I understand you are an avid reader and also an audio recording enthusiast. What is your view on reading a book versus "listening" to a book in an audio format? I recently subscribed to a popular audio book service and love the ability to "read" (listen?) to books while I drive or workout etc. I often wonder though what are the tradeoffs of listening vs actually sitting down and reading the book. Does one miss the essence of the book? Is listening "equivalent" to reading a book? Would love to "hear" (read?) your thoughts on this.
— Paulo
I've often thought that the core idea in artwork — the very root of the matter — is to use the senses to stimulate our imagination. We look with our eyes at the Sistine Chapel paintings by Michelangelo and our imagination springs to life as we see in our minds eye all those things that are not included in the pigments on the walls.
The same with photography. When I look at W. Eugene Smith's famous image Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath" (1971), our imagination can see more of her suffering from mercury poisoning than just her bathing.
From the senses to the mind, that is the key.
With different people, the senses/mind link works differently. My genetics are such that there is a very strong connection between ear and brain — I am an "audio person." My wife is not. Where I love listening to audio books, podcasts, lectures, etc., she cannot. Aural input does not stimulate her imagination the way it does mine. On the other hand, she is an incredible talent in the kitchen with finely tuned taste buds. She'll often say, "Taste this — is there enough cumin?" I just blink and stare with a blank face. (What the hell is cumin?)
From senses to mind also implies — at least for me — that greater possibilities open up when more than one sense is involved. I love listening to music while I look at photographs. I love listening to the photographer speak about their work while I look at it — hence so much emphasis on audio interviews in LensWork Extended. I love feeling the paper print as I look at original photographs in the folio format.
Similarly, the best of all reading experiences for me is listening to a talented reader while simultaneously reading along in the text. This dual input activity brings the book to life in ways that either experience by themselves does not. Reading gives me a sense of the author's written text — the use of paragraphs, punctuation, dialect, vocabulary. Listening while reading adds inflection, intonation, pace and timing, and — with the best readers — character identity via voice interpretation.
If forced to choose one over another, I'd choose listening to a talented reader over reading myself. I'd choose reading myself over a bad audio reader. The most thrilling is a theatrical reader, with good material, and my eyes following along the written text while holding a finely-bound, old volume. Add chocolate chip cookies and a glass of milk and you've an hour or two that can't be beat.
