Audio books enable you to read. The mind does more or less the same thing when listening to an audio book as it does when reading the printed word. Listening to an audio book might make comprehension a little easier. Narrated rhythms can clarify the meaning of ambiguous words and help the listener assign syntactic roles to words. Hearing a story spoken aloud can also bring a new depth to the experience. When reading, we hear voices (possibly the author’s voice) in our heads. With audio books, the narrator supplies the voices.

Audio books truly are an easy way to read, especially if you need to multitask. And it is better to listen to an audio book than to not read anything. Reading and listening is all about learning – something new. For most purposes, listening and reading are more or less the same. The point is getting to the destination – not how you travelled.

There are a few sacrifices: gone is the ability to dog-ear pages, underline favorite phrases or make notes in the margins.

Benefits of audio books:

  • Brings the story to life in a more intense way
  • Teaches critical listening
  • Highlights the humor
  • Introduces new vocabulary or pronunciation of difficult proper names or locales
  • Familiarizes the listener with dialects or accents
  • Recaptures the essence and the delights of hearing stories beautifully told by talented storytellers

 Our oldest stories, fables and legends were oral.

“Linda has published fifteen books. She blogs about the publishing world, posts useful tips on the challenges a writer faces, including marketing and promoting your work, how to build your online platform, how to get reviews and how to self-publish.”