Audio v. Physical Books

A haggard mother, balancing a baby on her hip while trying to get any amount of housework done, stares at the long neglected bookshelf and instead puts headphones on to listen to her favorite author's new release. An elementary school kid comes home and, grumbling, has to read 20 minutes from their parents' choice of chapter book. A college student is listening to the textbook as they take a jog. They didn’t have time to sit down and read through the latest chapter at their study desk. Tired and needing to relax, a worker can come home and grab their choice of news articles or magazines to sift through. A teacher tiredly reads through and grades her 23rd paper on comparisons. All of these people have one thing in common. Literature.

Reading is an essential part of life. Whether you read for enjoyment, have to suffer through a textbook, or are ordering dinner from a menu, reading is everywhere. It has been for hundreds of years and has become a staple of civilization and education. Like with reading, technology has gotten increasingly popular and more versatile. Due to this, audio-books have risen up as an alternative to sitting down to read. A narrator reads the book and you listen to it like you would music. An audio-book is just like a physical book, with the exception that it is read to you. In this busy world, getting to still listen to a story and get important tasks done at the same time is a relief and help. This has brought up a question: which form of reading is better for people, physically reading the book, or listening to an audio-book? Consuming literature, specifically novels, through reading physical books is a better option then listening to audio books because physical books encourage further engagement, allow for comprehension at the reader's own speed, and stimulate brain function and development.

Reading a physical book encourages further engagement in the story. No matter the medium, listening, watching, or reading, you still get the story. You still meet the characters and go on a journey with them, watching them grow and learn as they face an impossible task. However, physically reading a book has an added advantage to listening to an audio-book. Physically reading the words on the page allows a person to stay invested in the book easier, as it takes more attention. While the medium does not affect the intake of the information if the reader is paying attention, (Calhoun), it does affect how distracted a person can be while reading. Listening to an audio-book allows for multitasking. This is one of the reasons people prefer audio-books to a regular paperback. However, as the body moves around, the mind wanders. It is nearly impossible to stay focused on the book with other stimulation bothering you. Staying invested in the story becomes harder and harder.

This is further supported by an article by Cody Kommers on reading and audio-books. In his article titled “Why Listening to a Book is Not the Same as Reading It”, he explains, “Reading is an act of engagement. The words on the page aren’t going to read themselves, which is something they literally do in an audio-book.” (Kommers). By taking the action of sitting down and getting invested in the story, the reader is going to be actively responding to the text in a way that is unique to physical reading. It is more of a commitment that one is more willing to pay attention too. Having someone read the story to you means that you are free to engage in other activities, often resulting in missing some of the story.

Furthermore, reading a book physically as opposed to listening to an audio-book allows the reader to go at their own speed. By nature of an audio-book, the reader has little control over the speed they are hearing the information. In an article by Ben Walker, he states, “This means the individual must listen, interpret and understand almost instantaneously in order to understand what a person is saying.” (Walker). Real-time comprehension is difficult for a lot of people. You can’t reread a line or check something earlier in the book. The reader has to stay focused on the narrator at all times to get the story, something difficult considering most people read audio-books while they are engaging in another activity.

This shines light on further drawbacks in regards to understanding the story, the entire point of an audio-book. If the reader misses an important piece of information, they are unable to back up and listen to the line again. This could be very inconvenient for understanding what is happening in the story. It takes away from the overall experience of the story and can be incredibly frustrating in general.

Lastly, physically reading a book stimulates brain function and development. Throughout their lives, children are taught that reading was important. It was supposed to help ‘brain development’ and other things that seem abstract to a child just trying to get out of more homework. These claims are true though. Recently, a study was done determining the effects of reading. This article says that the brain exhibits, “...a potential mechanism by which reading stories not only strengthen language processing regions but also affect the individual through embodied semantics in sensorimotor regions.” (Berns). This means that different parts of the brain are affected when one reads. In addition to the part of the brain that processes the words on the page, reading affects the parts of the brain in charge of emotional and tactile stimulation. It makes you feel something, drawing you into the experiences of the story. This is found in audio-books too, but not as strongly. Because of the investment in the book as you read it, you become more emotionally involved, creating the often related sensation of ‘being in the story’. Engaging the reader in the story is a huge part of why novels and similar literature are so popular and ever present in today’s society.

That same article said that reading also “...relate(s) to oculomotor coordination and attention…” (Berns). The oculomotor nerve’s function is eye coordination and control. This is a phenomenon that can not be replicated by an audio-book. The act of reading strengthens the eyes in a way that increases their coordination, and has “...nothing to do with the content of the novel…” (Berns). This function has nothing to do with the story itself, but instead, with the action, the main difference between reading and listening to an audio-book. Another aspect of this research is how the oculomotor nerve relates to attention. Reading takes attention, which is a process that the brain develops with time and practice. The act of multitasking while reading means that granting this attribute to audio-books as well is an oxymoron.

Physically reading a book has advantages over listening to an audio-book. This does not, however, discount audio-books as a legitimate form of reading and entertainment. Both mediums are excellent in their own right. They have strengths and weaknesses that appeal to certain people. While audio-books are good for when someone doesn’t have the time, reading simply has more advantages. The stimulation to the brain is unique to the process of physically reading a book. Reader engagement is higher when reading, and therefore heightens the experience.

The mother may only get to read through an audio-book, her baby struggling against her hold. The elementary school child will continue to complain about their reading homework. The tired worker can sit down with their magazine at the end of the day. The college student will curse their textbook when the next chapter is assigned. The long suffering teacher will eventually finish grading subpar essays. Literature is a huge part of the world we live in. And whether reading a physical copy of a book or listening to a narrator tell you tales of a far off land, reading is something that everyone can enjoy, added advantages for one or not.