The Tale of the Two Formats of Reading: On Physical Books and Audiobooks

Written by Elise Su
Edited by Dominique Cao
Cover Image by Leyao Xiao

With the rise of assigned reading in our English classes, I’m sure many students have started to question the more efficient reading medium: audiobooks or physical books. On the one hand, physical books provide tangibility – the advantage of flipping through the pages (personally, I love smelling the pages of fresh books), annotating, re-reading, and skimming the book for a specific section. This is the option that most students would opt for since it is much more helpful in our actual assignments to flip to different annotations and quotes. However, audiobooks are much more convenient for multitasking, are more accessible, and can often be better for our retention rates (especially since TikTok has ruined our attention spans). With all of our other projects and assignments, it can be hard to find time to sit down with a physical book and devote hours upon hours to finishing it. Audiobooks can be great to listen to when going on a walk, journaling, or maybe even working on an art project. However, in a non-academic sense, which one should you go for?

It is no doubt that audiobooks and physical books involve objectively two different processes, and require different senses to serve as input methods. Because of this, many people wouldn’t consider audiobooks a form of reading in the traditional sense, which would be unfortunate for readers over the course of history since consuming stories by listening is argued to be the most traditional of the traditional reading methods out there –– it was how we started consuming stories in the first place. Going back to our cavemen days, no, we did not communicate with grunts and “oogabooga’s” contrary to popular belief, but from the very beginning, we would gather around campfires and exchange stories (possibly over some woolly mammoth) where everyone would get to experience the joy of a good story. Speeding up a couple of thousand years to Victorian-era Europe, readers would eagerly anticipate the next installments of Dickens’ The Old Curiosity Shop where families would then read aloud the story around a hearth so everyone could enjoy it. In these times, literature was usually serialized, meaning they would be published in parts (if you need another example, think of new K-drama or Netflix episodes coming out every week), but it would be largely considered a communal experience. Literature has always been rooted in oral tradition, which is what brought alive the spirit of storytelling. Even in these times, readers would huddle together and discuss the latest chapter over a cup of tea.

However, the idea of the solitary reader also began to rise during these times. In the 18th and 19th centuries, many readers shifted to reading alone as books became more accessible and literacy rates shot up. This shift in culture resulted in more individualism when it came to our taste in books, privacy, and flexibility and has continued on to this day. Of course, we still tell stories nowadays, but it has become less common as we have gotten older, which is where audiobooks come along. I’ll just say it now, but audiobooks are severely underrated. They are also incredibly useful for individuals who have visual impairments or learning disabilities like dyslexia and can be a great way to immerse yourself in stories or get into reading in general. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of cozying up in a hoodie, putting on your favourite audiobook, and settling down with a puzzle. This is not to say that audiobooks don’t have their downsides; limiting reading to just listening would exclude individuals that are deaf or have hearing impairments. It is also probably not the best option when it comes to reading that philosophy article on “epistemological solipsism” in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, for instance. In that case, it may be better to physically read the text.

That being said, your reading preference is a deeply personal and subjective experience; whether audiobooks or physical books are more effective is completely up to you. However, something to keep in mind is that reading is not just limited to one method, as at its core, reading is an act of interpretation and how one goes about it is entirely dependent on their preferences. If you haven’t yet, I would strongly recommend picking up an audiobook at least once before you die. It is an experience that everyone should be able to have and will literally solve all of your problems (don’t take my word for it). If you have a library card, a great place to get started is through the app, “Libby”. It’s an online audiobook and ebook library where you can borrow or put on hold whatever books you want. With audiobooks, let’s bring back the spirit of storytelling!