Week 11 Prompt Response- Ebooks and Audiobooks

At this point in my career, audiobooks are my life.  Almost literally.  I do not work with traditional print books.  I spend all day, every day, talking about and ordering audiobooks for my patrons.  The unofficial motto of the Talking Books program is "listening is reading".  For this population, many of whom have never read a traditional book, or who were voracious readers before they lost their sight, this is the only way they can read.  So for them, the reading landscape hasn't changed, per se, but the technology has evolved over time so much that, to a certain degree, they have been at the forefront of the audiobook experience.  When their program first began, they were listening to audiobooks on vinyl, and now have access to either digital cartridges or audio downloads to their smart devices and computers.  We have patrons who can go through 20 books in a week, especially if they have issues with insomnia, or they are undergoing dialysis or some other treatment that requires them to sit for hours at a time.   So they are without a doubt some of the most well-read people I know, and having conversations with them is delightful, and they are an excellent resource for recommendations.  Because I have access to the special technology reserved for these patrons, I also have access to thousands of audio titles for free that I can download directly to my phone.  If it weren't for audiobooks, I would not have nearly enough time to read everything for school, or have any time at all to read for pleasure.  There is nothing worse than having a love of reading and not having the time to do it.  But for a single mom who works and goes to school full-time, audiobooks are my lifeline, too. 

That being said, being at the "mercy" of an audio-only reading experience can be frustrating and somewhat limiting.  There are always going to be narrators who make or break the audiobook experience.  Nearly every day, I have someone say "I can't stand the sound of this guy's voice" or "the pitch/tone of this narrator's voice is difficult for me to hear".  Things like footnotes, illustrations, sidebars, and captions can make for clunky, sometimes confusing situations.  Not having a visual representation for certain things can contribute to feelings of not being fully "anchored" in the story.  My favorite example of this was when I listened to Lincoln in the Bardo.  It took me quite a while to figure out the format of the writing, which was that there were pages and pages of quotes from other texts that were relevant to the story.  I think it took me a lot longer to figure out what the author was doing than if I had actually been looking at the page.  The flip side of this, however, was the overall experience of the production, which was spectacular.  I really do think that what someone listening to an audiobook might miss in terms of visual representation can be made up with the experience of listening.  The overall appeal of audiobooks, for the general public, is to be able to read at times when we would not ordinarily be able to read, i.e. in the car or while cooking dinner.  They have also made a huge difference in the lives of kids (and adults) with reading disabilities.  Kids who normally would spend a lot of time feeling frustrated and not progressing in school are now able to actively participate and succeed with the help of audiobooks.  I recently had a friend tell me that, had he been given access to audiobooks as a student, he probably would have done a lot better in school, and in life. 

Ebooks, for whatever reason, do not occupy the same place in my heart as audiobooks.   I think this may be due to my inherent fear that people spend way too much time in front of screens as it is.  However, from an economic and space-saving standpoint, I totally get it.  Even as a self-professed bookworm (and actual librarian), I do not personally own a lot of books.  I used to have hundreds and hundreds, but every time I moved and had these boxes that were impossible to lift, I wondered what the true benefit was, especially since I can pretty much get whatever I want to read at a library.  These days, in the spirit of minimalism, I only keep books that have sentimental value, or books that I will read over and over.  So, in this vein, ebooks seem logical.  I own a copy of Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch on an old Nook, and that alone is saving about 6 inches of shelf space!  The investment into a nice e-reader seems incredibly practical, especially if you are someone who likes to own books.  I just have not found an e-reader experience that has made me fall in love yet.  The Nook I own was given to me, its an older model, and only works on a very surface level.  I downloaded a few books onto it, but when I tried to put some library apps on it, it didn't really work.  So that sort of got me hooked on this thought process that being a faithful e-reader would cause one to be constantly chasing technology that was expiring after just a few years.  ON an individual level, this would be frustrating for sure, but if a school has invested in e-read technology that ages quickly, the cost-benefit analysis breaks down very quickly.  This is not something I've researched extensively, but limited to my own frustrating experience with the e-reader.  My kids have Kindles and read on them all the time, but I do sort of wonder at what point the technology will become obsolete and require an upgrade.

However, in the spirit of finding something positive, there are some other advantages to e-reading.  I do think individuals with poor eyesight being able to enlarge the font is a great advantage, both to the reader and to libraries (think about how much more room large-print books occupy!).   It may take away from some of the visual experience that the author might want the reader to have in terms of spacing, font choice, etc, but it is infinitely better to be able to enlarge print than not to be able to read it at all.  Furthermore, I am totally impressed with the ability to highlight a word and get a definition for it right away.  I have read many a book with a dictionary by my side, especially when I was younger and reading things beyond my understanding.  The ability to immediately define a word will ONLY enhance the experience for the reader and ultimately create better understanding of the text.  This, again, is VERY useful in a school setting.  And no, I don't think it is "cheating" if a kid has immediate access to a definition.  I have spent a lot of time monitoring reading with students, and it is so common for them to simply skip words they do not understand and so much meaning gets lost through this habit.  What an amazing vocabulary-building tool! 

In conclusion,  anything that is going to help more people read more effectively is technology worth investing in.  With audiobooks and ebooks being more widely accessible, it is bringing the joy of reading to a much wider audience, and it is building confidence in people who might have otherwise shied away from reading altogether.