In this day and age where print books are still being pitted against audiobooks, listening to audiobooks while reading books saves us all the trouble. | BookRiot.com | Audiobooks | Multitasking | Reading Comprehension | Ebooks | Literary Fiction |

It's official—the volume world can't get enough of audiobooks. This makes a win-win state of affairs for both publishers and bookworms. Audio sales are booming and keep the industry adrift, while we readers get to accept our literary fix while doing other stuff like cooking, sewing, gardening, and driving, amidst other activities. While these are worthwhile activities, has anyone tried sitting down, listening to an audiobook while reading its print analogue as well?

As much as nosotros love audiobooks for a plethora of reasons, sometimes our comprehension suffers when nosotros pair them with multitasking. Admit information technology. I'm even guilty of it. When I listen to an audiobook while doing something else, my heed sometimes wanders and I lose my focus. This commonly happens when I beginning a new audiobook, when the scenes are frustratingly irksome, and when the audiobook underwhelms. I fifty-fifty take to proceed going dorsum 30 seconds or so to empathise the parts I missed. But non anymore.

A Eureka Moment

Similar everyone else, I love listening to a expert story while finishing household chores. But 1 time, I ticked off my to-do list too fast. And then, I decided to fire up my Kindle Paperwhite to read forth with the narrator. Guess what, it was a eureka moment for me. Afterward weeks of doing this, I recall information technology facilitated my reading comprehension and made me sympathise the story improve.

It may sound counterproductive. After all, audiobooks and multitasking make a groovy pair. Only you don't take to always do several things at in one case. You tin do whatever you lot want while listening to audiobooks. You tin can stare at nothing and bask how the narrator tells the story, or yous tin get that paperback or ebook you borrowed from the library to guide you through. Trust me! You'll appreciate the volume even more than.

For someone with declining attention span while reading (I get distracted when there'due south too much dissonance), doing this keeps me focused on the plot. It makes me call back who did what to whom improve. Information technology also blocks the noise that I'd otherwise hear when reading only the print volume.

The joys of listening to audiobooks while reading books extends beyond the narrative plot.

Not Just For Pleasure

For those studying English as a second linguistic communication, listening while post-obit along with the text helps them to remember correct pronunciation, pacing, and other nuances of the language. This is the aforementioned example with learning English while watching Boob tube serial, except it's much libation. For heavy or casual readers like us, information technology brings a lot to the table, too. I love reading science fiction and fantasy. But sometimes there are a lot of proper nouns or terminologies within the book that may have weird pronunciations. Thankfully, I get everything right these days, thank you to the help of narrators.

Literary fiction is likewise something to be reckoned with. Sometimes, the prose is so artful that I pause for a while to accept it in. Fortunately, literary fiction titles nowadays have audio counterparts—and it makes them less challenging to read.

But a Caveat

While these are all good, this practice might not be helpful for some.

I developed a dependency on this habit. Nowadays, yous can't make me read annihilation without listening to its audiobook version and vice versa. It's now office of the deal, and one of my criteria when looking for new books to read. No audiobook version? Then, forget it. I know it sounds featherbrained and dismissive, simply this is how I managed to sneak in reading to my busy schedule and complicated reading life.

In this day and age where print books and ebooks are withal existence pitted against audiobooks, listening while reading, or vice versa, saves us all the problem. You don't accept to choose 1. You can have the best of both worlds.