What Time Is A Good Time To Listen To An Audio Book?

The absurdity of rushing through a book by listening to it

I just got a note from Amazon for a free audiobook - with the message: “Now there’s an easy way to fill more reading into your busy schedule. Whether you’re cooking or doing housework, any time is a good time to listen to an Audible book!”

You might think – what’s wrong with that?

Here is my reaction:

Hurry culture, hello again!

Hurry culture assumption: “your busy schedule!”

Hurry culture Message: More reading!

Hurry culture Solution: Multitask! Do more things at the same time! Squeeze in more of this, while you do that!

Side note: was that email by Amazon sent to women only? And men got the respective version with “….Whether you are washing your car or mow the grass, any time is a good time to listen….”? Anyways.

HOW ABOUT: NO, Thanks.

I want to read, but when I read, I read. (let it be with your eyes or with your ears).

I don’t want to read while filling the dishwasher or walking.

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The Amazon email reveals 3 aspects of the Absurdity of Rushing while reading:

1. More reading! – Yes, but how do we read?

2. Your busy schedule! – The new normal?

3. Multitask! – How can we keep up our stress level by multitasking more?

1. More Reading! -- How Do We Read?

I don’t get why people go for a walk, let’s say in the woods/nature, and plug up their ears with audiobooks or podcasts, instead of:

• enjoying the walk

• clearing their minds

• listen to nature

• listen.to.your.own.thoughts

• just BE while you walk

It is said that people are not reading as much anymore. Our attention span has narrowed. We don’t have the patience to sit down and get lost in a book. We claim to have no time for reading. Online content and scrolling have gotten in the way. So, if listening to audiobooks is a way that people “read more”, that is, of course, a good thing.

But the reason why we go for the audio version is because we feel pressed for time and believe we can only “add” reading if we do it parallel to something else. We are not questioning the root cause of why we don’t have time to read a book.

“Reading books again has given me more time to reflect, to think, and has increased both my focus and the creative mental space to solve work problems. My stress levels are much lower, and energy levels up.” – Hugh McGuire, writer, entrepreneur.

I prefer reading a book instead of listening to it. Because I take notes, underline and mark things, or want to turn back to pages. Linger over sentences that make me think. Dwell on words, expressions, or ideas. So, reading a book through my ears, so to speak, doesn’t quite work for how I want to interact with books.

“We are not only what we read. We are how we read”, writes Maryanne Wolf, a researcher at UCLA in her book Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World.

Reading a book and taking your time doing it has many benefits:

• Print is easier to comprehend than digital text or audio

• The quality of your attention changes when you read a book instead of reading on a screen or listen to it

• “Reading is an act of contemplation…an act of resistance in a landscape of distraction…it returns us to a reckoning with time.” – David Ulin

• Taking time for reading reinstalls your ability for deep reflection

• Reading on paper is generally more effective for absorbing and retaining information than reading on screen (the "screen inferiority effect.")

• Print reading is a welcome change for focusing your attention on something still

2. Your Busy Schedule! – The New Normal?

Flying doesn’t have to slow your scroll

A fellow writer on Substack,

Danielle D’Ambrosio

(over at Nourish), found herself at the airport surrounded by passengers “doing the zombie scroll”. And it was underlined by, as she writes: “the airline having the walls blanketed with ads promoting their WiFi on board: ‘Don’t be disconnected for a second - Flying doesn’t have to slow your scroll’.”

This is another great example of how the world around us urges us to scroll and not think. Please, just turn into dumb zombies so we have more influence over you. Danielle wrote further: “The guy sitting next to me on the flight scrolled on Instagram for 3.5 hours straight without looking up once from his phone. The programming is really wild – and incredibly sad.”

It has become the new normal to scroll our phones while waiting for someone or something. And we get confirmation from all around us – everyone else is doing it as well and advertisements are encouraging it.

The fundamental issue is that constant digital connectivity disrupts our natural psychological and physiological rhythms. Small, human experiences and interactions are replaced with rapid, shallow, and often “algorithmically” induced interactions.

It negatively impacts human well-being. Here are just a few examples of how:

• Interactions become superficial

• Capacity for independent thought and creativity decreases

• We develop compulsive checking behaviors

• Our mind and attention are not present in our immediate physical environment

• Quality and depth of interpersonal relationships are reduced

• Anxiety from information overload increases

3. Multitask! – How Can We Keep Up Our Stress Level With More Multitasking?

We all multitask and many people are extreme MULTITASKers, believing it makes them more productive. Researchers did some studies on students who seem to multitask a lot to figure out “how” they do it, only to find out they weren’t actually multitasking. Turns out that multitasking impairs your ability to think, meaning to concentrate on one thing long enough to develop an idea about it. A multitasking test group had difficulties distinguishing between relevant and irrelevant information, they were more distractable, had a hard time keeping information, their minds became disorganized, and they scored badly on switching between tasks (in other words….multitasking!)

Doing ONE thing

Research in cognitive psychology consistently shows that the human brain is not truly capable of simultaneously processing multiple complex tasks, making single-tasking a more effective approach to work and personal productivity.

Here is why single-tasking serves you better than multitasking:

• Increased Productivity: Concentrating on a single task allows deeper focus and more efficient work

• Higher Quality Output: Single-tasking enables more thorough, nuanced work with fewer errors compared to splitting attention across multiple activities

• Reduced Cognitive Load: Multitasking overwhelms the brain, increasing stress and mental fatigue while single-tasking promotes clearer thinking and better decision-making

• Improved Learning: Deep, uninterrupted engagement with one task facilitates better comprehension and skill development compared to fragmented attention.

• Lower Stress Levels: Focusing on one thing at a time creates a sense of progress and accomplishment, reducing anxiety associated with feeling overwhelmed by multiple competing priorities.

Next time you see or receive a message trying to convince you to fit more reading into your busy schedule or to keep being connected to cyberspace and keep on scrolling – just remember:

don’t underestimate the power of paper and single-tasking. Consider turning off your electronic devices, getting a book, and curling up to turn the page.