I joined a number of reading and literature communities here and something I keep being reminded of from time to time by reading comments is that there are many readers out there who don't imagine anything while reading. I was surprised to learn this at first because my imagination is working overtime while reading. Sometimes it can be a burden as it makes reading more tiring than it would otherwise be, especially with very descriptive novels, but I can't help it. The moment I stop imagining is when I know I'm tired or I'm not liking the book. If I focus on what I'm reading, a movie is playing in my head the whole time whether I want to or not, and I always want to because why not? I love it. I can't imagine enjoying books without it.
Which is why I can't listen to audiobooks because they take away the imagination. When I listen to an audiobook, all I imagine is a person reading the book in a studio. I can't imagine the characters' voices because it's always this same person's voice, and it's hard to make atmospheric sounds in my brain while listening to someone talk. It's either my mind makes all the sounds or it makes none. All of this is jarring enough that my mind doesn't bother adding visuals. I'm not immersed, so it doesn't happen.
This is of course my own personal experience. I'm curious, do you like audiobooks? Why or why not? And are you imaginative?
Bonus question: If you're the imaginative type of reader, how did you find 'Lord of the Flies' (if you read it)? From about 200 books I've read in my life, it's the only book that I found super awkward to create scenes for in my head. I considered that William Golding may not have imagined scenes while writing.
by Loriol_13
7 Comments
I have a similar “movie playing in my head” kind of reading experience and I enjoy both traditional and audiobooks and find that I’m able to picture the scene similarly with both mediums. I guess I PREFER traditional books and it’s easier to get really immersed in them for me but I can’t read a book and wash the dishes at the same time so…
edit: I read Lord of the Flies so long ago, I think I was practically a different reader back then. I remember liking it but I can’t say how easy it was to picture things in my head. I think it was fine? I have an image of Piggy falling off a cliff in my head.
I generally prefer audiobooks because I can listen to them while doing chores, I don’t really have the free time to sit down and read a book uninterrupted for any length of time. I can definitely imagine the scenes of both books and audiobooks, and often find it easier to picture what’s going on in an audiobook, with the sole exception of when I can hear the narrators mouth noises, lips and tongues smacking take me right out of it but then again things like spelling mistakes or anything written in present tense will take me out of a paper book.
When I’m reading I’m imagining the scenes playing out in my head and I love audiobooks.
I’m pretty 50/50 right now in regards to audiobooks vs print/ebooks.
I have found that I don’t like audio books because they interfere with my own imagination. I feel that less about non-fiction.
As an imaginative reader I find audiobooks hard because they force you to listen at the pace of the narrator.
Sometimes its too slow when it is just filler dialog but then sometimes it is too fast if I am thinking about/imagining what I just read. I have often started thinking about a paragraph then realised i have missed a page of narration and need to rewind.
Changing the speed, rewinding, or pausing all the time is just jarring.
I don’t imagine while reading. My brain doesn’t work like that. It’s hard to read the very descriptive parts of the book as it doesn’t help me. I tend to read books faster because I skip them.
Honestly I had to train myself over a long period to be able to listen to fiction audiobooks – I’m the same imaginative reader/movie playing in my head type, so I need a good, solid narrator (or multi-cast!) and enough good writing to be able to slide in. But! I only listened to non-fiction autobiographies at first and very slowly added in some fictions. Now, a few years after starting this training, I can listen to fiction fine (as long as the speed is “normal human storytelling speed” so 1.25 or 1.5 depending on narrator) but a bad narrator? Hit the bricks, I’ll just read it with my eyes.