Trust & Obey

Whether you want to listen to your book during the drive to work or want to curl up in your chair and read, the bottom line is that you want to read a book. The question is, which style of reading do you prefer? Reading with your eyes or with your ears and is one greater than the other?

As a kid, I understood the benefits of both listening to and reading books and didn’t see one as reigning supreme. Many people in my family have dyslexia so audiobooks were a very typical thing hear going on in my house. Tons of members of my family are avid readers who don’t read at all but listen to books constantly. We all read quite a bit, but we have different avenues of obtaining the information.

Audio books may not impact you the same as seeing the words but reading doesn’t impact you the same as an audiobook either. Hearing someone say something with emotion that the author intended hits very different compared to reading the implied emotion in your head. Sometimes, the author even reads the book which is pretty awesome. On top of that, audio book narrators have accents as well which I typically drop after five minutes of reading. It’s fun hearing a book read to you in a British accent or a Southern accent! It adds dimension to the story that can be hard to retain when you’re reading.

On the flip side, though, I find reading books typically expands my vocabulary more and I can move at my own pace whether that’s faster or slower than the person reading it in the recording. If I find something I really like I can highlight it or read it again, whereas that is more difficult with an audio book. Like I said previously, reading a book just impacts you a different way.

Does one reign supreme? Are books better because they are traditional or are audio books superior because they bring a unique dimension to a book? Well, my answer is no. Each one provides a great way of learning information and it differs on if you like to sit down to read or not! Although, if it’s about personal preference, I must say I like to read more! I actually struggle to focus during audio books and can miss chunks of information because I will be thinking about something else entirely. So, if I want to read a book, you’ll find me sitting scrunched up in a chair in the front room reading with my eyes!