Book Blogger Hop
This prompt was submitted by Elizabeth @ Silver’s Reviews:
If you are listening to an audiobook, do you follow along with the print version?
Gah! No. That would drive me nuts. Granted, the last time I tried that was when I was a little kid—I had a few of those “read along” books that had the super-flimsy and square vinyl records in the back (I distinctly remember one that went along with The Empire Strikes Back, but I had others, too) and one or two on cassette (the only one I can remember is a Disney’s Robin Hood that included a possibly-abbreviated version of “Oo-De-Lally”). But even then, I would read faster than the record/tape and it was too complicated to synchronize.
I had the same problem in school when we’d take turns reading paragraphs/pages out of a book as a class—I’d tune out my classmates and end up a few pages ahead of everyone and get in trouble when I didn’t know what to read when it was my turn. Which has nothing to do with the topic at hand, it just came to mind.
Reading speed aside, if I’m listening to an audiobook, I want to take in the characterizations and voice of the narrator, if I’m reading a book, I want to be immersed in the words and the way it “sounds” in my head. I’d end up spending too much of my mental RAM comparing the audio/print experiences to get anything out of it at all.
I’ve also never tried the whole Whipsersync thing where you bounce back and forth between a Kindle and Audible version of a book. I think that’d throw me—if I start in one format, I’m going to finish in it.
I’d like to see why someone would read along, specifically what benefit they get from it. Hopefully, a few people responding to this prompt do it. It’s such a foreign concept to me, but I’d love to see what it looks like in someone else’s shoes—er, headphones.
What about you?
Jen Porter
I used to detest the idea of audiobooks in general, and especially in conjunction with a print version, due to reading too fast, and loving my “head version” a little too much.
Like you, I got in trouble a lot in school for reading way ahead of the class read-alouds. Once, my junior year of high school, I had a teacher repeatedly watch me read another book inside the book the class was reading (I believe it was The Scarlet Letter, of which I hated 8/10s) because I had finished the book eons before the class did. I could converse intelligently about the assigned book at any given moment, but I was completely tuned out during the class read-alouds (which were on a volunteer reader basis). This particular teacher walked up behind me during a read-aloud one day, and whispered to me to be a little less obvious about it, but that it was ok with him as long as I continued to participate in the discussions and complete my assignments.
Now, however, I do enjoy an audiobook for certain occasions: while driving (my favorite), while walking, and sometimes while just sitting (due to my vestibular system being messed up by a very lingering case of severe PCS, the eye strain of reading exacerbates my daily migraines). When I listen to an audiobook, the reader MUST be a very good one or I get very annoyed very quickly and will stop with an audiobook before finishing.
I also love reading in conjunction with the audio on certain occasions: 1) while walking on a treadmill and 2) reading while my husband drives. Due to my aforementioned vestibular issues, reading at either of these times (during which I used to love to read) can be excruciating, but whispersync highlights the words as they are read, which allows me to have some of the desired “sensation” of reading it and comprehending it the traditional way, while still having someone to keep me on track with it through the audio (I often have to close my eyes to rest them). It has also helped to improve my comprehension from audio, which was never bad, but was the least strong of all of my learning methods.
I also love whispersync when NOT reading with the audio, because it keeps my place, for instance, if I was listening on a drive and then got home and wanted to continue on my own and then the next day pick it up in the car again. It is a little disconcerting switching back and forth from the reader’s voice to my own…but since I can’t have my own while driving and this allows me to “read” while driving, it’s a compromise I make so I can stay immersed in the story or nonfiction text, and not “waste” all my driving time.
HCNewton
I knew there had to be someone out there who would use/enjoy Whispersync (if for no other reason than they’d have stopped the program). Thanks for sharing that!
Sounds like a great teacher–I never had the guts to try that myself, too afraid that I’d get my (or the public library’s) book confiscated and not get it back. Your story makes me wish I had the guts to try. I wonder which (if any) of my teachers would’ve done the same as yours.
Jen Porter
That teacher was definitely one of my more flexible ones, and I did enjoy his class, but I was in with a very “slacker” group, so the pacing was too slow to keep me engaged. I would not say he was my “best” LA teacher—I had her the following year for AP English. Many people hated her because she was very challenging, but that is what I liked about her. She also scaffolded skills like a pro and had a great sense of humor. I would NEVER have tried reading another book in her class—but she also didn’t give me time to want to.
As a former LA teacher myself, I can say that I would have let certain students slide with reading along IF that was what we were doing, but research has since shown that the popcorn reading or round robin reading exercise does not encourage or help the skills of either good or bad readers. It’s intimidating and can be crushing to bad readers, and for good readers…well, you experienced the level of engagement (/frustration) that is typical. So they now say that it should be teacher reads, choral reading, or structured partner reading for the greatest impact during class read-aloud time.
And I am fairly certain that the book I was trying to pass off as The Scarlet Letter was Wolfwalker or Shadow Leader by Tara K Harper. Both about twice as thick as The Scarlet Letter, LOL!
HCNewton
Well, yeah, a book of those lengths wouldn’t be easy to hide in The Scarlett Letter–but that provides a great visual as you tell it now! 🙂