I love audiobooks and consume them frequently but I personally don’t call it reading. It doesn’t feel like the same activity to me. What do you think?
I love audiobooks and consume them frequently but I personally don’t call it reading. It doesn’t feel like the same activity to me. What do you think?
Ingesting information is ingesting information. For most of human history stories were oral tradition rather than written. Accessibility is also a factor. Not everyone can physically read, nor can everyone listen to an audiobook or podcast. Both are valid options.
I’m impressed by anyone who can get through heavy, old literature without falling asleep no matter which format they choose though lol
heavy old literature isn’t information. it’s imagination.
probably why you find it so boring. because it’s not reductive transmission, it’s experiential and in order to understand if you have to put effort into it rather than simple ingest it.
it’s like saying cooking is the same as eating because it’s just nutrients, and what’s the point, just drink soylent.
I understand where you’re coming from and that’s a valid take.
For me it’s the time period and to a degree a resulting language barrier for certain pieces. Dostoyevsky for me, (I know W&P is Tolstoy, bear with me) was understandable but hard to bear with because he wrote like loved ones I have who have serious mental struggles. A lot of Russian culture and literature is similarly toned. Ralph Waldo Emerson came across to me as self-righteous. And Tolkien, though he’s a fantastic author, writes with heavy visual description which I can’t process well due to aphantasia.
Although, I loved Frankenstein and begrudgingly, also Jane Eyre. I also got a kick out of Chaucer. Every few years I’ll re-read Little Women. I also adore learning factual information.
I think most of it comes down to a variation in personal perspective/preference AND whether you’re critically engaging with the material you’re taking in. Hell, the Barbie movie can be thoughtfully critiqued. I’ve known folks who wrote doctorates on specific video games.
I’d argue the “cooking vs. eating” would be more comparable to “reading vs. writing,” though, no? Cooking ends with material output. Maybe “eating and savoring a meal vs. mindlessly downing a bag of chips.”
I agree with all you say.
For most of human history we also used the word read to describe one form of decoding and use other words for others. I’m trying to understand the seems to be changing or in dispute lately.