070
>Don't they tend to skip parts of the text? Like, using sound effects to convey what describes.
Yeah they're really hit and miss, it's not really necessary in my opinion.

I'm listening my way through Frank Herbert's Dune books while I get paid to sit around doing nothing. I'm having fun and enjoying myself and I really don't care if I miss out on some minor subtleties since it's really not anything particularly highbrow.

>>22469515
I'm sure you're listening to poetry audiobooks on your drive to work, dumbass. And no it isn't. If you don't read poetry you miss all the nuances of language the poet took great pains to weave into the lines.

>>22469314
For now I only listen to star wars audiobooks while jogging.
I get the criticism of audiobooks and their problems but I just don't care. I jog just to spend some time with the wind in my face and the heart pumping good, I don't need full concentration or effort as its not my " real " workout. Same goes for audiobooks sometimes I like to half listen to some narration and It goes well enough for me. I wont try any works I think requiere high concentration to enjoy but there is enough fun mediocrity I can listen for all the jogs left in me.

/// There's a reason the pang of loneliness hurts so much /// He was initially blackballed because of a dispute he once had with a couple of the committee members /// The appendix provides a very useful crib sheet for exams and reference /// Why has there been such a political flap over his appointment? /// Most people and organizations just roll over and give up when they're challenged or attacked by the IRS /// He walked out to jeers and catcalls /// To him, nationalism is an independent cultural construct and not just an epiphenomenon in the process of capitalist development /// Are you kids strapped in back there? /// These performance differences point to a pattern of highly variegated national responses to relatively similar sets of international constraints /// There was a lot of grousing about the last two Sopranos seasons, and the end remains divisive /// She liked me better from that time on, and she never took a supercilious air with me /// It's another moralizing tale filled with jejune platitudes ///

>>22469314
>listening to audiobooks while doing something else
cringe
>listening to audiobooks lying in your bed and focused on the voice
based
I prefer audiobooks because my eyesight is shit

>>22469314
I mean audiobooks are better than not interacting with the material at all in most cases. The only issue is you will comprehend like 20% less than if you READ it. The reason people get butthurt about audiobools is because illiterate niggers audiobook Kant and Hegel, and want us to believe they undersrand it fully lol.

>>22477041
I'm fairly confident I could train an actual illiterate nigger to outperform a parchment fetishist on rote-recall and comprehension.

>>22473476
I'd be tempted to agree with you but non-blind audiobook listeners usually argue they listen while doing more "productive" things (driving, housework, etc.).

>>22469314
I like taking breaks while reading to think about and reflect on what I'm reading. It can be done with audio books too (I personally pause a lot if I have to listen to recordings or watch videos) but it's a lot more fidgety. Books that rely on a flow can be great for audio books though. Surprisingly Dostoevsky for example, is great for reading with a certain rhythm like it's a radio play and with each sentence leading into the next. But, and it probably sounds pretentious, for a lot of other authors I like to savor the sentences, which is almost impossible with audio books.

>>22477363
Forgot to add, I think it depends on how you're used to remembering information too. If you have a very visual memory, seeing the letters on the page helps you keep it all in your head.

I find it's most optimal to combine reading with listening and stopping for any passages of sufficiently greater interest. I imagine people in the past probably tending to have been getting together often to have works read to them.