Monday, November 24, 2008

In Praise of Audio [Books]


I typically read 15 books or so a year.  

In large part theses are business books but I still consider them pleasure reading.  The one thing I did notice about myself recently was that my 'need for closure' was causing me to speed my way through chapters and books, looking for concepts at the expense of meaningful details. 

A dyslexic friend of mine recently turned me onto audio books.  I was a sceptic at first but I found them to be fantastic when I am on my daily run as well as on long drives, which I routinely do.

An unexpected benefit is that when I listen to an audio book, I am listening at a normal pace and there is no speed reading ahead.  I am on the readers timeline.  As a result, I noticed that my retention rate was significantly higher.  

The only exception I have had to this was The World is Flat, which was an exhausting 18 hours of audio.  

I still read at home but this adds another dimension to the written word.