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[albie2]

From today's The Times, interesting piece about audiobooks.

I went along to the inaugural “Speakies” on Monday, writes Laura Hackett, the first awards ceremony for audiobooks and audio productions. Its creation is an interesting reflection of just how important audiobooks are to the books industry. Last week the National Literacy Trust urged us to rethink what we consider to be reading. Literacy, they say, “encompasses digital reading, audio storytelling, visual narratives and interactive media” – which could be perceived either as a hopeful embrace of technology, or, more cynically, an easy way to boost the nation’s falling literacy rates. Either way, audiobooks are clearly big business.

Introducing the awards at the Royal Opera House, Philip Jones, the editor of The Bookseller, yelled “Listening is reading!” to rapturous applause. I began to wonder if I was accidentally joining some sort of audio cult.
I’m being facetious – I listen to audiobooks most days and I’ve learnt so much from them; they’re a great way to incorporate more literature into your busy life. And the Speakies ceremony, hosted by a sparkling Sally Phillips, was upbeat and enjoyable. But I’m not convinced by the certainty of a statement like “listening is reading”. When I listen to an audiobook, I’m far more likely to lose concentration, to forget what’s happened in the previous chapter and to miss out on sentence-level details. It’s good, but it’s not the same as reading on a page.
What do you think? Is listening reading?