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Sep212009

Have you read a book if you’ve listened to the audio version?

Filed under General by david brooks at 8:35 am

When somebody asks you if you’ve read a certain book, and you’ve only listened to it in audio version, what do you say? “Yes?” “Yes with an asterisk”? “No, but I’ve heard it”? “No”?

I’m wondering about this because I am listening to the last of the 20 novels by Patrick O’Brian about British naval life during the Napoleonic wars, which are sometimes known as the Aubrey-Maturin series after the two main characters. (One of them was made into the movie “Master and Commander.”) I’ve been taking the audio books in order - on casette, because analog rules! - from the local library for more than a year, filling up my commute.

They’re quite good, but I believe they’re made much much better by the reader, a British actor named Patrick Tull.I don’t think I would have enjoyed them as much reading them, nor would have worked my way through the whole series.

So the question is, have I read them? Part of me thinks No - that what happens in your head when you read words with your eyes is too different than when you listen to it. Further, I was doing something else (driving) while listening, whereas when reading the only other thing I do is eat, which requires far less mental processing power. The whole experience is radically different - so different that it shouldn’t be called reading.

On the other hand, I know all about the books and can chat about them and recommend them, which is what people generally care about when they ask if you’ve read something. I know the stories, the characters, the dialogue; how is that different than reading it?

Any thoughts?

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