Listening to an Audiobook Is Not the Same as Reading a Real One ...

Listening to an Audiobook Is Not the Same as Reading a Real One
Don’t fool yourself
“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”
Two days ago, Ray Bradbury would have been 100 years old. If he could comment on his observation from 1993, he’d probably conclude we’re succeeding.
In 1953, Bradbury published Fahrenheit 451, a dystopian vision of the world in which books are illegal and so-called “firemen” burn any that remain.
40 years later, he understood we didn’t need law and fire to destroy the written word: We just had to make sure we’re too busy to look at it.
In 1993, it was tabloids and TV. Today, it’s the internet and video games. None of these things are inherently bad. They’re just too seductive — and we’re too weak to prioritize what’s important.
However, even Bradbury couldn’t have anticipated the world’s most ingenious installment in tearing us away from turning the page. Instead of distracting us from books altogether, it now seduces us with an innocent prompt:
“If you don’t have time to read, why don’t you just listen?”
Audiobooks are the fastest-growing segment of publishing. In the US, $1.2 billion worth of them were sold in 2019, eclipsing ebooks by more than 22%.
Publishers love audiobooks because they can sell them with zero marginal cost of production. Once you’ve made the thing, you can let as many people download it as you want. Each extra paperback requires, well, extra paper.
Authors love them because for a few hours of recording, they might add another 50, 100, 200% in revenue for the work they’ve already done.
Listeners love them because you can fit audio into all kinds of cracks in your day. Pressing play takes zero commitment, but it’ll satisfy your curiosity and desire to feel like a smart, knowledgeable person. Unfortunately, much of that feeling is hollow.
Naval’s criticism is harsh, but he has a point: “Listening to books instead of reading them is like drinking your vegetables instead of eating…