I have always been fascinated by books. As a young child I spent hours pouring over faded copies of The Wind in the Willows, Pippi Longstocking, and even tried to read Beowulf. I was not only captivated by compelling narratives, but I was drawn to the experience of holding a book in my hands, slowly turning the pages as I absorbed the story. I relished the prospect of placing a finished book on a dusty shelf, knowing that I had taken the time to read it. The idea of a Kindle was, and still is, incomprehensible to me.
This perspective changed when I came to university. I was suddenly faced with the prospect of endless readings. Articles and literary criticism became my life, as I struggled through the first year of an English Literature degree. Like thousands before me, I grappled with effective time management, stories were a chore, and the library sapped all joy from the experience of learning. It was then that I turned to audiobooks. The sister of the Kindle.
As a former digital-book hater, I found it easy to believe the critics. Scientists, like David Daniel, a professor of psychology at the James Madison University in Virginia, told me that, by listening to a recording of The Tempest on the way to a lecture, I would not retain the information that I needed for academic success. He said that when reading “it’s pretty easy to go back and find the point when you zoned out. It’s not so easy if you’re listening to a recording.” In other words, my walk to university would always be more interesting than the monotone voice in my ear.
However, when it comes to understanding an academic concept it is not always essential to know every last detail. It is possible for me to gauge from the gruff voice of Sir Ian McKellen that Shakespeare’s Prospero is a former king. To write a good essay, I do not have to remember line 15 of Act 2, Scene 1. It is for this reason that I am now an advocate for audiobooks. Countless hours can be saved by listening to novels at 2x speed.
Audiobooks open the door to a world of imagination which I would otherwise not have had time to explore. They give me a chance at academic success, while still allowing me to have a social life.
“BENEFITS-OF-LISTENING-TO-MUSIC-WHILE-READING-BOOKS” by maxbrodsky678 is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0