Audiobooks

If listening to books is more your thing, audiobooks exist. With apps like Libby and Audible, you can have thousands of stories narrated to you from your phone.

Pros:

• Allows for multitasking – It’s easy to listen to an audiobook while doing something else, like chores or simple work. You can’t multitask when reading a physical or ebook because you have to have the book with you and read it yourself.
• Don’t have to look – Listening to audiobooks gives your eyes a rest. You can relax in a cozy chair or try to fall asleep while listening to an audiobook. This also prevents eye-strain.
• Accessible – Not only are audiobooks helpful for blind and visually impaired people, they’re also good for people who are dyslexic or don’t know how to read very well. They don’t have to worry about not understanding the words.
• Portable – Just like ebooks, audiobooks are available on your phone. You can take it with you and listen to a book anywhere.
• Keep you company – An audiobook, like music or a podcast, is a good way to fill the silence of a long car ride. You can also listen to audiobooks while running/jogging. It’s like having a friend with you at all times telling stories.

Cons:

• Narrators are hit or miss – An audiobook is usually only as good as its narrator. If the narrator is boring and uninterested, it can feel like a drag to get through. A bad narrator can make a colorful fantasy novel feel like a textbook.
• Harder to reread – When you don’t have the words in front of you, it’s much harder to go back a few sentences or paragraphs if you happened to miss something. It becomes a guessing game to return to the right spot if it was in the middle of a chapter.
• Takes away some imagination – Part of the fun of reading is picturing the voice of each character and hearing that voice in your head when they speak. With audiobooks, the narrator does all the voices themselves, and sometimes there isn’t much variation between the different voices.
• Easy to miss information – If your mind wanders for a few moments while you’re listening to an audiobook, you might miss crucial information. It’s easier to get distracted and not as easy to quickly reread specific parts.

Staff member Mrs. Baker listens to audiobooks more. “I really like all books, but audiobooks are great for traveling in the car, listening to while I’m taking a walk/exercising, or while I’m doing chores around the house.”

Junior Blake Taber prefers audiobooks to the other two mediums. “It helps me visualize the story better because I’m not looking at words and can close my eyes.”