The stigma of the audio book.

I will get I right out in front, I really like the audio book. There I said it.

I know that there are lots of book snobs that don’t like the audio book because they like “actually reading” the book.  Well I have a few points on why I really like them.

1.  There are times when I cannot possibly be reading, but as a complete book addict, that is all I want to do. In comes the audio book. I will give you a few examples that I have done this week whilst listening to the end of War and Peace;

I have taken the dog for a walk. Turns a peaceful walk though bush land into a literary experience, or, when I’m listening to Tolkien style fantasy where they have to walk somewhere and fight dragons and the like, I get to live out part of that world with my faithful side kick Colin to protect me.  I whole heartedly recommend it.

Oh, and as a side, listen to horror stories where the victim has to run through bush land to get away from the axe murderer if you want to get your heart rate up, possibly at dusk to make the shadows that much more ominous.

I have marked exam papers and written reports whilst living in the world of war and peace this week.  This has a twofold effect, one, I have almost finished the books nearly 18 months after starting them, and two, working in an open plan office, I can block out idle chatter that I’m really bad at ignoring on my own, whilst still being aware enough to respond to things that are important.  Can’t do that with music.  

2. My Mum would get me books on tape from the library, on school holidays.  So, audio books have this nice childhood memory thing attached to them.

The nice up side of my Mum having done this is that she lucked upon one of the recommended ways to help kids with dyslexia, which I have.  When I was a kid, to read, I had to concentrate really hard to try and get the top and the bottom of each line to stay in place, I have got better with practice. But, because of this level of concentration, then creating the story in my head was more than my brain could handle.  This is why a lot of dyslexics don’t like reading or “find reading boring” because they don’t have the capacity to make the story can come alive in their head. For me this level of concentration would give me headaches and sometimes (even now) would make me feel nauseous and anxious.  The best thing you can do for dyslexic kids, and even adults, is get them to listen to audio books, because their brain doesn’t have to concentrate of translating the words and can just create the story in their head.

3. This kind of relates to point 2 and my dyslexia but sometimes, in the case of War and Peace, although I was riveted to the plot and the different story arcs and characters, I could not get my head around the style of language used.  When reading this sort of “dry old” language, I find myself reading lines over and over again, without actually absorbing anything, or find I have got to the bottom of the page and haven’t understood and damn thing that has happened. When I listen to those same words however, I take more of the story in and understand the plot much better.

So to those people who tell me that I haven’t really read War and Peace because I didn't actually look at every single word on a page, I blow raspberries at you and I say this. 

I have read War and Peace. I have read many books. It’s just that some of them I have read with my eyes and some of them I have read with my ears!