• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Exeposé Online

Making the headlines since 1987

Exeposé Online
  • Editorial
      • Newsletter
      • Puzzles and Games
      • What’s On
      • Print Exeposé
  • Freshers
  • News
  • Comment
  • Features
  • Exhibit
      • Arts + Lit
      • Lifestyle
      • Music
      • Screen
      • Tech
  • Science
  • Sport
  • The Exepat
      • International
      • Multilingual
      • Amplify
  • Satire
  • About
      • Editorial Team
      • Write For Us
      • Get In Touch
      • Advertise
Home / Arts & Lit

Audio V Print: The Consumption of Literature

by George Clark

Image: davidjmclare89

George Clark, Print Comment Editor, discusses the debate of audiobooks versus physical books and how they are different rather than a copy of the other

Nov 18, 2019 – by George Clark

Ah, the famous modern debate: to listen or not to listen. According to an article in The Guardian in July 2019, audiobook sales increased dramatically by 43% in 2018 over 2017. So what’s all the fuss about?

Personally, while I still prefer a physical book, I am definitely a fan of audiobooks. For starters, it is very useful in our fast-paced world to be able to delve into new texts without taking your eyes off the pavement. Books are clunky, heavy and expensive, while audiobook platforms like Audible give you access to a whole lot of content for relatively little cash and don’t take up any space in your bag. There’s something comforting about them as well, something nostalgic: like being read a bed-time story. I still remember listening to Horrid Henry cassettes when I went to sleep as a kid.

“There’s something comforting about them as well, something nostalgic: like being read a bed-time story.”

Despite this, there are still plenty of advantages to the humble book. Yes, they’re clunky and make me wish I had a bigger bag, but they’re also loveable and tangible and old ones just smell amazing! There is something very satisfying about filling up a bookshelf rather than gigabytes on your phone. Plus, you need to be focusing when you’re reading an actual book; I personally find it very easy to get distracted when listening to an audiobook as opposed to a hardback.

On a more analytical note, there is another potential issue with audiobooks: when it comes to readings of books that many would consider classics, the reader really has a responsibility towards the text. Reading an audiobook is not dissimilar to being an actor in a play: it is up to them to interpret the words as they see fit for an audience. Now, while this is certainly a comforting way of being introduced to a text, it should not be considered the be-all and end-all of your reading of them. Anyone who has ever studied a Shakespeare play at school knows that there are an enormous variety of ideas that can be drawn from single lines in a great work of literature. For me, while audiobooks can be a comfortable route into a difficult text, you really need to read the original to appreciate the variety of different meanings the text can be viewed as propagating. But hey, I’m an English student so this is kind of my life: if you are just looking to try out and enjoy a new book, by all means go for it and whack on the audiobook!

“while audiobooks can be a comfortable route into a difficult text, you really need to read the original to appreciate the variety of different meanings the text can be viewed as propagating.”

While audiobooks are certainly digging into the market share, books are still very much a big part of modern society and I for one hope they never go out of fashion. Books and audiobooks should not be treated as direct translations of one another, but entirely different animals. And I am happy that they’re both still alive and kicking.

  • The Online Literary Communi-‘tea’
  • Mar 4, 2020
  • Putting the ‘A’, ‘I’, into Audiobooks
  • Sep 18, 2019
  • The Future Library
  • Nov 7, 2019

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Reader Interactions

Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Review: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
  • Exeter UCU express “disappointment” in Vice-Chancellor in lead up to strikes
  • University of Exeter leads the way in ALS research
  • Legends and Lattes: An easy read for coffee lovers and retired adventurers
  • UCAS aim to scrap personal statements
  • Exeter graduate named as one of the “Women of the Future”
  • How to maintain a sustainable workout routine
  • COP 27: Slow progress in Egypt

Footer

  • facebook-alt
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • linkedin
  • mail