Pros and cons

Continuing my discussion of audio books, this time I want to write about the advantages and disadvantages of both reading a paper book and listening to an audio book.

I much prefer books printed on paper. I like to hold them in my hands and see them on my shelves. I like to make notes as I read, something that becomes more difficult with audio books. I rarely underline passages, but many people do that. That can't be done with an audio book. You can't very well indicate a page number in your notes because there are no page numbers on audio books. I often like to reread passages I particularly like or do not  understand. Again that is more difficult to do with audio books.

When my phone rings while I am reading a book, I can put in a bookmark. Later I can come back and start again at the beginning of the sentence, paragraph or page. When you pause an audio book because of an interruption, you usually must restart it in the middle of a sentence. You may not remember the first part of that sentence, and going back to the start can be challenging.

Yet you cannot read a paper book while driving a car, unless you have a self-driving car or are one of those people who read at traffic lights. (I have actually seen drivers reading books in moving vehicles.) You can also listen to a book while washing dishes, cooking a meal, doing the laundry, painting a house, washing your car, or doing any number of other tasks that do not require 100 percent concentration.

Can you focus on an audio book in the same way you can a paper book? Perhaps not, especially if you are driving or doing something else at the same time. Thus, lightweight books, such as thrillers or romances. may be better suited for audio. Yet I have difficulty focusing on some challenging paper books. For example, I am now in the middle of a history of World War I with long paragraphs, long sentences, many difficult words and detailed descriptions. I think I would actually prefer listening to someone else read this book for me. I might tune out now and then, but I am doing this anyway even with the book in my hand. I think I would actually get more out of the book if I could listen to it. And yet the book has valuable maps and photographs, which would be lost in an audio book.

Reading a book and listening to a book are not quite the same thing, but there are pros and cons to each.